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Skyline Drive: First Time a Victim of Anti-Motorcycle Bias

Same here, I also didn't get some I deserved.

Same here. I was once caught on a rural highway more than doubling the speed limit which, where I live, means a loss of licence and loss of vehicle for a period of time plus fines and a hit to one's insurance. By being totally up front, respectful, and not whining, I got the same fine I would have received had I been caught at 10 mph over. That constable got a Christmas card that year. :laugh
 
That's all we can really do. I have found that blunt honesty can be the best policy and disarming, no pun intended. When I've been pulled over for speeding, (Not quite as much as Jerry), when the cop asks, do you know why I am pulling you over? I say yes, I was speeding. If he asks do I know how fast I was going, I will tell him to the MPH. Cops are used to people being weasels about it and when they are faced with honesty, often will give me a break. Not always, but a lot more often than not.

:thumb

Let's put it this way. In my ancient days of speed enforcement that tells me two things immediately. One: honesty and integrity. Two: While you were knowingly speeding, at least you knew, were aware of it and were honest about it (there's that honesty part again).

Different story if you stop someone at 65 in a 45 mph on a two lane road and they don't know what the speed limit is, how fast they were going but insist that you're wrong and they weren't speeding.

And as others have said, the side of the road is the absolute wrong place to argue your case. Look at the citation, and it probably says summons, citation, accusation or something similar.
 
Only fools go to court

Excuse me, I'm only 54, so I might be a bit of a novice, but how is it humanly possible to have 26 court appearances? I've been in a court room twice in my life, once for a friends naturalization ceremony and the other time was for my wedding.

You misread my post. I NEVER go to court. My attorney is hired to do the work.
 
Many miles

Wow!!! If for no other reason, you should be careful not to violate any traffic laws simply because you are too easy to catch. :laugh

Not when you break it down as a violation/miles traveled. I have over 1,000,000 miles on BMWs alone. I suspect my other vehicle mileage is way over 3,000,000 miles. I am almost 69 and I have been driving/riding since I was 13.
 
Not when you break it down as a violation/miles traveled. I have over 1,000,000 miles on BMWs alone. I suspect my other vehicle mileage is way over 3,000,000 miles. I am almost 69 and I have been driving/riding since I was 13.

dude, that is STILL a boatload of tickets. in your scenario, you're getting hit with a tick about every 2 years. maybe you should consider making some changes?

that doesn't automatically mean "don't speed", maybe just change where and when you choose to be excessive with the wrist/foot.
 
Not when you break it down as a violation/miles traveled. I have over 1,000,000 miles on BMWs alone. I suspect my other vehicle mileage is way over 3,000,000 miles. I am almost 69 and I have been driving/riding since I was 13.

And he rides rather quickly.

I caught up to the crew one Sunday morning after about 30 miles of following. I saw them ahead about 3/4 mile just as we cleared a town onto an almost empty interstate. So I thought I would join them. I was running 85-90 and not catching them. Finally after 90-100 for lots of miles I joined them and as the fourth, we we running about 90-95 as a average.

Still with his years of driving and the amount he drives that would be over 150,000 miles between citations. There are many of us who can't say they do that well

NCS
 
+1

I was given good advice by an LEO. Don't try to win an argument on the side of the road AND don't ask for a break, after all, they most likely gave you the first 10 MPH or they wouldn't have bothered to stop you.

I deserved every moving violation I have ever received. :banghead

Interestingly I have had occasion to work radar set at 15 over limit as the trigger point and we have written all the tickets we cared to (or had books for). Usual response was always "I could NOT have been speeding". A lot of honest people said exactly what their speed was, and we always asked them to be more attentive, slow down, and let them go on their way. :thumb

Oh: Never say something like "I know such-and-so and can get this taken care of". That adds public intimidation to the stack of tickets. :)
 
Fast bunch

And he rides rather quickly.

I caught up to the crew one Sunday morning after about 30 miles of following. I saw them ahead about 3/4 mile just as we cleared a town onto an almost empty interstate. So I thought I would join them. I was running 85-90 and not catching them. Finally after 90-100 for lots of miles I joined them and as the fourth, we we running about 90-95 as a average.

