Anyone ride with bandanas?
 

I left a party tonight at 3:30am and was riding my usual route back home. The temperature dropped so i took out my red bandana from my bag and tied it around my face, covering my nose and mouth. On my ride home I passed a pakred cop car that immediately tailed me and flashed me down to stop. The officer driving told me to dismount the bike while the other cop pointed his flashlight at me. They began to ask if i was armed, intended to commit a crime, or affiliated with a gang. I told them "politely" that I was going home and hadn't done anything wrong, yet they insisted that because I had a bandana on I was dealing with trouble. I gave them my ID, they checked me out and let me go, but seriously, ****!!! That got under my skin so bad...whenever the weather gets cold here I ride with a bandana to avoid breathing cold air. This ain't LA, and I'm sure as **** not a Blood. Anyone else ever come across this kind of harassment?

Yeah, but then as soon as they believe me and go to leave I BUST A CAP!!!
See, we bloods have to resort to whole new ways to bust the po-po's and it seemed like this bike thing might work

no, but a bandana probably looks more "suspicious" than, say, a balaclava because of whatever mental connections to cops and robbers type ****.

That image of "robbers" with a bandana over their mouths seems so wild west. Are the po' just re-living their childhood movie-spawned fantasies?

Seriously though, if you wanna look like a ****ing terrorist, wear the bandana as mentioned and add a hood and ski goggles. It's great.

ps - also, I find that frost tends to form on the mouth part of the kerchief, forcing me to breathe creatively.

hey, koyman, i agree with you about the frost thing, but to each his own.

and yeah, that image is pretty wild west, but i was just using an example...but just about any time you see someone with a bandana over their face, they're doing it to project a tough guy image, and maybe it projects that image because that cowboy thing's some archetype that's imprinted in our brains, i dunno.

but sure, some'll wear a bandana to keep warm, but i don't see how that works that well. then again, it's l.a., so even if it's "cold" to a person used to l.a. weather, frost may not actually form.

Roger that. I was just throwing that out there. Deep down, I'm just happy that other people (who are on this boards) wear their bandanas like me. I also kind of hope that a police stops me some time for wearing mine. I always enjoy being immaculatly innocent; like that time I was "drunk driving" with root beer.

yeah...i'm just thinking about why certain things will make others assume things about you.

i don't wear a bandana, though. i've tried, and discovered i don't like it because of the frost.

still, i think there's an inherent fear of people who hide their faces, for many good and interesting reasons going back a long way, and as far as bandanas and why they ""look tough", i think it's probably an american phenomenon.

I read you loud and clear, good buddy. I can see how face-hiding is "empowering" (wrong word, but close) for those behind the mask. I know I've thought of doing things (whilst masked) that I would never have thought of otherwise. Also, there's the living dead to think of. I mean, they've got to disguise the tell-tale slack jaw somehow, and why not a kerchief?

ha ha ha...i remember in some class in high school, i think...reading "lord of the flies" and the teacher emphasizing the face painting for exactly the reason you bring up. "empowering". or, maybe...stripping away inhibitions by sort of suggesting that you can get away with whatever you want to do....

whatever it is, any mask understandable frightens some.

though, come to think of it, i am curious as to why i never got pulled over while riding in cold boise winters with a balaclava on, and good mr. accident here did get pulled over with a bandana...people just expecting that reaction to cold weather there?

I tie one around my ears when It is cold here. They make a ski mask for your mouth. it works great and mine cost me 2 bucks at goodwill. I think they are less then ten at a ski/snowboarding store. and it is easyer to get on and off. and you can talk though it. but stores still don't like you wareing it in them.
Plus they you look like a ninja. ninjas are way cooler then cowboys.
Eric...... Schnayke for short.

****in' a! who doesn't ride wif a bandana?

i use bandanas as grease rags, *** rags, blood rags for those terrible spills, for those times when you ain't got a scarf.

oh and for indie street cred at shows.

I ride with all types of face covering. I've got balaclavas which are really fun to wear in traffic because it freaks people out. I figure if they can have their tint, I can wear my bandana. Of course, I'm in Texas, and it's rodeo time here in Houston, so I guess there won't be too much trouble wearing a bandana. My bandana is black though, and it says "Jack Daniels" on it. Guess the cops here don't have too much trouble with that "set" around here.

oh...that make more sense. At first, I read this thread as "anyone ride with BANANAS"
now that would be a sight!

hahahaha.....shweet banana! i like how you roll

you live in tallahassee. how cold was it?

1) to OP: Why not use a scarf instead?

2) to that banana pic: that better be photoshopped or I wanna know who this man is and how I can rent him for parties.

I ride with a bandana sometimes but you should check your local laws. In a lot of places it is illeagle to wear a mask or cover your face in public and a bandana looks suspicous...just saying.

It was drizzling, 35deg. last night, we get sporadic cold fronts, but like other people, I carried a bandana as multi-purpose; obviously balaclavas and scarves are warmer but I need to look into it being illegal in Florida.

It gets pretty cold here ;)

Well... for us I guess. It was probably around 35 - 40 degrees out.

I just noticed the OP was from Tallahassee though. Yay :)

No because I'm not a hipster and use a dorky balaclava.

Just get a bandana from Crucialbrutal. The cops will be too scared to pull you.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...CT_bandana.jpg