so around university city in philly for evey bike cop there are 3 more dimwitted bike security guards

all out fitted with clunky full suspension mtbs

so im riding home tonight and i move to pass one of them who is chuggin along at a snail's pace

as i pass him he shouts at me "hey!"

thinking i did someting wrong i come to a stop and sorta trackstanded for a min while he caught up with me

"how do you ride with pedals like that? and....oooooo.....man you dont got no brakes!"

i almost began to explain to him when he decided to try to act real knowledgable about what he was talking about....."oh i see...its a racing bike with skinny tires"

about that point i decided it was time for me to take my leave....i looked back to see him try to start riding again....his seat post was all the way down and he was in the lowest gear he had, trying to get a start up the hill.....i watched long enough to see him lose his balance twice then rocketed away.....

awesome

You gotta try and spread the love. That guy probably, certainly does not ride a bike except for that job. With a little freindliness and cajoling you might make a true convert out of him. Besides it never hurts to have Judge Dredd on your side.

Here in the home of YOUR mall(Minnesota), the Mall of America, they have those bikecurity gaurds riding around the parking ramps all the time. That would be fun.

Dude, those bike cops in university city are crazy. They haul a$$ down the sidewalk when they're responding to a call. They're not even real cops. They have "direct radio contact" with the police. haha. Seriously, It may sound funny, but even if they had one of those kid handlebar mounted sirenes, it'd really help, becuase they're crazy. The guy at the bike church said he's been hit by one.

In related news, I met a kid in university city the other day who rode a like 4 foot tall unicylce, he said he owns like 5, including offroading ones. He was real cool, and we road around for a while. It was a real odd combination of machinery; a fixed gear and a giant unicylce. We got alot of wierd looks.

I watched them chasing three kids on BMX bikes once. The kids jumped about 8 steps at full speed, and the bike security stoppped at the top. Kind of not really believing what just happened. They turned around and lolly gagged their asses back up to Walnut.

I have yelled at more than one for riding out in a crosswalk (against the light) in front of me when I had the green light.

I do wish they would get bikes that fit properly.

Like Rev. Chuck said, spread the love. Tell them their company is providing ill fitting equipment for their jobs. You could help them get better fitting bikes and convince them to unionize!

I would imagine, being the union hot bed that Philly is, these guys are unionized. I spoke to one cop (real cop, not security) and he was pretty knowledgeable. Most of the real cops have well-fitting bikes, it is the security guards that are the real problem.

I've always wondered why they end up outfitted with mtbs, especially with knobbies... seems like nearly all their riding is on pavement... Last weekend at the LA Bike Expo Fun Ride, most were riding the typical police MTB outfit (knobbies and straight bars), but a few were actually riding road bikes .. from the looks, I imagine they were confiscated rides... anyway, always been curious...

During the summer i see the SFPD training their bike cops around SF State. There are sometimes 25-30 of them all in a straight line. They use SF state to train on stairs and urban area type challenges.

I watched them doing their training down a set of stairs and some of these poor guys really should not have been riding bikes.

I honestly think i would make the best bike cop if i ever became one

Man, we got BPD officers pulling worse stunts on their bikes. I have a friend who tries to right the wrong every time he sees one of them riding the wrong way against traffic. Has yet to meet any success but at least he's fighting the good fight.

I don't get the knobbies either. The mountain bikes make sense (maybe not FSR, but at least a suspension fork is useful) given that they're designed to be multi-terrain machines. On street, off street, over grass, etc. But at least give the poor bastards some slicks.

The cops in Saratoga Springs ride these

Ti?
It's like close to the end of Dumb and Dumber when the Aspen cops drop off Mr. Swanson in a Saab police car.

