It's the Cops!!!

[mudguard]

How many of us has a story about being spotted or chased by the cops, riding illegally in our younger years? Getting from home to the bush via some back roads, or in a quarry or just riding through the bush? What was the outcome?

In my youth I lived in the Newcastle area, and when my mates arranged for a ride we would push our unregistered bikes along the streets to another mates place, as we all lived within several streets of each other. From there we could get to the bush via 4 to 5 streets. One day my mate wanted to swap rides, he had a DT100 and I had a YZ80E. He did mention that when the DT got hot it would loose power, and could only get to about 20kph. Well off we went, all 4 of us and around the 2nd corner was a COP car. Shit we took off, only 2 more streets until the bush, but the DT had second thoughts. I had to take plan B as my mates were dissappearing fast in front of me with cop car on my ass. I took the next left, as the cop car went straight ahead after my mates. I parked the piece of shit DT beside someones garage and stayed there thinking plan B had paid off. This location I chose was visable from the street with no front fence and 2 minutes later the cops were cruising the street. The blue DT stood out against the white wall of the garage and the boys in blue had me with a traffic fine in no time. My mates all made it to the scrub and had a big laugh. Moral of the story, dont lend your bike if the one you get is inferior. 

[lukeb1961]

How many of us has a story about being spotted or chased by the cops, riding illegally in our younger years? Getting from home to the bush via some back roads, or in a quarry or just riding through the bush? What was the outcome?

unlicensed, uninsured, drive manner dangerous. A reasonably hefty fine and 3 years loss of license. But apart from that - it gave new interest to other forms of ahh.. excitement.  Some of it rather sillier and more dangerous 

[TT]

 

This should be fun.............

I remember having one of the best days trail riding in a National Park with a bunch of blokes in Victoria 30 odd years ago.
That was until we were cornered by a park ranger..........   Blokes and bikes went in all directions around the 4x4 that was sideways across the track in a pathetic attempt to block our excape. Before we set off in the morning, we'd agreed that if the worst happens,  that we would meet at the border in the belief that the rangers couldn't nab us interstate. And so it passed...........
All but one of us made to the agreed meeting point, so we sat and waited for a while, chatting, relaxing and making up stories about how fast we were that day. Then, in the distance, we could hear the sound of the missing rider on his IT175 finally catching up with us. Cool! We all got out!  
What we didn't count on was that when the WFO IT appeared over the rise, there was the ranger's 4X4 about 20 feet off his rear guard!!  
It was about then that I considered that my choice of a borrowed XL250 Motorsport as the mount for the day, may not have been my best option.  
Despite losing one half of a perfectly good pair of gloves in the frantic attempt to get away, it was still a great day's riding and one I'll always remember.  

[trailietrash]

Grrrr .. 

Lots of stories, a very few in which I got away and far more in which I was set up or implied to be doing what I was not....

Grrrr .. 

[Nathan S]

I've only got a handful of stories - I wasn't one for testing the limits of the law:
1. Out at the 'three sisters' in the northern suburbs of Wollongong. Usual motley assortment of old dog-box bikes ridden by spotty yoof. Cops turned up and we all scattered. Goddam the ride home was beserk - I was such a boy-scout back then and the adrenaline was really pumping.
2. Deciding to ride my DT250 to a mate's place a few kays away through the 'burbs. Got about a kay from home, and was glared at by this guy washing his car. I remembered he was a copper but figured that I had nothing to worry about. About 100m later, the frikken under-sized petrol tap starved the bike for fuel and the bike stopped. PANIC! Kicked frantically for a minute or two, then rode the thing home, locked it in the shed and rode away on my pushy as fast as I could.
3. Got caught on water board land as a young adult - it was a genuine mistake (rego'd bike, licence, etc), but because I'd been caught a year or two earlier on the MTB, I gave a false name and dodged the possible $10k fine... Felt a bit stupid sitting on my bike talknig to the guy and just telling him all sorts of lies (no I don't have ID with me, my name is Fred Blogs, the bike belongs to my housemate, etc).

Got a couple of other stories of being hassled when riding legally (inc one time where I was riding one of two rego'd bikes in a public area, among dozens of MXers, and I was he only one to get pulled over - the cops were cool about it, but it still bewilders me), and other times being deliberately ignored when we were doing the wrong thing, but those stories aren't as much fun.

