Did a 250 mile loop this morning in the twisties, haven't been back there in some time because of all of the attention we've been getting from the LEOs out there lately. Long story short, I got pulled over by a local Sheriff and two deputies in an unmarked Dodge Van, at first I was trying to figure out why this guy was chasing me. I had moved around to pass him in a double white no-pass zone, my bad but if I had known it was a LEO I wouldn't have made the move. He did let me off with a verbal warning so I am thankful for that but this has sapped my last bit of confidence. It seems impossible to do a "spirited" ride on these bikes anywhere on a public road anymore without getting pulled over for something. How do you guys ride these bikes on the street and keep your license? I don't want to putt around like an old man, might as well buy a Harley and hang out at the local watering hole if I do that.

I can't believe he let you off with a warning like that. Just remember that van I guess.... It's tough with the cop cars getting more and more steathy. Did he have normal license plates?

Just a few days ago I came up behind a black cage and I would have never guessed it would have been a cop car. I noticed the little tag on the trunk that said, "POLICE INTERCEPTOR." I think it had the funky little cop hubcaps but other than that, it looked like an ordinary economy commuter vehicle.

Good to hear you got off with just a verbal. Past 4 cop's today on our ride out of the mountains. Never seen one out there ever until today. Lucky didn't pass one when tucked doing 140mph.

I deal with it by going to the track a few times a year and going really f'ing fast all day long. That has given me a different perspective; I'm reluctant to go fast on the street knowing how fast I can get into trouble at high speeds on the track. Through in oil on the road, crap on the street, old people driving and every woman who is driving and texting at the same time and I don't want to go fast on the street. What's that old saying about old and bold? As far as the increased LEO in unmarked cars, with people "tucked and doing 140" on public roads, I would expect nothing else.

Didn't notice the plates, he did have the red and blue lights in his grill though. I was too much in shock to notice much else, he came out of nowhere. I may have to just take it to the track, I'm not having fun anymore, always wondering if there's a cop up around the next bend in the road. I quit doing high speed runs except in very short bursts, too much at stake to risk it.

* Last updated by: Kruz on 7/21/2014 @ 6:29 AM *

So you have to be haulin butt to be having fun? Hmm I enjoy the bike just being on it. Yes, I do manage to be bad now and then. I guess its all in your mindset. I ride to ride. Not ride to haul ass and break the law. Even if the van had not been a LEO, you still would have caused a cager to think another Fing bike doing as they please. Don't get me wrong, I have been known to do the same thing. Just trying to put into perspective.

Mrwoo, can you be specific as to where you saw the LEO? I used to live in Rancho Cordova, now up by Redding, and still go into the Sierras alot. I am usually on Hwy 49, and 192. In 15 yrs I have only seen CHP twice. One was seen of accident, and the other was on patrol I assume. Great riding up there. Most of the time, you can have tons of fun, and not break the speed limit. Very tight mountain roads.

That finishes may semi-rant.

Get a good radar detector. It will not eliminate all of your worries but it will help. Here in Oregon most of the county and city cops run k and ka band speed detection on secondary highways where i ride. Most of the time I detect their presence well before I see them. I haven't got a speeding ticket since getting the detector. 3 years now I think.

funny you mentioned that Kruz! I have been bitching about that for three weeks. It seems like there is a crack down. I choose my big sweepers carefully now but my favorite roads are so tight that LE doesn't even bother following. 2 flashed their lights at me this month but they were going in the opposite direction... no chance!

I know. It's easy to blame LEO for being strict, or call them dicks, or interfering with fun time. It's very easy to act like everything is their fault. Maybe they're tired of scraping 20 yo bodies off the ground and scraping eyelids out of tree bark. I knew someone, he was kind of a dick himself, who smashed his face on a telephone pole they had to scrap his face off that.

