first run in with the man
 

I was rolling through Evanston (North suburb of Chicago) tonight when I found this sweet stretch of road that ran slightly downhill and had fresh blacktop, which is something that, as a Chicago native, I have rarely experienced. I started down, and as there was no traffic I went all out. So I'm going downhill, theres a slight tailwind pushing me, I'm on fresh blacktop, there's no bag to weigh me down and cause aero drag, and I'm at a dead sprint. This is the fastest I've ever gone on a bike. At the bottom of the hill I hear a siren, pull over, and stop. Cop gave me a verbal warning for going 34 in a 25. He told me that if I didn't stop with my sh*t-eating grin he would give me a ticket. I was super stoked about my speed.

lol nice. It is not often that you hear a cyclist getting pulled over for speeding.

The only brush I have had with "the man" was abou 6 months ago. I was riding and cops pulled me over. Someone had reported a white mercier kilo tt stolen. I was riding a white peugeot uo8. The cop didnt know anything about bikes. Couldnt pronounce Mercier or peugeot so I corrected him.


BTW, I blast down streets all the time and haven't yet to be pulled over for speeding.

Riding fresh pavement is fun.

Riding right before they put down the pavement (right after they've stripped up the old pavement) is not fun.

i like female cops

Yeah, I've ridden stripped roads, but for some reason I never get the fresh stuff. Usually the only fresh blacktop I get is when they patch holes.

Especially with cuffs and a whip!

Epic run in. I hope he had some humor in his voice when he was telling you to stop grinning otherwise he's a dbag.

Better than having your eyes gouged out and skull****ed.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...le-hartman.jpg

Get the ticket, fight it, judge will toss it out, frame it

don't risk it, ask for a written warning. bike tickets count against your driving record iirc.

Better those patches than the pot holes, I walked 5 miles down Sheridan barefoot because one of them damned potholes folded the rim lip up.

The easiest way to get a ticket is to ask for a warning.

I got a warning last summer from a cop for speeding. I was riding up hill at the time :p

I've never gotten pulled over; but I was complimented by a cop at a light before. :)

There's this homeless black guy that rides his old ten speed everywhere in the county I grew up in. Word is he got a speeding ticket in a 40mph zone going down the big bridge in town.

On the weekly ride I attend, we were pulling into the bus station for our regroup circle and we rode by a cop.

"What are you doing?"

--"We're riding"

"Stfu"

-- "O_o"

Edit: I don't think he liked one of us yelling "5-0!" as we rounded the corner to see him in this parking lot.

Why don't you back up and explain why you were barefoot in the first place?

Is that in Massachusetts or every state? Here in Quebec I think it's a $15-$30 fine, and it's pretty much like a parking ticket...

In IL it's like a non moving violation. It can't doing anything to your current license, can't suspend your license, but when it's time to renew your license it will come up if you didn't pay the fine.

I got rolled like 2 weeks ago, gurnee up by six flags. No headlight.

Suburban cops have nothing better to do.

ok first, why barefoot? second, i dont have a drivers license. something about how cops dont like people driving at 90 mph while falling down drunk... third, i was actually on sheridan. right where it goes into evanston. it was glorious.

also, yeah, he had a little grin too so he was being cool about it. i think he just pulled me over cuz going that fast its easier to lose control and die or w/e

The cops in my town don't seem to mind bicyclists that much, but we have a pretty good path system that keeps us out of the heavy roads.
Apparently they're pretty strict on bike lights at night though. I've had a couple friends harassed for that.

I got pulled over for not having a reflector. But I had to little lights. And he said that would work. But i need reflectors....

i have never been pulled over on my bike.

still, 34 is pretty cool. i wouldn't have been able to stop smiling either.

except for when it's so fresh it's sticking to your tires and flinging up in the frame and components. Not fun.

That's kind of like the time when I wanted to bike across this long bridge with a bike path, and then missed the bike path and ended up on the freeway like bridge with no shoulder. A young lady cop going the other way saw me. She turned around pulled me over. She was pretty cool about it and offered to escort me by driving behind. So everything is going fine until I pass the halfway point and then the bridge starts going downhill and I start speeding up. And then I hit one of those bridge joints that go dadum dadum dadum when you drive over them, except it has larger than bicycle tire gaps in it parallel to the road. So basically my front wheel jams into the joint and I go flying over the bars...

It was cold so I was wearing a fair amount of clothing, so luckily I only ended up with a big gash on my right knee. The ambulance got there surprisingly quickly, but they told me they'd have to charge me to take me to the hospital. I'm not sure if it was because I wasn't hit by a car (though I'm sure they said that it would have been free had I been hit by a car), or because I wasn't in mortal danger. Anyways the officer drove me to the hospital and took my bike to the police station.

I went to the station and picked up my bike like 3 days later. And rode it home...