Found this yesterday in a Canberra news forum I read on a regular basis.
Full thread and comments here http://the-riotact.com/?p=13637
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Whats this I see?
Two leather clad motorcycle cops, both of a more mature age, riding two brand new looking white Harley Davidson motorcycles sedately down Northbourne Avenue this week.
The bikes had blue and red lights and police signs on the panniers so they must be real police bikes and the riders were in police uniform. So whats happening here?
With the current interest in bikie gangs have the local coppers decided that the best way to catch a Harley Davidson riding bikie is to ride Harleys themselves? Has anyone else seen them around?
Maybe they are getting new bikes for those VIP escorts they do.
For mine, I don’t really care what sort of motorbikes they ride as long as they are doing their bit to keep our roads safe.
Just to add to my original post, I thought I would follow up the Harleys thing. Well this is what I found out. 1. ACT Police have an ongoing program of testing cars and motorcyles to establish what is best for their multitude of uses. Usually these vehicles are not marked up as police cars when they test them so the general public is not necessarily aware that the car or bike is being assessed. 2. Harley have provided two USA factory built police specials, one a Electra Glide and the other a Road King. These bikes come from the factory with most of the police add ons like flashing lights, sirens, crash bars, police signs, radio boxes etc as standard fittings for police use. They also come fitted with a larger and more powerful motor than standard (103 cubic inch which is about 1700cc), upgraded brakes/ABS, increased ground clearance, fly by wire technology, upgraded suspension and a air suspension seat. 3. Harley Davidson reckoned their bikes are as good as anything else available so they were asked to put up or shut ut. They supplied the two bikes for a month or so evidently and have to undergo a pretty intense evaluation process.
I was also told that the bikes have suprised a few of the coppers already as being much better than they thought they would be. Evidently they stop, turn and go much better than expected. I was also told that as a result of testing bikes last year that the coppers went from BMW to Yamahas with their road bikes and Suzuki to KTMs with their trail bikes. My mate said that they tested half a dozen different road bikes and about ten different trail bikes before they made their decision to buy what they did.
So thats the update.
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