[trailietrash]

Where my trouble with the law began was on one fine day riding my Deltek Rockhopper at the age of 12yo in the grounds of the North Ryde Psychiatric Centre. Which, I believe, is now called the Macquarie hospital as Macquarie is a much more fashionable name than North Ryde. Anyway.... I was tooting along on the old minibike when a couple of men in blue raced across the grass in a car, with sirens blaring, and somehow managed to grab the attention of my 12yo mind away from riding my bike which led me to stop.
Their threats of confiscating my bike did'nt add to a pleasant conversation and without my Dad being sitting in our old HR holden on the side of the road to watch over me and intervene, that may have been my last ride of the Rocky outside of the backyard.....
But in a few more  years, I got a licence and a 125cc Suzuki
WooHoo .... The stories begin...

[Mike52]

Remember when reading this that I was a Kid when this happened. Have grown up now . Sorta.
Used to get my summonses in bunches of 5. [ No reg , no helmet, no lights, failing to indicate and speeding or noise or whatever the cop felt like]
Kept them for years as a momento.
Still got some hidden away.
Best escape was Me riding my mates 450 Ducatti scrambler with him on the back.
Was all legal for once but when the cops spied us and started to give some attention I decided to RUN.
Ended up in a dead end road. Saw a open garage, slipped in, pulled the door shut and escaped.
Mate never let me ride any of his bikes again.
Was pulled up 6 times in 2 weeks at Redcliffe on a IT 125 and never got a ticket. Fun times.

[monaro308]

Mine started out on my PE175.
I lived around the corner of Heatherton rd and Princess Hwy Dandenong.
People familiar with the area would know this pocket of land nestled smack bang in the middle of suburbia.
It was a meeting place for a few bikes.When i bought my bike i thought it would be ok to ride this bit of land as "everyone" rides bikes there,so it should be ok
My PE was registered an i was licensed and i even rang the cops asking about the land...and got a 10 second spiel from a female cop about crown land,private property etc....so i answered,can i ride there?Eager to get a ride during the week it would be quiet and met a couple of dudes on an XR and an IT.
This land was very open with this huge hill to ride up and down and chill out and "shoot the breeze" with others with a great view of the 2 main rds to keep an eye for cops.This spot had many ways to escape into the streets.This day we were sitting at the top and noticed a cop bike pull up near the corner of the 2 main rds keeping an eye on us....hmm we thought it was time to bolt and off we went and i chose the usual exit...a vacant block between 2 houses onto the backstreets.....piece of piss to escape and ride home.
Bastards set up another cop bike on that exit and I got caught and explained my situation and great info given to me by one of their lovely f!@king female comrades.
Checked my rego and license and told me....see you in court.
Went to court and explained to the judge all the wonderful advice i had received from said police and there was nothing to say that i couldn't ride there and ended up $50.00 poorer....and the weisel cop didn't even turn up
One week later the usual "Riding of minibikes etc,etc," was erected on each entrance......that made me feel better
That corner bit of land is now the 3 tier rd,hwy,tollway known as Eastlink
After losing my riding spot i decided to do the right thing and ride somewhere else safe for the next few years.......the police paddocks....on stud rd rowville
Never got caught there     

[bigk]

Happened just now! I've told the workshop guys a million times not to test un-registered bikes out the front of the shop, but they won't listen. 1982 YZ490, no muffler doing a test run on a public road without a helmet. The TOG pull in behind him lights flashing. Of course I get a stearn talking to and threats of hefty fines as the employer, even though they are told not to do it. He got off lightly with an un-registered bike fine.
K

[oldskool]

a mate of mine's parents had gone on holiday and his father had left the keys to his ag175 at home.so we decided a ride would be good so we decided to ride out to llandilo forest.some streets but mostly through the bush from whalan got out there fine had as good a day you could have on a ag175 :Don the way home came out of some bush onto luxford rd at lethbridge park did a little jump crossing the medium strip wright in front of a cop car.the chase was on it lasted about 30 seconds till they got up beside us and pushed us in to the gutter.they asked a few questions took the keys to the bike and my mate who was riding the bike and told me to push it home.about 10 min later they showed back up got my mate back out of the car and told him to push.they kept the keys and followed us all the way home.my mate told them his parents were home and he had permission to use the bike,halfway back he changed his mind.coppers came to see his parents a couple of weeks later no fine they thought pushing the bike for around 7-8k's was enough punishment.