Still with his years of driving and the amount he drives that would be over 150,000 miles between citations. There are many of us who can't say they do that well

NCS

The bike at the rear was a GSA and the wind was not kind to the big profile. That gentleman now has a new 1600 and recently returned from Wyoming with a 123MPH "souvenir". His bond was $1,000.00.
 
A few times in my life (riding about 50 yrs) I've been stopped by leo's with an attitude about bikes. And more often than that I've ignored speed limits (especially when on deserted roads) and done what I chose within my skill limits (not wrecked one ever). Most recently while testing a way to fix BMWs lousy fuel injection programming on my K1200GT- in stock trim its got one of the worst cases of fuel injection herky jerky of any bike ever made.
Once in a while I've picked up a minor speeding ticket, not enough to be seriously expensive, endanger licenses, etc. That's what lawyers are for. I've spent so much cash on (cage) track toys that the cost of bike fun is trivial (my last track toy cost me about $1500 every time I took it out for a weekend- it burned 1/2 gal of race fuel per mile and ate tires and brakes at the same high rate). I've been known to ride with Jerry- his style and mine are similar- I prefer to not to ride with those who can't.

An unprovoked leo can't go much further than a simple ticket without getting himself in trouble and as long as it goes no further than that I tend to look at all of this as cheap rent for use of the public roads. My career managing large groups of people on time sensitive projects has left me with a pretty thick skin so I'm not easily upset or provoked. Here in NC, many of our roads are a pretty good playground and my total contribution is only that part of my tax $ that paid for them- basically a pretty good deal.

I think a more fundamental discussion is how we spend law enforcement $ in this country. Huge money being spent on toys in the name of security, for example (our local guys bought a very expensive underwater robot to look for bombs in our basically unknown little port in Wilmington when there is clearly no way at all to prevent a knowledgeable expert from sinking a ship with explosives nor would any robot be as fast or capable as a set of trained human divers.) Also way too much money being spent on minor drug crime enforcement. We've given about half the minority kids in NC a record for this, spent a fortune putting them in prison, and wonder why crime is out of control in their neighborhoods. Recently both our sheriff dept and local dept have asked for major increases to police minority housing complexes when they should simply re assign existing resources of which they have plenty. (They badly need to control driveby shootings. Here in NC one can identify minority neighborhoods in any city by listening for gunshots after midnite- Wilmington has electronic shot spotters- pretty much one more toy- installed but all they do is get the location a bit closer than is already obvious)
 
I have had occasion to work radar set at 15 over limit as the trigger point ...

Wow, that seems like a high threshold. Washington State and especially Oregon don't give that kind of leeway.

I ride/drive about 3 to 5 over and I keep that speed through radar checks or with oncoming officers, never a need to hit the brakes or panic. Yeah, I get passed a lot but it's a much more relaxing way to travel.
 
If you drive 3-5 over on an interstate here you will get run over unless its raining or at night.
I had a state cop as a neighbor who told me he got one over 100 mph about every day and just couldn't be bothered with folks not 15 over because if he tried to write them all below that he literally would not be able to do his job- his words, not mine.

Generally if I see leos on interstates here they're running close to 10 over and make a great front end. Only once have I seen a guy who seemed to enjoy making a traffic jam behind him and that was a long time ago.
 
If you drive 3-5 over on an interstate here you will get run over unless its raining or at night.
I had a state cop as a neighbor who told me he got one over 100 mph about every day and just couldn't be bothered with folks not 15 over because if he tried to write them all below that he literally would not be able to do his job- his words, not mine.

Generally if I see leos on interstates here they're running close to 10 over and make a great front end. Only once have I seen a guy who seemed to enjoy making a traffic jam behind him and that was a long time ago.

