I got stopped once on a downhill, and my cop was overweight too. Also a verbal warning.

FYI.I'm a cop and I'm neither stupid or fat! Next time your house gets broken into or your laying on the street pouring blood out call a exterminator or garbage collector

Amen to rthomse. The police around here have pulled a car over that passed me in a double yellow center strip zone, have pulled cars over that stayed in the right hand lane when they passed me, and when they have crossed the center line headed towards me. I am very grateful for that. Very aggressive, properly so, with speeders, too.

Location - N. 16th /Brinn road in Murray. It's a rural tertiary that runs out of the built up area to an elementary school about 3 miles out and continues out into the county. It has a posted limit for it's entire length of 35mph, because of the school zone. It is heavily patrolled as a result of the school traffic. I bike on it during heavy traffic hours especially for whatever advantage in safety a 35mph rural speed limit provides v. the standard 55mph on narrow shoulderless two lane. If I wanted to try to exceed 35 on my bike (in my dreams), there's a decent hill a few miles further out not too much unlike the one the OP referred to in Nashville, but with a 55mph speedlimit.

They also, as part of a house watch program, will do walk arounds of my home (anyones) several times a day when our family is absent on a trip simply by my request. I am also grateful for that.

For my part, I know and respect the local police force and have had them and their families in my classes over the years.

Sincerely,

Bill

not dissing all cops here man...i appreciate them most of the time...but this guy was clearly looking for something to do. Oh and I've had my house broken into...the cops tried to blame it on my little brother because his fingerprints were on a door knob....well duh...he lives here...I'm sorry but i'm from a town that cops are power hungry and pick on the youth. We have a cop that puts a smile face sticker with a line through it (similiar to a no smoking sticker) on his cruiser window every time he arrests a teenager. His life work is solely to harass teenagers. So although I respect most cops there are the select few who are just on a power trip

He pulled over a cyclist who was admittedly speeding and only gave him a verbal warning. He wasn't trying to make an example of cyclists who are speeding. Regardless of this guy's physique, he was a police officer doing his job.

I don't dispute that there are power hungry officers out there, but just b/c this guy gave a verbal warning to someone who was speeding doesn't make him power hungry or stupid.

Shoot back in the day had a good job the 186 dolor ticket wqould have been worth it for the proof of my speeds lol.

The day I picked up my first roadie last May, I got pulled over by an officer for running a red light. I probably referred to him in every negative way for about a month afterwards. Then after seeing the stupid stuff people do on bikes in a college town, I realized he's just enforcing the law as bikes are considered vehicles.

Likly cause its very hard to get a accurate reading of speed off a bike. Its easyer witth old style radar guns the lazer ones tend to hit things lieke spokes or pedals

Hit the center of a rim and speed could be in the hundreds. Least thats what the cops told me. I can sort of see the reasoning. But am unsure of the physics.

I think you mean the outside of the rim b/c the spokes towards the rim have a much higher tangential velocity than the spokes near the hub. I think the officer means that if the laser beam hits the spokes near the outside of the rim, the velocity could be artificially high because that spoke is translating at your current velocity, but it's also rotating. So you would add the tangential velocity of the spoke to the translating velocity of the bike to yield a velocity that is artificially high. This is my interpretation of that, but perhaps I'm wrong.

I am sorry, but "possibly a pedestrian" isn't an issue to you???? I'll bet it would be an issue if it were "possibly another cyclist" because in this forum a cyclist is worth 10.6 times as much as a non-cyclist or a cyclist not currently on his/her bike... But, that is not my main point.

While I sympathize with your position that a cyclist is likely to do less direct damage, a cyclist going too fast could cause a situation where a car driver being shocked at being hit by a bike causes an accident with damage that would normally be beyond the scope of a cycle, then what? Is this the car driver's fault if everything was done right by that driver except what was initiated by the cyclist?

The laws are written to be followed by everyone... Have you ever heard someone claim that they are safer at 20 miles over the limit than most people at the speed limit? If you make an exception for bicycles, then you need to make exceptions for others who can demonstrate an ability to go faster without negatively impacting safety. I don't want to be on a road, whether in a car or on a bike, where people are allowed to drive at whatever speed they can claim to be safe at... Whether they are on a bicycle or in an exotic Italian sports car, they need to follow the same rules in order for the roads to be relatively safe.

