Nearly lost my licence...

[Red Devil]

I was extremely lucky on Saturday, came very close to loosing my licence!

There's a stretch of road around here which is a dual carriageway just under a mile long and has a roundabout either end. I was trying to get a video of me doing a wheelie the whole length of it because my mate said I couldn't (stupid idea I know).

My mate was stood on the path which runs alongside it filming off my phone and I joked before how on the video you are going to see me wheelie-ing then a police car chasing me with the blues n twos on...well that happened!

I popped up a stand up wheelie in the left lane of the dual carriageway but didn't notice the car to my right was a unmarked police car.

So I held the wheelie most of the way down the dual carriageway (didn't quite hit the balance point so ran out of revs) and had a quick glance behind me when I put it down and saw the car chipping it up behind me and instantly got that horrible feeling in my stomach. Another glance behind confirmed my bad feeling as the grill and windscreen of it were lit up like a chirstmas tree.

So I pulled over just off the roundabout at the bottom and it was just the one copper, got the usual get in the back of the car routine. I hopped in the back and he just sat there in silence for a second looking at me before saying right...and began the usual caution. After that he told me that I'm not under arrest so I can leave now if I want because he is happy that he has my details (he wrote my number plate down on his hand before we got in the car).

At this point he told me that the car is equipped with a full video recording system and that I am loosing my licence.

I didn't leave obviously and we began talking, I took the sensible approach and was saying I'm a f*cking idiot for doing that, I should save it for the track ect (I told him I do track days, only done one so far and have quite a few booked for over the summer but made out I do a lot more than that to him).

He then went on to explain what would of happened if that was someone else behind me and I had come off and they had hit me, the person who hit me would of been arrested for dangerous driving and gone through a long process to clear their name. After that he started talking about how he has to attend a lot of biker accidents and inform families of deaths (very deep hearing it in person) and he doesn't want to have to do that for me. He also had a mate who hit a lamp post after coming off at around 100/110 on the road and lost his leg.

We sat talking for around 15 minutes and he asked what I do for work (I have a decent job which helped) and if I have a car, how I get to work ect. We talked a lot around the track day/racing front and he asked me if that is what I aspire to do (I know I will probably never get to a high level of racing but I am looking to get into it in the next couple of years).

So I told him I only have the bike and that's what I use to get to work, he asked me how I plan to get to work now I'm loosing my licence and obviously I said I have no other way (my work is about a 25/30 minute ride away). He said you have really f*ucked up now haven't you, looks like you are going to loose your job as well as your licence.

Anyway...we talked about a few more things and he was telling me he was exactly like me when he was younger, he is a complete petrol head and it was a lottery to which done up car he was going to write off next when he was my age because he went flat out everywhere.

After all this he paused for a minute or two while looking out the front of the car (debating what to do) then turned around and said look...I'm not going to take your licence away but I want you to learn a serious lesson from this and save that sort of riding for the track from now on. He told me to sort out my number plate (I had a 7" x 2" one line plate on it) because he knows I have it on there because I like to f*ck about on the road and he is popping up to my house over the next couple of days to check I've changed it.

So I got away with 0 points and £0 in fines in the end and I still can't believe it! He said he would show me the video but the ANPR screen in his car was smashed (I don't know if the car was actually recording and the screen was just broken or if the whole system wasn't working because of the screen). He said the video would show me on the back wheel at around 70/80 MPH then me pulling away from him while he was doing around 90 MPH in a 50 limit so I was looking at a 18 month ban and a tasty fine if he had decided to take me to court.

Definitely going to save the wheelies for quiet roads now and not in stupid places like on Saturday, far too close for my liking! I would post up the video from my phone but I don't think it's a good idea considering what I've got away with...
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Thundersport Pre-National Sport 600 2014 #92
EMRA Roadstock 600 2013 - 3rd
www.facebook.com/MattJohnstonRacing

[lllN30lll]

I don't care about all that, Show me the video!
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Turbo R1
CRF450R

[Raffles]

It would probably be a good idea to edit your post and remove anything that could identify the good cop or the location of your misdemeanor. You could get him in some serious trouble by shouting about his good natured deed.
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A good loser will always be a loser.

[Red Devil]

[Red Devil]

[Pete.]

Sounds like he played it right. Fair play to him.
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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

[T.C]

[Red Devil]

[G]

[Paris2]

Video or it didn't happen
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Current Ride: Daytona 600

[Red Devil]

*This photo bears no relation to the events described above, I have no idea who the rider is in the picture, it was just a photo found on the internet which I thought resembles the events from Saturday*

(Click to see full size picture)

https://www.freeimagehosting.net/t/c1k8c.jpg
____________________
Thundersport Pre-National Sport 600 2014 #92
EMRA Roadstock 600 2013 - 3rd
www.facebook.com/MattJohnstonRacing

[anthony_r6]

That is a really bad place to pull wheelies.
Glad you got out of that situation okay though.
____________________
Ted : "Maybe he's agoraphobic."
Dougal : "Jack scared of fighting? I don't think so, Ted."

[stevo as b4]

Sounds like a decent and fair cop who knows how to use the law to educate and teach people the errors of their ways, without just following proceedure's and being a gung ho lets have em all kind of cop, of which there are always a few of who just want to get people!

[goto10]

[Red Devil]

[lllN30lll]

[Red Devil]

[Rogerborg]

Oh, I've lost my license a couple of times already. Every time I need it updated, in fact, but I always find the old one in the cupboard under the stairs.

Well, in this case, you did deserve a bollocking from someone, but I'll bet my (old) lid that his camera wasn't working, and you took one for nothing. As to you losing your license, he's a copper, not a judge.

Still, cool story, daft place to pull a wheelie, no kittens were harmed, and all that.
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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

[Red Devil]

[G]

Camera makes it easier; but a cops word saying "I watched him doing a wheelie down the road while I followed him at 80mph" is enough generally.

[Aikman666]

Sounds like a good cop, a rare find

You were more than lucky. But at the same time kudos to you for passing the 'attitude test'. I completely believe had you been a bellend he (and the judge) would have well and truly thrown the book at you.
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Will work for petrol
My Design Blog

[Sako]

you lucky, lucky bastard!

[Yarri]

I hope OP learns a good lesson out of this, because by the sound of it he was inches away from facing life changing consequences.
____________________
Theory Passed: 23/10/2008 49/74 Bike Test Passed: 05/01/2009 1 minor
Theory Car Passed: 22/07/2009 48/74 Car Test Passed: 22/10/2009 2 minor
Few minutes of life of the biker could be more interesting then the whole lifes of many people

[T.C]

[StormCrow]

Yep - rightly or wrongly the Police's word is gospel - unless you can prove otherwise.

Good copper - balanced bollocking is probably more effective than throwing the book at you in the long term... next time you think about it, I bet you think twice! (Before doing it anyway )