I followed a police car at high speed the other day

[stinkwheel]

Just a bit of a "what if?".

I was whanging along a local B-road and came up behind a car travelling at speed (it was a pretty sporty German estate car and he was doing in the region of 90mph). It had a dayglo cardboard sign taped up in the back window.

I assumed it was advertising an agricultural show or similar but JUST as I was about to put the big sarcastic pass on him I noticed it said "Police training" and a closer look revealed a double rear-view mirror and two front seat occupants.

"Hmm. Best not put the pass-on.", thinks I. But he's (hopefully) already seen me gaining on him like a total cunt doing easily 20mph faster (complete with headlights on and dayglo vest) along that last straight so there's no point backing off... Let's see if I can learn anything.

I learned that whoever was driving had better have just STARTED their course because they were shit. Their driving was erratic and pretty incompetant. The person in control had no right to be driving at the speed they were and I found myself dropping back in case they binned it in front of me.

I kept a reasonable distance but I could tell they'd clocked me behind them and were trying to shake me. Hopefully I gave them something to watch in their mirrors and the instructor capitalised on it but I suspect they just spent the whole time tutting about how reckless my riding was and trying to lose me by gunning it down the straights.

In all honesty, I felt like pulling them over myself and giving them the benefit of my oppinions because god knows, the driver could have used some tips about road positioning, comfort braking and getting back on the power sooner.

The big question however is what would I have done if they'd pulled me over? I suspect I'd have gone straight in on the offensive, stating that they could clearly see I was following them so the responsible thing to do would have been to back-off and pull over, not floor it on the straights (which is what they actually did). I trolled along with this by having downshifted way before they sank the pedal and kept up a constant gap between me and them.

I enjoyed myself in any case and I HOPE the trainee got something out of it (ie. bikes are faster than you can even comprehend and pay attention to your mirrors). My excuse for doing that speed is the same as the excuse the trainee traffic copper has for doing double the speed limit in an unmarked car on public roads when he has no real idea how to drive at those speeds. I on the other hand have years of experience of riding like a total twat to fall back on.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[pendulum]

Helloooo, it's a Police car! Noone should be following it above the limit!

They have a legal exemption... you don't!

Very risky game to play!

Reminds me of a Traffic Cops when the woman overtook the Police car so her kid could give the copper a wave... duh... 3 points & £60 IIRC!
Edit; Actually I think it transpired she didn't have a valid licence... double fail.

[firefox]

[pendulum]

That's a mistake to think that... they just have to be on justifiable police business to speed... no requirement for blues and two's to be on, or to be attending an emergency.

[Llama-Farmer]

[junglejim]

[stinkwheel]

[pendulum]

[stinkwheel]

[junglejim]

[Llama-Farmer]

[junglejim]

We're all human, and even the best of us can make mistakes which is why I do hate it when the Police get such a hard time when they get it wrong.
I mean a Police driver or rider crashes and kills someone, and biking community are up in arms, but yet a TT rider crashes and kills a couple of spectators (as happened no so long ago), and no one says a dicky bird.

[Pete.]

Apples and oranges - TT riders are supposed to be at or near the limit, and people flock there to watch them do it - or try, and fail.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[junglejim]

[Polarbear]

[Snorty]

My Dad once had the police tell him to follow them.

My uncle was lost somewhere and they were obviously bored, so they told him to follow with my aunty in his car. They were doing ridiculous speeds like 120mph etc. My Dad was in his M3 so they were obviously trying to leave him behind, but they just couldn't shake him.

I think it was one of his favourite moments of his life, ha.
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Current: Yamaha FZ1 '07 | GSXR 750 SRAD

Past: CB125TDC | TZR125 | GPZ500 | CBR600F3 | ZX9-R | GSXR1000 K4

[AlexW]

Loads of police traning goes on around here, Albeit in plain white ford focus estates.

Never actually overtaken one though, Always 4 or 5 up in full uniform.