You can ride spirited. Caution must always win over spirit. What do you think when you watch videos of sportbike riders doing wheelies then wiping out on the interstate? Or doing stoppies and smashing into a car or another bike? Think it's cool when some dick does a burn out and loses control of the bike? Do you think "omg that's so cool I'm gonna go do that." or do you think "great, another DICK giving my sport a bad name, raising my insurance rates, and causing politicians and law enforcement to pay way more attention to us than they should have to." I hope you don't have to think too hard where I stand. Ride, have fun, but keep in mind around the next blind corner could be a broke down car, a deer, or even a cop.

"With great power comes great responsibility." - smart people

If I loose control doing a wheelie or fly off the road at 160 and hit a tree, a cop or some one with special training will have to scrape my face off a pole. That's a part of the job. I don't feel sorry for police because of the unpleasant things they encounter on the job. Sort of goes with the territory. I do things in my job every day nobody wants to do and they're just about as disgusting. May sometimes involve dead bodies, too. ...but that's what I get paid for right now (and quite a bit lower pay than police). In a nutshell, the "I'm not happy with what you did because I'm the guy that will have to go pick up your body parts" argument holds no water with me at all. Then quit. I'd take that job in a second if I had the opportunity and I'm sure a lot of other people would too.

The FAILS vids on youtube are what I hope to avoid but I'm not going to stop sport riding within my abilities so that other people won't be bothered with seeing me. It's a cool bike to putter around on the street with but I'm going to explore as much of the potential as I can. To do so is illegal. I accept the risk but I never take a risk unless I stand a very good chance of succeeding.

2 flashed their lights at me this month but they were going in the opposite direction... no chance!

Totally Rook, I totally get your point. I'm totally with you. But you don't get mine. It's easier for police to write us riders tickets than retrieve parts our limbs from up in tree limbs. It's a lot less paperwork, a lot less to explain. Their method is determent. By pulling us over, buy giving us tickets, by all the things many riders consider harassment they are trying to deter sportbike riders from putting them in a position which they have to suck a spline out from in between two rocks with a shop vac.

Where do you find sharks? Where the prey are.

I'm a little surprised, everyone on this forum rides a 175+ HP Superbike capable of running sub ten second quarter miles and topping out close to 190 mph and I guess you guys are running 55 mph on the street? Cool, get a Moped, they get better gas mileage. Just my .02

It's easier for police to write us riders tickets than retrieve parts our limbs from up in tree limbs. It's a lot less paperwork, a lot less to explain. Their method is determent.

get a Moped, they get better gas mileage.

Assuming that I only do 55 and need a moped is like me assuming that you never do less than 190 everywhere you go. Unless you're doing 190 the second you leave your garage then you need to get a cruiser or something, maybe even a moped if you ever drive at like 40 mph.

Not trying to infer anything about anyone's riding habits in particular, I just didn't expect a backlash about riding fast on this forum of all places. These are street bikes made for going fast, if you're not going to ride them fast then what's the point of owning one..... unless one is simply into posing? In that case, ride 'em at 55 mph or 45 or whatever and enjoy yourself, to each his own.

I'm with you Kruz and Rook. Not unlike a loaded gun, it's friggin useless without bullets. And if you are going to have one just so that you never use it, you may as well have a stick. In the right hands it's dangerous, but in the wrong hands it's just plain stupid. Sure you can have one, but waving it around on crowded streets is going to attract unwanted attention. Obviously anyone that wants to survive and keep their license long enough to enjoy it must keep things real, mostly, but it's the surreal that we find tempting and intoxicating. For me at least, that's why I bought the 14R. I think that getting away with the occasional "fix" that I get from my bike is a game of numbers. The more often I misbehave, the more likely I'll get caught out. I also pick my locations so as to minimize the risk. My belief is that you buy an FBH (fu@%king big hammer) for the purpose of delivering a FBH (fu@%king big hit). Right tool for the right job. Right?

I think that's what Vic is saying....but I DO like to do a fair amount of posing. Between tires and gas $, I'm doing a lot of that.

