I'm changing my posting name...

.... to "Plodmagnet" or "Lucky", you decide.

Got stopped today on the M3 a smidge after J2 heading south. Passed the
plodmobile just after J1; me and a handful of cars spied him in a tacky
paint-jobbed Volvo T5 stopped on the hard shoulder.

All of us moderated our speed a tad and I knocked it up into sixth from
3rd.

Cruising onward, the speed crept up a tad (nothing silly) and I was just
backing off to give room to a car that had pulled out to overtake another
when I did a mirror check and there was our friend looming large,
everything flashing.

Arse.

"Morning, officer." I offered, cheerily.

"You were going a bit, weren't you?" he says.

"Er, well, just keeping up with the flow, really." says I, genuinely. I
mean, if I'd been on one then I'd have been in Hampshire by the time
they'd caught up.
;-)

"We had to really go some to catch you up, you know."

"Umm, er, sorry.".

"Where are you going, then?" he asks.

"Work." I say, "In Reading."

A raised eyebrow.

"Scenic route." say I, smiling. I just wasn't in the mood for the
twistier, more entertaining journey I usually take when going to our
Reading office, this moning.

"Yeah, the M4's a pain in the bum at the momentm what with all the road
works and that." I add.

He nods a nod of acknowledgment and understanding.

Anyhoo, after a brief explanation of the stop, the nice Surrey TrafPol
officer (no, not /him/) fined me £30 for a non-conforming number-plate.

On the upside, whilst his bearded colleague did comment on it, they didn't
do me for the Muzzy pipe.

Nor did they do me for the iridium visor.

Or the expired tax disc.

Not even a producer or a VDRF (or whatever it's called).

So, I'm going to get me a (fairly) legal plate, this weekend.

What impressed (or shocked) me was that the bearded one, after mentioning
that the pipe, whilst he couldn't see a "Not for road use" or a kite-mark
on it[1][2], was when he asked when the insurance was due for renewal.

I told him that it had just been renewed on Saturday to which he replied:
"Ah, well that might explain why it's showing as expired on the system,
then."

=8-o

Technology, eh? Anyhoo, 28 days to pay the thirty quid; not sure how
quickly I should get the plate changed; presumably within the same 28
days...?

[1] possibly due to a) there not being any such markings and b) 'cause the
bike is currently /absolutely/ minging 'cause of the building work going
on in our driveway having covered it with shit and me with a shortage of
circular tuits preventing me from washing it. [2] "That, I suspect, is not
what Mr.Kawasaki originally fitted to the machine, is it, sir?" [peers
down end can] "Mmm, it appears to be, ahem, 'straight through'."

 

Sounds like bullshit

 

The Older Gentleman :

ANPR won't be wired into the insurance database until next year, but I
wouldn't have thought that would stop the police having access generally.

 

I reckon so... I worked on an insurance system last year and although
it's all a bit hazy now every policy they generated automatically got
logged into several databases along those lines some internal, certainly
one national (which was some legal mandatory thing), and one of which
ISTR being EU wide rather than simply national, but I may be imagining
that part... if it doesn't exist yet, one day it will.

 

Before the same pair of Plod spot you again, I would respectfully
suggest. Just to show willing, like.

 

Yep - bullshit. Exactly the same happened to me a few months ago. Pulled
over in London for a bus lane infraction and missing tax disk (in my wallet
though). While the first plod is giving me the run-down, the second plod
comes back from the car and mentions very casually that I the system shows
I'm not insured. I go "What??" - because I've got about 6 months left to go
on the policy. They don't seem at all interested in quizzing me about that
though.

Hmmm.

JJ

 

dwb fascinated us all by saying...

My ZZR's fully legal too.

--
Lozzo
'95 Kawasaki ZZR1100D, '97 Kawasaki GPZ500S, '83 Honda CB250RS
Big Zed Little Zed Dead shed
New to ukrm? : www.ukrm.net/faq/ukrmscbt.html
"He's not big and he's not called Tony"

 

Oh, FFS, the police *can't* "do" you for an expired tax disc - all
they can do is report it to the DVLA.

well, duh.

 

You sure? I thought that the pink & purple combo was a serious
offence ;-)

 

So what happens if it's expired, but a new one is under the seat but you
can't put it on because the cheapo tax disc holder has rusted solid?

 

Wizard fascinated us all by saying...

On my old XS250 rat-bike the tax disc was tucked under the bottom yoke on
the left side of the bike and hard to read whilst wearing a policeman's
or traffic warden's hat. They had to take their helmet or hat off to get
close enough to read it, which also meant *just* brushing their head
against the front mudguard because of the angle of the holder. Said
mudguard had a generous coating of the shittiest, stickiest grease on it
that I could find, which always managed to find it's way into the tax-
disc viewer's lovely clean hat via their hair.

--
Lozzo
'95 Kawasaki ZZR1100D, '97 Kawasaki GPZ500S, '83 Honda CB250RS
Big Zed Little Zed Dead shed
New to ukrm? : www.ukrm.net/faq/ukrmscbt.html
"He's not big and he's not called Tony"

 

They are? Any references?

 

Saw you ! Joined at J1, slowed down in a hurry when I saw him, 2 minutes
later he zooms past me at 100+, lights off. Hmm I thought, wonder what
they've seen...

They did seem very determined to catch up with you.

 

The thing about Wik.. is that I reckon he'd get pulled on anything.. he's
just got an air about him

 

Nope - shows up when you do a PNC check on a vehicle. Includes dates
of expiry, policy holder and named drivers

 

The insurance database is now part of PNC so it shows on every PNC
check.

 

Nope - not bullshit

 

VEL expired doesnt show until its 3 months out of date

No its not - its Surrey. There isnt a flag for no- insurance as such.
With Wik it would show the insurance details and the fact that it had
just expired. They dont mention the date it expired to Wik but he gets
the renewal date correct. (the data is usually about 10 days out of
date as it takes a while for the details to be added). They wouldnt
waste their time doing anymore

 

Havent heard of any changes - especially since the last one was only
in 2002 when it specified that it must be displayed on the nearside of
the machine in front of the riders position (reg 6)

 

Be careful along that stretch - its a classic place to do vascar speed
checks.