[Piercee100]

I work within a 5 minute walk of a police station and so regularly seem to be following them around town. Things I always notice is that they never use their indicators and they fail to do basic vehicle checks because they always seem to have one brake light out.

I also swear that around town the police are nowhere near as fast as they were back in the 80's. I remember them power-sliding an SD1 around a local roundabout with all their lights on which looked super cool now you just see some wallowy Skoda Octavia struggling for grip and wobble off down the road- only fast on the straights.

In my youth I was involved in a car chase, hanging around with some interesting folks as you do. I was amazed how stupid the police were. I was with a friend (also my landlord) who was wanted with the Police and they spotted us as we cruised down the road in a Sierra 2.0gls, Big bore 4 burbling away and they quickly jumped in their Pug 406 in hot persuit! I was shiteing myself to be honest but my mate put his foot down to lose them in the back streets. After a couple of lefts and rights he pulled over and very quickly and tidily parked up in a row of parked cars and shouted at me to duck as we watched the police car fly by. Made us feel awesome that day! It was like something out of the movies. Had to get rid of that car soon after though as it was well marked, everytime anybody went out in it was guaranteed a tug and a going over but they could never get me on anything. My mate however got 12 months...
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Rides: Honda H100a (Retired), VT500e (Sold), Kawasaki ZX400 (sold), Kawasaki GT550 (Sold), Suzuki Inazuma (Daily), Honda CD185t (Broken), LML Star 2t (Last run edition).

[Kris]

Coming back from a recent late night at work, I jumped in a cab at the train station and we were soon off heading towards my part of town. It was 1am and we were driving along, probably doing 35 round this long, blind, right hander when another cab appears from round the bend on the other side of the road coming towards us...

....being overtaken by a marked Octavia with lights but no siren doing about 60....

Cue emergency stop by both cabs. The Octavia made it through the gap with a fag paper space between both taxis. I was pretty happy that the cabbies were switched on that night.
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NSR125RR - ZXR750H1 - ZX9R E1 - GSF600S - GSF600SK3 - VFR400-NC30 - SV1000N - ST1100-R - CBR900RR-R - GSF1200SK5 - GSF600SK1 - VFR1200FA - GSXR1000K2 - ZZR1400 D8F
www.prisonplanet.com

[Hetzer]

I learned to drive by stealing an MGB in my early teens (lived/slept in it for two weeks). I was seen trying to break into a gunshop and sped away from the two coppers who crept up on me in the car as I was getting more tools and told me to get out (2am-ish). A few miles down the road I hurtled past a police Allegro which took up the chase, a couple of miles later I saw him give up on a flyover we'd just crossed. About a mile after that I lost it into a ditch, but I still got away from a cop-car with only two weeks of driving to my name (yeah, MGB vs Allegro panda-car, but still... ).

I shook one on my GT550 once too. And on My Fireblade in Japan (two-up mind ).
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"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[T.C]

[Rogerborg]

Is there a statutory exemption from road traffic laws? If so, which ones?

The closest I've ever come to being killed on the roads was by a panda that was approaching a roundabout slowly in a left turn only lane, indicating left, no lights or siren, which then proceeded to boot it straight through the roundabout, still merrily indicating left. Only my cat-like reflexes and - genuine and instantly justified - distrust of plod drivers stopped me going over their bonnet.

I accept that the best drivers and riders will tend to bubble towards the top of the police training hierarchy, but far too many of them - particularly traffic - are (IMO and IME) just lardy angry slapheads sporting regulation stupid moustaches, a chip on one shoulder and a wholly unjustified god complex on the other.

The copper couple round the corner are a prime example. Really decent folks, doubtless excellent coppers, but he's taken two of his own Subarus on unplanned off-road jaunts, and she's riding a pushbike on duty because of stacking too many work vans. You think they'd learn, but he's on his 3rd Subaru, and she drives a Golf VR6.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[junglejim]

[P.]

[Kickstart]