The worst ride - ever - with a somewhat happy ending

would love to call the LEO out, but frankly (guns aside) I think he cut us all a massive break, I dont hold him to anything untoward with the exception of pacing us for 20 miles from the gas station to the pull over point.

 

the "club/board" in question is DCSportbikes.net

they run bike numbers on the street, and track bikez... and nytetriss and turbos n sh1t

 

Yeah i agree thats why I wanted his name.

 

Yeah i agree thats why I wanted his name.

 

Virginia State Troopers love to patrol the state and backroads. If you ride the interstate over a given stretch of road and then ride the same distance on a backroad, you will find out that their is probably a 4 to 1 difference which favors the state roads haveing more patrols. (I have driven the I 95 / I 64 and Route 17 from DC to Va Beach ad back)

 

just to tie up on "excessive speeds" a bit... I was doing my usual 10-20 over prior to this thing unwinding... but was at the front. I have no idea how fast the guys in the back were doing to maintain sight of me, but given the "yo-yo" of the group suspect speeds could have varied. When I say 10-20 over, that includes all of the turns so I can feel for those in the back. When I decided to break loose, I was alone and about 1 mile ahead of rider #2 and we were less than 2 miles from a stop sign, where the plan was to stop and let the group gather up and proceed onwards.

 

and to add some perspective for non-locals, the ride (and pursuit) originated at point A and the stop was at point B (22.5miles)
Sheetz to Co Rd 647/Crest Hill Rd - Google Maps

 

Well I hafta say. Good for you Tone. How can one possibly learn from and error made if one does not recognize that error. For what it is worth, I am impressed. You are a gentleman.

 

I have read both yours and my replies over a few times. I seem to get the message we are on the same page unless I am missing something.

 

You know folks. I will be very honest here. I worked a lot of on and off ramps to the freeway primarily for seatbelts. But in the spring, I would arbitrarily pull over any bike that came through. This is legal here. Checking just to see if you are properly licenced is a reason to pull someone over. And I suggest that approximately 30% of the bikes I pulled over (actually waved over cause I was on foot) were not properly licenced. And after getting down to the nitty gritty as to why they weren't, it boiled down to thier procrastination. And that's it. But I laways chatted it up with them. Complimented them on their rides even though I really didn't give a shit cause I was not a rider back then. Then told them to go and get themselves legal to ride and away they went. You see, I checked them coming of the Freeway and they were going into city streets. This was permitted. The restricitons I dealt with were that learners were not permitted to be on the freeway.

 

How do you conceal a BAR? :eyebrows: :gun3:

 

as stated we got off increidbly lucky... so no regrets.. i had a great day aside from that good to meet people..
i hope there are no hard feelings..

 

none- will ride again - next time different meetup place, different route ------- different outcome

 

Man, I'll be honest, sounds like you guys got off lucky... In California, not havin' registration is enough to get ur bike taken (and in some cases subsequently crushed)...

I gotta admit, sometimes L.E.O.s can rub me the wrong way too, but we have to try and understand that they deal with A LOT on the job... they just wanna get back to their families at the end of the day...

 

Just to say my full peace on this matter, cause I can't shutup! Did we get "profiled" by this LEO, yes, absolutely. We were at a common meetup point for multiple different types of motorcycles, and we happened to be the "sportiest" looking group there. We left there and took common motorcycle traveled roads and pretty much fell directly into fitting this "profile". Does this make the LEO at fault for the time we lost, for the scare we got, for the infractions two of our members recieved tickets and a hassle for, ABSOLUTELY NOT. WE were, and allways are responsible for our actions, not the leader, not the guy in front of us, we are. The LEO did have a point, allthough he didn't know where we were going, he and we all knew what we were doing, and that it was illegal. We all have to take responsibility for our actions that day, whatever they were. We we're riding like squids, so we got pulled over and harrassed like squids. Had we been riding more sensibly, this story wouldn't even exist. This is not to point fingers at anyone, just to quell some of the LEO bashing more than anything else. If we hadn't done what we did, he would have had no reason to act the way he did (which BTW I've had to deal with much more rude LEO's for much less).

I wish we had some different laws in this country, as I'm sure many of you do as well. I think the exmple Randy gave from when he was on the force is an excellent one. Allthough I really hate the seatbelt law, he was doing something good and USEFULL IMO by flagging down random bikes and checking their papers. I can't count how many of my friends have ridden without proper endorsement on their licence, much less some proper training for even being on a motorcycle. I've never been a real fan of the law, but for the most part they do many very good things. They protect us all, sometimes from ourselves, just to have a target on their back 24-7 and catch a bunch of shit for how "badly" they do their jobs. I may not be a fan, and I may not have many, or any friends that are, but they do have my respect for the job they do.

Ok, I think I'm off my :soapbox: now. Begin :flame:ing the hell out of me now.......................:frusty:

 

Profiling is a valid and effective police technique. It needs to used more often.

 

well said...

I still dont think I did anything wrong or different than the last 100x I rode on that road... the cop let us off when he saw the gray hair