BTW - Congrats on the 41 MPH! :D

How do they enforce speed limits without mandating bike speedometers?

I can see how how pointing a laser gun at the top of a wheel could double the speed (or pointing at the bottom could neutralize it), but I don't see how you could get speeds of hundreds of MPH unless you were going above 50 MPH.

You should have told him you thought he was trying to race you to the closest donut store. I am sure you would have gotten something in writing then.:D

For all of you who say "Didn't he have something better to do?"...remember that cops are out there looking for "targets of opportunity". The OP happened to be breaking the law, the cop was there and there was no other more egregious infraction taking place at that moment that required his attention.

The final leg of most of the rides from my house take me past a school zone for the nearby high school. When the zone lights are flashing it's 20 mph. It's downhill and easy to do 30 on my bike but I coast (and sometimes brake) to keep it at 20. And before you think this is a complete "holier than thou" posting, I WAS given a warning by my local cop for jumping early on a light change. I was about 1/4 of the way through the intersection when it turned green. No...I didn't frame it...I threw it away. Now I just sit there and wait for it to turn.

They have these light pole-mounted solar-powered radar boxes around my city here in So-Cal that will display your speed. The other day I was riding on a short downhill towards one of these boxes, with a 40mph posted speed limit.

I sprinted down hill with everything I had and finally tripped the device when I was practically on top of it. My speed? 45mph! (Corroborated by my computer) Woohoo! I wish I could snap a picture and sprint at the same time!

a pedestrian is an issue to me and if i had been in an area that pedestrians frequent I would have been going much slower...but this loop is purely traffic and the occasional jogger who is going the opposite direction then me in the left lane. If I had been in a more pedestrian heavy environment running into one would be an issue....however I was in a pedestrian lacking environment and I was going as fast as possible...

So cops should only enforce laws in pedistrian-heavy areas? What if your speeding caused a car to swerve out of control and hit a telephone pole?

My only point is that from the facts you presented, the officer was justified in giving you a verbal warning.

But congrats on the speed, that's something to be proud of :)

I would say he is a half jerk, He did let you off.
God job with the speed

Some of you folks are criticizing a cop for enforcing traffic laws? Jeez, that's rich.

No kidding, that would have made for a funny story in traffic school. Or better yet, fight it and go before the judge. Can you imagine the look on the judge's face when you tell him you were on a bicycle? Unless, of course, the judge is as big a hard-on as that idiot cop was...:rolleyes:

Hehehe, I've hit 48mph going downhill in a 45mph zone but cars were still passing me...Speed limits are merely a general guideline here in SoCal it seems.

Yea, I don't think anyone is really upset that he got pulled over for speeding. He was clearly breaking the law. I would gladly pay the tick just to be able to frame the sucker! But, the cop can still be a jerk, even if he let him off. The way he swerved into the guy on the bikes path after pacing him... and attitude after he pulled him over is what makes the guy a nobjob... not the fact he pulled him over for breaking the law. I think it's totally stupid for a cop to be able to break the law (speeding, while pacing a freakin' bike) to enable them to document your speed and then pull you over. Him speeding and then cutting the bike off was a FAR greater saftey concern than the bike going over the speed limit for sure.

In my area cars aren't "generally" stoped for speeding (on non ped x-ing areas) for a mere 6 miles over the posted limit. Although this officer was performing his job by the book- his target-choice, imo, was poor.
Although, the officer may thought that you were going to hold that 41mph speed indefinately! lol

That would be a high speed chase!

Sorry, pulling over a cyclist - going DOWNHILL - for going 9mph over the speed limit is STUPID.

Give me a break. We're ARGUING about this?

Not all cops are dopes. But SOME are. I know. I've MET them. Thank God they're like 1% of the police population. Because the other 99% are professional, courteous and in possession of COMMON SENSE. And when they're not, 90% of the prosecuting attorneys are. So your chances of running into a bonehead cop combined with a dickhead prosecutor are like 1 in 500. But it happens nonetheless. Very rarely of course. Thankfully.

I'm sure I'll get a summons for indecent exposure while speeding on the local bike path some day : ). Can't wait to fight THAT court battle.

For 186 bucks I could make you a very convincing looking ticket to frame. ;)