That bike is in our living room. Solid rubber tires and fixed as well. Even has stickers on the handlebars that say, "No Brakes."

some of the best bike cops i have seen have been in berkeley, they all seem to ride those pos but high priced police fitted bikes that their departments order...they carry stock them in police uniform/equipment supply warehouse type...like galls.....

https://www.galls.com/style.html?asso...og&style=LE614


i guess this takes that physical thing out of it....

in most cases i would have been excited to chat with the guy...but he wasnt er...all there....and i have never seen one of them hauling ass...it seems like they barely know how to ride

some of the real bike cops however are awesome

i think it would be fun to somehow get them to chase you, seeings as how their rides are much more inferior to a fixed city ride, it would almost be like running from a big fat kid, you could kinda jog for a while so that he thinks he has a shot, and then just drop the hammer and be out of there... seems like it could have it's thrills

except that big fat kid doesn't have the radio...thats what gets you caught in most pursuits..

Oh man, I have stories from University and bike cops...

One guy I knew worked the late shift in the student union, and would invariably get chased by the bike cops every night on his way home, ala Cru and the cop guy in RAD. He'd always bunnyhop the train tracks and be off, until they got smart and staked out his bike locked up outside.

Another guy chased a friend and me across campus on a drunken rampage down stairs, across gaps, and up gutbusting hills before we ducked off into a ditch and let him pass us. I later saw that bike cop chase down a motorcycle on campus, complete with flashing lights and siren. I was laughing the whole way home after seeing the look on that motorcycle rider's face.

We gave the bike cops a lot of hell, but I think they learned a lot from us in return. At least, they knew where to look for us, after a while.

the oakland bike units have reallllly sweet cannondales, supplied by cycle sport.

fuji makes a police bike, and i'm pretty sure trek makes one as well. raleigh however, does not.

I think that'd be awesome (except for all the hatin' that'd be thrown your way). Hired to roll around all day outside watching people? Sounds great. Don't know if I'd have it in my heart to drive off the skaters, though.

We'd bomb the ramps by my old house on boards, and we'd get chased by the rent-a-cops in their chevy cavaliers or whatever... How lame is that? They eventually increased their presence to a patrol every 15 minutes or so, so we had to get sneaky...like start out on the floor below, taunting 'em to chase. Or wait for 'em to fall asleep and roll past to wake 'em up. We figured that someone was gonna get hurt eventually, 'cause they'd do 35mph around the corners in their cars and were seriously angry. A few times we'd neglect to run recon and they'd charge at us from a lower level. I almost called their employer a couple of times to tell them about how reckless they were-- put the fear of "lawsuit" in their bones.

I think the job would be fun, riding around on your bike all day, but mostly in a kick back way. But i would never want be a cop.

We used to get chased around by the cops back when i was kid too (i think things were more kickback 10-15 years ago, just as they were more kick back before then. It seems that cops have gotten smarter or at least the force is policing more intelligently. They hated us, they would tell us "you little punks destroy society with your skateboards, creating eye sores from public structures." They would confiscate our boards, we would have to pay 50 bucks (just enough to make it worth not buying a new one) and go to court with our parents to get them back.

no one has even mentioned pacific blue yet. they run reruns of it here over in denmark and let me tell you, it's quite possibly the best hour of television.

bike cops that can shot from their bikes while riding, chase people on motorcycles, do trials style riding to get up/down walls to get the bad guy, someone ride up and over a pool table in an arcade and get some air at the end, launch off the pier into the sand and jump off their bike to land on a bad guy. oh yea, their bikes have spinergy wheels too.

imdb on pacific blue

One time, at Chicago CM, when I was with a group that got separated from the mass, this bike cop held a trackstand contest. Not only did he compete in the contest, he also paid the winner 5 bucks out of his own pocket. That guy was the coolest.

i actually haven't seen many competent bike cops or security guards in U city. I'm actually surprised more of them haven't been punched at the corner of 40th and spruce in an attempt to steal their bikes... i guess thats becuase it'd be too much to ask for them to get up the hill. Seriously though, dude got socked coming up that hill and guy tried to ride off with his bike! i feel like if the cops and security were better riders, they'd cover more territory and maybe prevent a crime or two.