Nice Trooper

[Anonymous]

So I'm riding along on my way to work (It's about 8:45 pm (I work nights)). I'm on the interstate doing about 75 mph (speed limit's 70 mph). I come over a little hill and a state trooper is pulled over on the right side of the road running radar with the rear of his car facing traffic. I don't know about anywhere else, but the troopers here have radar equipment both in the front and rear windshields.

I'm in the right lane and pass him, slightly loosening on the throttle, but not worrying about anything. The two cars in the passing lane pass me and the three cars directly behind me move over to let the trooper in where he proceeds to pull ME over.

I dismount and pull out my license and insurance info. He then tells me he clocked me going 89 mph. My jaw hit the concrete! I stammered a bit, then mentioned the cars in the passing lane, but he denies that the radar locked in on THEM and writes me a ticket.
After I sign the citation, I asked if he could tail me so I could check my speedo. He agrees and I find out that when my speedo says 61 mph (couldn't keep it right on 60), he's clocking 65mph.

I do plan on fighting the ticket, because I find it extremely hard to believe that his radar locked on my 2.5 foot wide motorcycle and not several other 6-7 foot wide cars in the passing lane and directly behind me. Not to mention that my bike (1980 GS750 L) is 24 years old, has a 5 speed transmission, and the speedo only goes to 85.

I did a few speed/rpm tests in 5th gear: 30mph = 2100 +/- 100, 60mph = 4400. I couldn't reach 90 (had a hard time getting to 80 because of the temperature)

What do you think? Has anyone had any experiences like this?

[Planecrazy]

Not exactly ... I just replaced the 140mph speedo on my '83 GS1100G with an 85mph unit ( ) from an 82 model, because for some strange reason the odometer was losing miles although the speedo appeared to be functioning correctly.

I went on the "Brown County, IN" ride with a bunch of Chicagoland riders, and every time we stopped my odo would only show about two thirds of the miles everyone else had. Very strange!

The "new" unit seems to be working correctly. Sorry to hear of your unfortunate experience!

Steve 8)

[Anonymous]

My speedo seems to be working perfectly. When going between 70 and 75, I am following the flow of traffic. The problem was the radar gun locking on a different vehicle than he thought.

[Planecrazy]

How can your speedo be working perfectly if the cop car says you're doing four or five over what the needle says? I'm not saying he's right about the 89 in a 70, but still ... it would seem that it's not working correctly, nevertheless. Oh, and FYI, cop cars are required to have "certified" speedos as far as I know, so if his says you were doing 65 and yours says 60/61, chances are that his is correct.

By the way, you probably already know this, but a broken speedo is NOT an acceptable defense in court, so unless there is some way you can prove that the cars in the passing lane were travelling significantly faster than you you're just wasting your time in court.

I've been burned before, myself, so I know how frustrating it is ... best thing to do is explain the circumstances, plead guilty and ask for supervision ... you won't get a permanent mark on your record if you're lucky.

Good Luck!
Steve 8)

[Joe Nardy]

Most motorcycle speedometers are not terribly correct. Part of this is by design to help keep you from getting tickets. But they are designed to read HIGHER than your actual speed. Most magazine tests include a 'speedometer error' in the specs.

I have had an experience like yours in a car. I turned a corner onto a busy four lane road and saw a large cargo van screaming up from behind me then slow considerably. I did not see the police car but just down the road a bit I got pulled over. I suspect the officer wasn't watching the road, looked up when his radar alert went off and saw me drive by. It was obvious pretty quickly that I was getting a ticket so I just accepted it and was nice and polite to Mr. Officer. Luckily I hadn't had a ticket in years and was able to take an online driving school, pay the fine, and have the ticket washed from my record.

I know I was not speeding at the time, much less 20 mph over the limit like the radar said. I have to believe that the radar picked up the van, even though it never passed me. Radar picks up the strongest signal returned to it which has to do with the reflective frontal area of the object. In my case the frontal area of the cargo van was much larger than my car so the radar picked up that signal even though I was closer to the radar. I think if you do some research into the theory of radar and present it in court you may have a good chance of getting out of the ticket. Take some pictures of the frontal area of your bike and of several cars, vans, trucks, etc. from the same distance. Ask the judge and officer if they can honestly say WITHOUT ANY REASONABLE DOUBT that the radar picked up the signal from the tiny frontal area presented by your motorcycle or if there is a possibility it was actually reading the signal from the much larger frontal area of a vehicle around you. This should prove 'reasonable doubt' and you should get off.

