Cops and minis
- Thread starter ben_vayner
- Start date
i was riding outside campgrounds in East Stroudsburg PA.....came around a beautiful turn doin' 35, wind on my face, fresh country air......then i met a white impala with black rims and silver caps in the center, a few antennae, and a searchlight going the other way . I'm like "oh f***"
So i pull over, looking over my shoulder. He does a U turn, slowly pulling up to me. I thought i was about to lose the bike or get fined or something (this is immediately after reading up on how supposedly PA cops are super strict about minis and the like)
The cop just told me "I'm not pullin ya over, but you know you arent supposed to be on public roads with that right? Its for private property only." I agreed, and he told me to ride back to where i came from and to be safe.
He was a nice officer, glad it wasn't some stick in the mud.
So i pull over, looking over my shoulder. He does a U turn, slowly pulling up to me. I thought i was about to lose the bike or get fined or something (this is immediately after reading up on how supposedly PA cops are super strict about minis and the like)
The cop just told me "I'm not pullin ya over, but you know you arent supposed to be on public roads with that right? Its for private property only." I agreed, and he told me to ride back to where i came from and to be safe.
He was a nice officer, glad it wasn't some stick in the mud.
I have had a few run ins with the po po in the past. The best one was many moons ago. I was riding up a long road when a female cop and her partner pulled along side of me. I stopped, but as her squad car was slowly rolling past me, she looked out of the passenger window, and asked how old I was. I told her my age, 29, she shook her head and spead off not saying another word! Lol
I did a left turn right in front of a sheriff and i pulled over,looked over my shoulder and he didn't even tap his brake lights..I'm out of town so it's not too bad..i try not to run back and forth in front of my neighbors ..i have a couple of rides mapped out where i only pass once by a house..my cruising bike has stock muffler and my loud annoying bike i only take on short runs..if they take my bike or fine me I'll just pay..it's still more fun and cheaper than a full size bike..:laugh:
Back a long time ago I seem to always have had some failure to appears for traffic violations and I was arrested twice and taken to jail for unjust reasons while riding Tri-Sport trikes that I had added lights and accessories to for trying to make them street legal. One was my Tri-sport RTS-340 and the other I did license it as I was a dealer then it was a Tri-Sport RTS-8 . The RTS 340 machine drew to much attention when I past a motorcycle officer giving a ticket to another driver. He called out the troops and 5 cop cars from Long Beach, California surrounded me at a stop light, until the motorcycle cop could come and accuse me of speeding and too much noise. Well off to the jail I went for the failure to appears. I can't remember what that cost. The next one on the RTS-8 happened on a wonderful trip from Long Beach down US Highway 101 all the way to Lake Elsinore, California where I met up with two officers on night patrols around 2:00 AM. They made me chain up the trike to a telephone pole out in the country. So I went in for the outstanding ticket and my Father came down to get me in my Dodge Maxi Van. Well I cleaned up my act and no longer get tickets last on was in 1994.
Steve, in the late 70's, I was in the USMC, stationed in SoCal, and I had a girl friend in Portland, where I was from. I'd jump on my KZ650 and haul ass up I5 every chance I got. I received "several" tickets over the span of a year from both OR and CA, and luckily got stationed overseas soon after. My Mother (McMinnville at the time) had cops showing up looking for me for years, while I stayed in Japan.
In the 60's and early 70's riding mini bikes in rural Montana however, cops didn't even look for us, or care. In this current town, it's the same way, though we aging denizens of the streets now take turns doing burnouts with our old hot rods, or having grandkids down, when it's once again "our" turn for breaking the laws, and making noise with dubiously legal toys.
In the 60's and early 70's riding mini bikes in rural Montana however, cops didn't even look for us, or care. In this current town, it's the same way, though we aging denizens of the streets now take turns doing burnouts with our old hot rods, or having grandkids down, when it's once again "our" turn for breaking the laws, and making noise with dubiously legal toys.
Aside from the several 100 x's I was stopped on my go-cart or mini bike when I was a kid, I haven't had an issue. The cops used to stop us constantly when I was a kid. He would pull up, motion us to the car and tell us to walk the mini bikes home. Once we got home we would wait a half hour or so and hit the pavement again. It was nothing to get stopped 3 times a day. Never really got in trouble.
I found out years later, the cop that kept pulling us over was my friend's older brother, "He liked our resilience".
Presently, I ride my unlicensed Honda 70 all over the neighborhood at a reasonable speed with stock exhaust....the kids in the neighborhood wonder why I can drive past the cops and they always get pulled over. They don't realize, a 15 year old kid @ 50mph with a loud muffler on a quad isn't the same as a 60 year old guy on a quiet Honda mini bike.
I live in the same neighborhood I grew up in, as well as a bunch of my friends. The cop that patrols the area is my friend who's brother was pulling me over as a kid.
I found out years later, the cop that kept pulling us over was my friend's older brother, "He liked our resilience".
Presently, I ride my unlicensed Honda 70 all over the neighborhood at a reasonable speed with stock exhaust....the kids in the neighborhood wonder why I can drive past the cops and they always get pulled over. They don't realize, a 15 year old kid @ 50mph with a loud muffler on a quad isn't the same as a 60 year old guy on a quiet Honda mini bike.
I live in the same neighborhood I grew up in, as well as a bunch of my friends. The cop that patrols the area is my friend who's brother was pulling me over as a kid.
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A bunch of kids in my neighborhood had minis and we'd ride them all around. This was in the late 1960s. There were a couple of empty lots in the neighborhood to ride on, and some kids had big yards, but you still have to get there, right? The police were always watching. One of them, Deputy Eng, seemed to have it out for us. We were just sure that he hated all kids. Many years later I saw a notice in the newspaper saying that now-Detective Eng was retiring from a distinguished career, where he primarily fought to protect child abuse victims. I felt a little ashamed, and at the same time thankful for people like him. Beyond that, I didn't have to go to court over any of this until I was fourteen and got caught riding my motorcycle on the street.