[vandy010]

never really had much trouble with cops in the bush, had my share on the road when i was younger but my favourite was while attending Bathurst car races in 86'.
a mate and i took along a Suzuki A100 as a pit bike to get around the camping grounds.
lights, blinkers, carry rack, centre stand
we never rode like idiots, wore helmets and 9 times out of 10 were'nt exactly sober.
one morning before the on track car action began, we were cruisin the camp grounds on the little Zook, me riding and said mate on the back when my mate noticed some cops in a car heading our way.
with a few zig~zags here and there around the camp ground road network, some guy we didn't even know opened up his tent and motioned for us to ride straight in which we did .
after putting down the centre stand next to this guys sleeping bag we joined him at the open fire he had going out front.
the cops cruised past looking quite bewildered and drove on.
ahhh, Bathurst, had some fun there.......

[TT]

The only time I ever got invited into someone's tent at Bathurst was by some seriously tattooed, Goth chick............... 
I should have been in trouble with the cops after that one! 

[NR555]

I can remember one very funny incident out in Berwick (before it became a sprawling metropolis) where the cops decided to chase us (on an RM80, YZ80, XR200, CR125 respectively) across some empty land in their divvy van.  Divvy van got bogged.  Why they thought their vehicle could cross this boggy ground with obvious ruts and bogholes is beyond me.

We had enough time to stop, get off our bikes, do some monkey impressions, abuse them and take off.     This piece of land is where the Timbarra estate is now.

We actually had another great piece of land nearer to our house on the other side of Berwick, we had doubles, tabletops, berms, the lot.  The cops turned a blind eye to it as it was miles from nowhere on yet-to-be-developed land.  I think they realised how many kids it was keeping entertained, not only by riding it, but by constructing the track entirely by hand.  We were too buggered to go out & cause trouble elsewhere.  It wasn't until a few years later when we'd long abandoned the track that my youngest sister actually got charged for riding there.  My mum decided to take her somewhere quiet to learn to ride, and some useless SOB learner burner cop spotted them and decided to throw the book at my 12 year old sister.    What a hero.  Needless to say mum was furious, especially after campaigning hard to council for a new venue after the Hallam track was shut down.

[Tossa]

Now I was "the cops"  Back in 75 the bikies here decided they would have a run and it got very messy.  We surrounded about 100 bikies at a service station and start having little chats.  i happened to speak with a young gentleman, who gave me a name and address, told him that wasn't his nam and even told him what his name was, but he didn't budge.  pity, I threw him straight in the van  When I got to speak later he asked how I knew who he was, we race mx against each other was my reply.  Stolen bike, stolen plates, stole the 100 mile peg, false name, false address, violating parole.  Pity he was a brilliant young rider, just pushed to far by his dad

[retrowrex]

Back some time in 1980 I was visiting a friend who sort of lived on the fringe of the forestry.  When I left, I rode the trusty old XL185 from his drive way which emerged from their property which was fully treed.  Just as I emerged I spotted a new falcon and a kid in the passenger side of the car pointing towards me or the property.  I knew the kid to be about a year older then me from school and thought he must have been a family friend of the people I was visiting.  So I duscked out onto the unsealed road and headed off home at normal speed (flat out).  The unsealed road went for about 5 ks, i ducked across a bitumen road onto private property and down across a soccer field, across another road and long the edge of the my road across my road and half way through the gate when the same falcon pulled up out front, after dropping speed back rather quickly. The kid turned out to have had a PE 175 stolen the week before and was on a ride along  trying to spot it in the forestry.

A couple years later we were riding in the neigbours MX track when a mate crashed his RM250 on a just and busted his collar bone pretty bad.  I jumped onto the nearest and quickest bike for a mercy dash to grab the local GP  The nearest bike happened to be a YZ250H.  Rode the couple of ks to the Drs, grabbed him in a panic and headed back to the property to guide him to the fallen comrade. Looking down a side road on the way back I noticed another mate getting some attention on his bike from the local police.  I was still waiting for the doctor at the roadside when the squad car pulled along beside.  I guided the doctor to the carnage and got off with a stern warning.  The kind police officers did drive up and check on my mate, or was it just my story before giving that warning though.

With liability these days those types of warnings will be far and few between.  Retro