There are lots of good resources online. Here's one I found that may help:

Speed Trap

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Joe

[KennyJ]

Yo, Livewire...

Do a search for postings done by me...I had the same thing happen a couple of months ago. I went to the Prosecuters office and they reduced the ticket to a non-moving "no license on operator" ticket, instead of going to court. I paid the full fine, but shouldn't affect my insurance.

You can also request "deferment" where you pay $X and if you don't get a ticket in a year, it doesn't go on your record. Here in WA you can only use this once very 7 years, and it costs $100 (that you never get back).

Fighting them is pretty much a "lose-lose-lose" situation (lose money, lose time in court, lose more money on insurance).

Kenny

[MikeW665]

I've been burned before, myself, so I know how frustrating it is ... best thing to do is explain the circumstances, plead guilty and ask for supervision ... you won't get a permanent mark on your record if you're lucky.

Good Luck!
Steve 8)

They say there is no permanent record, but there actually is. On my last ticket they asked me when my previous ticket was to see if I was lying about it or not. Luckily I remembered the court date (which happened to be 11-05 but I don't remember the year). I asked my brother (the cop) about it and he said that they were testing me to see if I'd lie and say I didn't have any previous tickets. The thing is that they don't notify your insurance company so your rates don?t go up. The very first time I got a ticket the court clerk would let the judge know about all of the offender?s previous tickets. I?m standing up in front of the judge and the clerk kept going through three computer printouts looking for and tickets I might have had in the past. The clerk finally looked at the judge with this surprised look on her face and she said, ?He doesn?t have a record?. I was the only one in there that hadn?t had a bunch of tickets. The judge looked at me over his glasses and said ?Slow down??$35 dollar fine??..get out?. The judge was a scream too, he was busting on some woman saying stuff like ?Ma?am??.did you go to the James Bond School of driving??? He had the whole courtroom laughing.

[bwringer]

Kenny's advice is spot-on -- the "other guy" defense will get you laughed out of court.

Resign yourself to paying the money or even more to the court, but do everything you can to avoid going to court and especially avoid getting that moving violation on your record. The pain of paying the fine is nothing compared to tripled insurance rates.

[Anonymous]

I've had two other tickets, and I will readily admit that I was in the wrong on those. But this time I really wasn't the one doing 89. Ironically. if this one goes on my record, I believe I will lose my license.
I found a lawyer to help me. I know it will cost me, but whatever the cost, it will be less than insurance hikes and a revoked license. He was referred to me by a guy I work with. My court date is Dec. 10th.

[Poot]

alright.....if you go to court, you must make sure to make clear that you were being passed by other cars , travelling at greater speeds. Not only this, you should say that they were travelling beside you, making it difficult/impossible to reach a completely conclusive decision of speed.




im drunk.

[jimcor]

Livewire, shame about the ticket. Even more of a shame you've got to get an attorney to represent you (bye bye big bucks). Should hang on to your license tho', the sharks know the tricks. If you go to court by yourself and it ends up being a your story vs officer's story situation...you lose, automatically.


Poot, you're a hoot! How's that 850 comin' along?

[Anonymous]

Fight the ticket

I had something like this happen to me several years ago. I was vacationing in California, I lived in WV at the time. I was on a Harley FLHS and was following a truck up a hill at about 40 or 45, the speed limit was 55. There were several cars behind me. When we got to a passing lane, which wasn't very long, I passed the truck and as soon as I was around him I signaled and pulled back over to the right in front of the truck and let the cars behind me go on around. About that time I noticed that the car coming toward me was a CHP. I glanced down at the speedo and I was right on 55 so I wasn't too worried, especially since the cars that had just passed me were obviously going at least 70 or 75. Well, the cop turned around and pulled me over and gave me a ticket for going 65. He made no secret of the fact that he just flat did not like motorcycles or motorcyclists in general and me particularly. It got pretty ugly and at one point he threatened to arrest me and take me straight to jail. I went home to West Virginia and asked for a "trial by declaration" I think it was called. What it amounted to was a trial by mail where I wrote in my testimony and sent it to the court. I presented my version of events, emphasizing that at the time he was radaring me I was being passed by other traffic. I also made sure to mention his anti motorcyclist attitude. I was found not guilty.

It is worth a try.

[Anonymous]

Well, court was yesterday.
I lost.

[WesV]

Sorry to hear that, insurance is gonna hurt now!

[bradleymaynar]

That stinks man! You didn't lose your license did you? In IL it takes atleast 4 moving violations to have your license suspended.

Brad tt