I'm with you Kruz and Rook. Not unlike a loaded gun, it's friggin useless without bullets. And if you are going to have one just so that you never use it, you may as well have a stick. In the right hands it's dangerous, but in the wrong hands it's just plain stupid. Sure you can have one, but waving it around on crowded streets is going to attract unwanted attention. Obviously anyone that wants to survive and keep their license long enough to enjoy it must keep things real, mostly, but it's the surreal that we find tempting and intoxicating. For me at least, that's why I bought the 14R. I think that getting away with the occasional "fix" that I get from my bike is a game of numbers. The more often I misbehave, the more likely I'll get caught out. I also pick my locations so as to minimize the risk. My belief is that you buy an FBH (fu@%king big hammer) for the purpose of delivering a FBH (fu@%king big hit). Right tool for the right job. Right?

Agreed, all of us that own these bikes have broken the legal speed limit, probably many times and some have blown the highest legal highway speed limit in the country to smithereens, by a factor of 2X or more. We're kidding oursleves if we say otherwise. Anyone owning one of these machines is a risk taker....or a poser. That's my story and I'm sticking with it. Like you said, choose wisely where and when you go fast and control as many risk factors as you can.

Mr. Caruso: You got stung... and bad... because they got under your detection system.

I don't know what it's like in your state but things are pretty lax where I am. I grind a set of tires to nubs in under 4K miles and haven't been written up since 1998.

Just take a deep breath and this'll blow over. They can't afford big time traffic patrols forever. You just had a smidgen of bad luck.

Correct Hagrid, bad timing and thankful to get off with only a verbal warning, it could have easily been much worse, the Sheriff was actually a decent guy.

Ontario,50kph(30mph)over,up to a 10000 dollar fine,impoundment of vehicle,1 week suspensionand when yor insurance company finds out,your fucked.i try to keep under 50 over close to toronto.if I'm up north I take my chances.More worried about deer or moose then police up there

* Last updated by: darryle on 7/23/2014 @ 4:12 PM *

I don't know what it's like in your state but things are pretty lax where I am. I grind a set of tires to nubs in under 4K miles and haven't been written up since 1998.

My last speeding ticket was in 1999, in New Jersey. In New Jersey speeding tickets are given out like there is no tomorrow. I was fortunate I didn't get arrested that day, but had to pay a hefty fine.

http://www.trackpedia.com/wiki/Main_Page

The track is 150 per day and that's a lot cheaper than any ticket. there are no trees intersections or people or cars you can go as fast as you like and there's lots of run off without guardrails trees are cliffs. The track is safer in my opinion and it's damn good fun!

I worked my way thru college working as a police officer for 6 years and would like to offer some free advice, and it may be worth what you are paying for it.

Police are paid to do a job, if they don't do their job it wouldn't be safe to leave your house much less be on the street, they are a deterrent. Police are just regular guys like us, but when you get stopped you don't know if 30 minutes before they had to pull a body out of a car who had just been hit by a drunk, or maybe had to break up a family fight at gunpoint, they have bad days too!

If you see the flashing lights in your rearview put your turn signal on and pull over, you might be able to outrun the car but you can't out run the radio. You put your life and the life of others at risk by trying to run and it just isn't worth it.

Take off you helmet and be polite, remember they are just doing there job. You wouldn't like it if someone came to your place of work and started cussing you and they don't either, plus they have guns! Most of the time an officer doesn't know if he is going to give a ticket until he makes contact, your attitude makes a HUGE difference!!!

Don't try to lie, they have probably heard every excuse you can think of 100 times or more and probably some excuses you never heard of. Once had a guy tell me he was speeding because he had to get home to take a dump, he was going 75 in a 25 hospital zone and the address on his license was over 60 miles away!!!

I've been stopped for doing stupid stunts and have gotten both warnings and tickets, I was guilty and had no one to blame except myself. Accept personal responsibility for your actions. I will continue to break the law on occasion but if I'm caught I will be polite because I respect the risks officers take every day to protect us.