Your neighbor had the same thought we did... If we used 5 over, or even 10 over, we would be in traffic court forever for one day's tickets. Besides, as long as everyone is moving about the same speed, regardless of the speed limit, none of the LEO's I know will mess with anyone. It is the idiots going crazy speeds in warp drive or doing dumb stuff that attract attention.

I routinely have to travel at 80mph on I-10 and I-12 around Baton Rouge simply to avoid getting rear-ended, and people still blow past me texting, reading the paper, etc. Scary.
 
In Montana we regularly run 80-85 on the interstates and seem not to be of any interest to the LEOs. On most state highways the limit is 70 and we often run 75-80; again we do not stand out from the crowd. There are roads that have 70 limits that are exciting at 45 in many places; Beartooth Pass for example.

However, last week while driving in my truck I passed a State Trooper while I was doing 78 in a 75 zone (GPS speed). The LEO was doing an estimated 70 or less. As I approached him he turned on his yellow flashers for an instant and pointed his finger down to let me know to slow down. I slowed to 75 and still pulled away from him.
 
Interestingly I have had occasion to work radar set at 15 over limit as the trigger point and we have written all the tickets we cared to (or had books for). Usual response was always "I could NOT have been speeding". A lot of honest people said exactly what their speed was, and we always asked them to be more attentive, slow down, and let them go on their way. :thumb

Oh: Never say something like "I know such-and-so and can get this taken care of". That adds public intimidation to the stack of tickets. :)

I most definitely have never met you in your professional capacity.:laugh
 
A few days ago, I was on Interstate 10 east of Indio, and had a CHP come up behind me... white Crown Vic, no external lights up top, but big bumpers, so it was fairly obvious... I was holding 71 mph indicated (posted limit is 70)... he was there for several minutes, so I must have disappointed him. (They'll sometimes do that to goad a motorist into making some dumb mistake.)

Just a little later, two motor officers passed me in the Banning area (note: that whole stretch is a well-known speed trap)... one was on a Beemer, the other on a Honda... I purposely looked over at the Beemer, and gave him a short :thumb ... looked over at the Honda, and gave him a little shrug of the shoulders with a little "no" shake of the head ... they both got it, laughed, and sped away.
 
A few days ago, I was on Interstate 10 east of Indio, and had a CHP come up behind me... white Crown Vic, no external lights up top, but big bumpers, so it was fairly obvious... I was holding 71 mph indicated (posted limit is 70)... he was there for several minutes, so I must have disappointed him. (They'll sometimes do that to goad a motorist into making some dumb mistake.)

Just a little later, two motor officers passed me in the Banning area (note: that whole stretch is a well-known speed trap)... one was on a Beemer, the other on a Honda... I purposely looked over at the Beemer, and gave him a short :thumb ... looked over at the Honda, and gave him a little shrug of the shoulders with a little "no" shake of the head ... they both got it, laughed, and sped away.

Typically in the I 40 commute here are always some State Highway Patrol. They usually drive along at 8-12 over. One day during building rush hour one evidently was doing tags. I was a bunch vehicles behind and gaining slowly. He evidently was running plates. He would cruise along at regular speed then pace a slower vehicle in the lane to the right just a little behind it. Of course all 4 lanes of traffic were hesitant to pass this even though speeds would drop to mid 60s. Things were jamming up with this happening. I hate that on the bike as everyone is looking to push a little more into the ever increasing tight spaces. It made for a difficult traffic snare to work out of. Perhaps you got your plate and stuff checked then as well.

NCS
 
Quite likely; we've had computerized plate recognition for a while. Or maybe they were just enjoying the frame around my plate (which I can't post here, being a family forum).

On the other hand, they do sometimes try to dare you into passing them... If one does not exceed the limit, they "shouldn't" bother you.
 
Speaking of the CHP, I was cruising north out of San Francisco last year doing about 80 "or so" in a 60 zone when I noticed a motorcycle a few hundred yards behind me. Didn't think much of it until moments later he was beside me. I look over and its the CHP on an RT-P. Dang it, I said inwardly. He just gives me a nod and speeds off.

I think I was a victim of motorcycle bias - the positive kind. :thumb
 
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