Met bike choice

Mostly, I've seen Metropolitan Police bikers on BMW R1150RTs or Pan
Europeans. I've seen a couple of pseudo-trail bikes too.

But I've just seen a Police-liveried R1150R - sort of an odd choice,
if you ask me.

Had the usual flouro-clad fat fucker on board, mind.

 

Interesting - the police in NI have a few F650s.

OK, I can see why they'd do this - not just from a sales POV, but from
a marketing one too.

I guess so - it just looked very odd to see a naked bike with the
blue-light-onna-stick on the back.

 

Haven't BMW produced a bike based on the 1150GS specifically for plods to
use. IIRC, they've even given it a cuntish name like "Authority" or
"Enforcer". Summat fucking daft anyway.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

I'm intrigued by the fact that no mention of speed was made wrt this crash.
If it'd been anyone but plod, there's no question that speed would've been a
contributing factor, particularly if a bike's involved. Also, as it was a
"training" run, it couldn't possible be that the rider wasn't up to snuff
could it? Oh no.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

The "Metvest 2" ballistic and stab resistant body armour must add
around six inches to the wearer's perceived waist girth, so he probably
wasn't quite as portly as he looked.

 

HTH

Paul.

 

One that missed the chippy ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/4984944.stm

P.

 

Sounds like the old Norton Commando 'Interstate'.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

'Interpol', YTC.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

I was allowing for that.

 

"> Mostly, I've seen Metropolitan Police bikers on BMW R1150RTs or Pan

R1150R's are used by the Special Escort Group for escorting duties,
apparently lack of fairing assists with low speed work?

They have been buying R1150RTs for a while now, something to do with Honda
insisting that properly trained bike mechanics work on the Pan's for the
warranty to be valid.

They also have quite a few F650s mainly for policing the bus routes and
Suzuki DZ400 or something for proper off road work.

I object to your comments about usual flouro clad fat fucker on board, as a
serving member of said force for only 18 years I have only managed to put on
6 stone since then.. oh wait a moment... doh

 

Erm, no, they don't use unfaired anythings. They use faired bikes,
just not liveried in the normal way. The unfaired bikes are usually
R850's. Not as easy to use at slow speed due to the steering damper
making it that bit harder to fling from lock to lock. Used mainly in
week 1 of the Hendon Bike course (easier to pick up off the floor),
and a couple at each Traffic Garage for the, how shall I put it,
vertically challenged and wimpier rider. Not often taken out on patrol
by the Rats. More often than not used by an office bound wallah who
hasn't ridden in anger for a fair while. Easier to pull upright if it
starts to go.

Not quite. Honda insisted on Honda doing the servicing. The Met do,
shockingly, use properly trained bike mechanics already. Also due to
the Met's finance people wanting to go over to a single marque fleet.

Very, very few officers are authorised for the off road stuff, in fact
the vast majority of the Suzukis are at the Driving School for use at
Aldershot Army base for the "Loose Surface Appreciation" element of
the bike course. The F650's are authorised for use in parks etc on
the pathways, but not as off road things. (wrong tyres)

Hmm, after 22yrs l still sport a quite trim 30" waist, ta very much,
and yet manage to look like michelin man in the full kit. Scott
jacket with compulsory back protection in, the MW Leathers and MetVest
mean that my equipment belt has to be set at 38 flamin' inches. Not
to say we don't have some reet fat buggers, mind. Then again, look
on the positive side, with the increased surface area of flouro on
the, erm, more portly plod, we don't half give people a chance to spot
us before they do something completely daft!

As an aside, not that I'm sure anyone's "bovvered", but I've been away
sunning meself for a couple of weeks, and am trying to catch up on
that Speed Camera Van thread. Soon as I have I'll try to get round to
answering a few of the ponderings of the posters re the mysterious
workings of said vans and gatso's etc.

 

So refreshing to have a post from someone who isn't a cynical
bastard... ;-)

August 12/13th @ Shipdam, Thetford, Norfolk... 10th annual autogyro
show and fly-in... Interested? See
http://www.tonywilk.co.uk/bra/events/index.htm

I know its not choppers but wtf it should be good and possibly
affordable...

 

I might have to be a little careful here, apparently the former contractors
for the majority of Met Police Vehicle repairs/servicing (their contract
ended on 28/4/06) didn't have the best reputation for their standards of
workmanship. I don't think the issue was not taking them to a Honda dealer
or even having mechanics go on a Honda course, just that the previous
contractors were crap, whereas BMW don't seem to care. Or that's the story
according to a friend who is a traffic officer.

 

For Cars, yes, the contractors were dire. For bikes they were
actually quite good, barring the whole wrong tyres incident of a
couple of months ago. (They fitted entirely the wrong spec tyres to
nigh on the whole damned fleet). In fairness to the bike mechanics,
though, the tyres were fitted by yet another sub contractor.

 

Not just him. Nearly all the supervisors' bikes are Pans even now.
The constables can't use any supervisor's bike unless something
drastic has taken the PC's fleet down. Nearly every Rat sergeant has
their own favoured bike, and woe betide anyone who messes with it!

 

Never let it be said.

I'll check it out (man).

Get thee to the 3D Masters comp Owen, if you want to see the worlds best R/C
Heli-ists in the whole wide world. And an English kid is top of the tree.

http://www.3dmasters.org.uk/




--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

This a new bike (apparently). Seen in one of this years bike rags.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

This is the machine in question

http://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/etc/utils.jsp?t=news&idx=1&newscat=models

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Rattie

"Furthermore, in the factor in Berlin there is a special assembly line
which ensures that all BMW Motorrad's renowned quality controls also
apply to these motorcycles."

Oh dear...

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha GTS1000