i never ride on the street but today i was feeling frisky. 06 R6 track bike put back to street begining of august for a birthday bash ride my older brother put together. leave my house for work, not speeding, not reckless, not texting, cruising 50 on the hwy in a 50 mph zon. unmarked car middle divider facing traffic. before i even passed him he was trying to pull out to get me. i pull right over like wtf did i do. he says equipment violation "you have no license plate light". how the hell you know i have no light if ur facing traffic during the day!!!! total bullshit. wrote me 2 tickets one for intagrated taillight and one for no plate light $98 a piece. vent over posted from smat phon
Yea, sometimes cops suck. Riding up to my off roading spot on my supermoto i was pulled over because "i couldnt see your day time running light" "Well it IS on", and its that yellow tint bulb that KTM's came with from factory. "Well i couldnt see it...." "What would you like me to do about that?" "Keep your headlights on at all time from now on..." Sure occifer, whatever you say.
I get pulled from time to time for no real good reason (failure to signal lane change, not coming to a complete stop, stuff like that) - usually if I'm wearing my old hardly ableson jacket. When I take my lid off and they see the snow on the roof I always get a pass. I did get a bit tweaked when the young cop's first words out of his mouth were "you were thinking about running, weren't you?" - Umm, no.
Exactamundo, my friend - but it took me years to learn to not actually say what I'm thinking in those situations.
I reckon I have just been lucky. I probably have around 150k street miles behind me, everything from cross-country trips to runs through The Gap and Cherohala, and I have never gotten a ticket on a bike. I have never even been pulled over. I don't ride like an asshat on the street. Im not saying I don't speed, because I actually feel safer going about 8-10mph faster than the ambient traffic. I feel like I am in control when I drive offensively. But I don't blast down the highway at 120mph or no shit like that. I know that wasn't the case in the OPs situation, he was profiled for nothing but being on a sportbike...which is pure bullshit. Luckily I have never been in that situation.
The last time I got profiled was in college. Long hair, Grateful Dead shirt, and a carload of my grungy friends going to King's Island. The road went from 65 to 55 and somehow I missed the sign. Lit me up, I pulled over.. We got out and those two guys tore my Blazer apart looking for doobie. Hey, I got it. We all looked the part. But we all played sports, or had jobs so we were straightedge. Hell I didn't even drink at the time. The one cope was cool, the other was a prick. After they were done and we were putting our bags back together, he looked at me and said "get a haircut" and walked away.
I am glad I am not the only one! I always feel like 90 is safer than 70 on the interstate. I just don't trust the cagers. You won't be patrolling the gap this weekend, will you? I may or may not be in the area.
Looking into the scenario one step further, integrated tail lights and not having a plate light are illegal. Just saying.
When my friend's KTM dealership prepped their first 1290 Adventure, he called me to come ride it. About three miles down the road I was pulled over for 65 in a 35, including a power wheelie for the better part of two gears, and got a verbal warning. I had no plate, dealer or otherwise, and no insurance info. The officer was sweet as pie, which was ironic considering that I recognized him from my hooligan years as one of the inflexible pricks who would pull in any time bikes were parked and give us equipment violation tickets (deservedly, to be fair). I was happy to get a warning, but knew if I was on a sportbike it would have been a different story. Or maybe the cop has just grown up in the last 7-8 years just like me... maybe.
This has happened a lot to me in Va on HOV, Trooper Tassa. He is known in our area for targeting sportbikes. His fav ticket is non DOT approved license plate light, he loves the super bright LED ones because they are never DOT approved (unless factory ducati). He has pulled me over three over the years trailing me for miles at a time before pulling me and giving me the $70 ticket twice (different bikes), he would stop bikes getting on or off HOV to check for inspection, and up to date tags, registration. Last time I saw him by the time he got to the bike I had all of my paperwork out and was pointing to the tags and inspection, he started to say tag light and I bent down and pointed to the DOT inscription on the light. He never pulled people over for real infractions, just the superfluous things. Some cops just have a hard on for bikers, usually sportbikes. Ive seen a lot of cars with burnt out, broken or missing tag lights, I wonder how many of those he has written up?
Funny. When I hear a pursuit going on I usually go the other way. Too dangerous in an urban environment...
