Bike owned by South Wales Police

[neilthewolf]

Hi, I'm looking at buying a Honda VFR and have found one.
I've been to see it and its immaculate 08 plate 22k. the log book shows it was owned by South Wales Police it has a service printout with services carried out every 1500-2000 miles. There are no other details on this printout other than job numbers.
Has anyone ever come across a standard bike owned by a Police force before and is there anyway i could get more details of whats been carried out on the services. The Hpi check has come back fine but I'm a little scared.
Any advise or past experiences with this would be great.

Thanks

Neil

[Keir]

you probably wont be able to find out what the services consisted of but needless to say it will have had everything it ever needed and more. bikes worry police forces so they give them everything to minimise risk.

The only thing id be worried about is resprays after the decals are removed and damaged trim from equipement being fitted.
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Current : '08 Yamaha FZ1s
Previous: '99 Honda CBR 600FX, 03 ZX636 B1H, 99 Fazer 600 (red), 02 GSX-R 600 K2, 00 SV650s (red), 2008 ZX10R, 97 Bandit 1200N, 04 ZX6RR K1H, 04 GSX-R 1000, 98 Fazer 600 (gold), 05 Madness 110 Pit bike, 04 CR125R, 00 SV650s (black), 06 KTM 625 SMC, 99 SRAD 600 track bike, 03 SV650, 98 Bandit 1200N, Bandit 600SY, 03 GSX-R 600 K3, 01 GSX-R 600, 01 Fazer 600 (black), VFR 400 NC30 x3, 78 Honda Dream, 00 Speedfight 50

[Bendy]

[Rogerborg]

[sickpup]

[Rogerborg]

[sickpup]

[DrSnoosnoo]

I would reckon at every 2000 miles it'd have a brand new air filter, all plugs replaced, oil change and filter a deep deep clean of it everywhere all bits lubed up where lube is required, bearings check etc etc etc everything!

If a rozzer came off the bike and the bike was found to be slightly faulty, just imagine how much compo he'd be entitled to?
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Did have: '95 ZZR600 '83 CG125 '97 ZZR1100 '15 Hypermotard 821 SP Do Have: '10 ZX10R

[Bendy]

Mine was filthy inside and everything was done up very, very tight. I wouldn't count on them being serviced any better than one owned by a real person.

I'd just treat it like any other second hand bike tbh.

[Rogerborg]

You can imagine anything you like, of course.

On my second hand information, I imagine that's a 6-monthly kicking of the tyres and a quick eyeball of the brake pads. Maybe dumping the oil, might even throw a new filter in if there's one to hand and nothing better to do.

Copper-chum says that when they got Astra-pandas about a decade ago, that after a year it didn't matter whether it was a diesel or a petrol you grabbed the keys for: they both sounded like a bucket of spanners and belched black smoke due to "leave it for the day shift" maintenance.

That's Scotch though, each Force has their own policy. Some may even follow them.

Anyway, Keir has the real facts, let's see if he expands a bit.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
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[pits]

[barrkel]

Met police on my bikesafe day said their R1200RTs were poorly maintained, with a lot of vibes - but I no longer recall what exactly was out of tune, possibly throttle body sync. One mentioned he was very surprised at how smooth an R1200RT could be when he rode a non-Met one.

(Yay 1k posts!)
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[stinkwheel]

I'd worry that an '08 police bike showing 22k miles was on its second trip round the clock.
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I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[dolly3900]

SWP and Dyfed Powys do have several plain clothes vehicles, including bikes.

Some of these are used for CID and traffic duty, but there are some which are used for general training of officers and demo days for the public.

The ones used for CID and traffic are treated as general work horses much as the uniform cars and as such, shown a picture of a can of oil every 6 months or so, but the training and especially the demo ones are treated much much better.

Full service every year or recommended mileage whever the numbers match, if it is a 12 month, but 500 miles, it still gets a treat.

They are basically cosseted as these are the ones the public get to see as the nice toys the coppers get to play with (at least the law abiding ones of us, the naughty ones get a view of the day to day pandas )

Source. My uncle used to be service manager in the local dealer, who had the maint and service contract for the local plod and used to deal with it all.

He even bought one of the ex-demo copper cars which was a peach with an average of 2.5K miles per year on it (and promptly sold it on to me), an A reg Montego (1984, yes, I am that old)

So, IMHO, you are onto a bargain, just be aware of the usual things when buying a bike with much lower than usual miles on it, it may be a tad tight if it has just been used for pootling about as this can give somethings more grief than caneing it on a daily basis.
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2002 Rieju RS2-50 (Sold, spares or repair), 2010 Suzuki DR-125SM (Traded for ->), 2007 Honda CBF 600 (Sold), 2010 Suzuki V-Strom 1000 (Briefly, now returned), 2007 Suzuki Intruder 1800m (Even More Briefly, traded in for ->), 2014 Suzuki V-Strom 650

[ScaredyCat]

I bet it's been really badly maintained and got loads of leeks..
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Honda CBF125 ↳ Speed Triple

[Keir]

[andys675]

probably ctsu (counter terrorist surveillance unit) they sit around for hours watching their target, but only use the bikes to follow, not to persue
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[Rogerborg]

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

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