New Police Bikes

Thought I'd share this FWIW:

http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_...earch-www.thereporter.com-www.thereporter.com

I look forward to seeing these on the streets when I visit Vacaville.


Cheers!

Cool police bikes, my town just has a couple of Harleys.

The R1200RTPWC comes out next year. That should be a winner for police use.

These guys could really PO some HD diehards

"You can see the evidence on the ground," Hudson added, indicating a barrage of splotchy oil stains on the pavement where the unit's former (HD) motorcycles sat behind the Police Department.

Despite the BMW's advantages, the price differences between the two motorcycle brands were within about $1,000 of each other.

"Just by running the numbers, it was more beneficial to cut our losses with the Harleys and look for a better-made motorcycle," he said."

Hilarious. I thought the same thing about the "better made motorcycle" line. Them's definitely fightin' words.

"Better made" implies it's up to the men/women on the assembly lines.

I wouldn't think there's much difference.

"Better engineered" is the better term and when including HD in the conversation "engineered lately" is appropriate as well.

Yeah, the language seemed pretty inflammatory. There's a successful HD dealership in town, but the nearest BMW place is a hour away. Plus, this part of the Bay area is kind of blue collar. The speaker could have measured his words, in my opinion.

....to help offset the bikes' $31,731 price tags,

Certainly the new RT's are better performing motorcycles than the old (or even new) Harley's but I believe in most cases police departments (certainly the tax payer) would be better served by just purchasing a small car (Ford Fiesta, etc) than a large motorcycle. Heck our police department took some grant funds (I heard over $100,000) and bought 2 Can Am police Spyders! I don't think they get much use because I only saw them out a couple times and that was right after they bought them.

A police Spyder sure sounds like a waste of money. I can't think of any advantage it has over a small car plus it gets worse fuel mileage than most small cars and has much higher maintenance needs.

Would love to hear the so-called justification for that purchase. (Prevents falling off a motorcycle with the resulting medical bills or other similar nonsense is about all I can think of - if any of the leo's reading this know why a Spyder has some legit or unique law enforcement use I'd like to know)

In general it would be wise for the public to pay a lot more attention to the (mostly federal) grant funds being used by police departments. Where I live this funding is mostly going to militarize local PDs by purchase of former military armored vehicles, fancy toys like robots for bomb searches (never been a bombing anywhere near here), and our local sheriff is talking about drones.

I think a modern Maxi-Scooter would be the most practical. Faster and more nimble than a Harley at half the cost. They are also automatic. Houston has some Burgman 650s and BMW has: http://www.autoevolution.com/news/b...0-scooter-and-more-at-milipol-2013-71064.html . I slow my Burgman 650 down on the straight stretches after the curves so the Harley riders can catch up with me.

I am a big BMW fan rode a BMW RTP for the department for 10 years. Loved the motorcycle. Our department went back to Harley's when our dealer owner died and the business folded. BMW also pulled the franchise when the two buyers took legal action against each other and BMW. No more BMWs in our area. My biggest bitch with BMW and Honda is the lack of law enforcement support. Example would be I could call Harley right now and get a demo police motorcycle by next week if not sooner. Harley let me use a demo factory motorcycle for a police motorcycle rodeo in 2011. They are big time supports of police motorcycle rodeo a long the east coast. The police motorcycle instructor school I teach, yup supported by Harley. Instructors ride brand new police motorcycle, used also for demo rides for the newbie motor instructors. They (Harley) so smart in marketing. So my hats off to Harley.

John, I don't know if they still offer it, but around 2001 BMW would loan a police department a RT-P for a week. I took one back then, but they weren't new models they were used ones that departments traded back to BMW and were given a total rebuild/refresh with the hopes to be sold again at a big discount to either a department or a private buyer. That rebuilt bike still rode circles around the new Harleys.

They stopped giving out motorcycle for a weeks the anti BMW riders where tearing up the motorcycle for the week, ie burn the clutch out. As I now understand it has to accompanied with a BMW police rep.who I believe is a member on this form. My understand is he is for the east coast and only one rtp to use vs Harley has a trailer full with police motorcycle. Honda has nobody. I know there is$$$$ in police market for motorcycle when you sell cars and other vehicles also.