Bit Of Trivia

Got pulled over once in Tuscaloosa, going 3 over, only got a warning, nice police car, a Charger as I recall.

Out of state no mercy. But yeah I have been let go a number of times. I got stopped going 59 in a 55 but he let me go. Got stopped going 70 in a 55 and got let go, but also got a ticket for going 70 in a 55 but he said I didnā€™t have to pay it right away. Then I got a ticket on my 50th birthday for 45 in a 30 at 10:00, pitch dark and no one around. So Iā€™m not complaining. I get my share of breaks/brakes.

As far as I know there is no law defining which side a sidecar rig must go on. They were made for both left and right but generally go on the right. At one time I had a sidecar on a BMW but I prefer 2 wheels; not three.
Making a hard right turn with a right hand sidecar can get the adrenaline going though.

That speedo hand lock is not worth a fortune as far as I know but it does have value; especially to someone who wants one and gots to have it. Thatā€™s a common disease in the HD world. The one I have was given to me free of charge soā€¦

I spent years looking for a mid 40s tail lamp. The Taiwan copies are no good. Itā€™s like a real Rolex compared to a fake Chinese one. The real ones have the Harley Davidson name on the rim of the shell and on the license plate bracket along with a real glass lens.

The name of a guy in Amarillo, TX was provided to me and in a call he said he had a tail lamp that he might trade for a speedo or two. So one weekend the wife and I were off on a short road trip to make a trade with a pair of speedometers. One decent shape and the other ragged out. So he drags out a brand new 60+ year old tail lamp still in the factory box with an unopened hardware pack. I had taken a couple of hundred along for boot just in case but with a NOS lamp I figured it would not get the job done.

So after some conversation I bluntly asked what kind of deal you looking at here. After a bit he said ā€œWould you take a grand?ā€. Plus the tail lamp? Yep; to my utter surprise. He counted me out ten hundred dollar bills on the spot. I asked about the hand locks so he went and drug out the only one he had; a NOS one still in the package which he said just keep it as a bonus.
As cop bikes got retired and hand locks became obsolete by the 60s most were likely tossed into the trash as there was really no reason for them to be on the bike as they are sight unseen.

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With engine off the officer could show the motorist the speedo reading and issue a ticket or warning

After all this time it would be interesting to see the old court documents if any still exist from that time if anyone went to court to contest the ticket with the officer having no proof as they do now days.

Probably found guilty anyway no matter what. Thereā€™s a small city here in OK (Kingfisher) and I got stopped every time I went through there. Hit town at 5 under the posted and would get written up for 10 over.

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I for one would prefer to stay out of court after seeing this one.

In the UK your only legal option is on the left side of the motorcycle, Canā€™t find any regulations for the US but some states have specific rules regarding motorcycles.

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I got pulled over once in Memphis, going 3 over, and it was NOT a warning. I was on the way home from court where I had just beat another speeding ticket.

True but if all vehicles are going the same speed, that is none are overtaking any others, then it doesnā€™t matter which one the radar picked up. The only problem with that is that the driver can now claim that he/she was going the speed of traffic.

If one vehicle is overtaking all the others, then the speed shown on the radar is at least the drivers speed, he/she could be going faster.

But selling any of this to a judge can be a problem. I mean if I can get out of a ticket, then Iā€™m going to try.

The only real issue with radar tickets is when a cop is shooting at a steep angle and want to add ā€œangle correctionā€ using the cosine of the angle to calculate the actual speed of the offender. In theory, you canā€™t argue against it, but in practice, you can argue that there is no accurate way to calculate the angle at least not with what they are using today.

In the future when they use digitally encoded signals, an algorithm could be developed that would.

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The troopers ā€” given this sort of attitude ā€” should consider the source of their paycheck.
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On the other hand, youā€™ve got to have a cutoff point somewhere on what speed youā€™ll allowā€¦and if youā€™re not getting a ticket when youā€™re technically already 9 mph over itā€¦

Thatā€™s crazy lol. I avoid Memphis. People fly, so I donā€™t know how they got you for 3 mph over. Last time I was in Memphis, someone slammed into a concrete barrier and most of the traffic barely slowed down as they passed. I slowed a little. PD was on the scene, but traffic still resembled a NASCAR event.

Yes they do. But there is more to this story. I lived in Memphis at the time and I knew a bunch of the cops. Some were neighbors, some from church and a couple that were brothers in law of my teaching partner (I was stationed at Millington).

Anyway a guy down the street from me was constantly complaining to the police department about speeders on his street. Eventually they set up six motorcycle cops in his front yard with radar and gave a ticket to anyone exceeding the speed limit, no tolerance. Just about everyone in the neighborhood got a ticket that day, it was just a coincidence that I had just beat a speeding ticket that day.

It had the desired affect, he never bothered the cops with his complaints anymore. That is how the Memphis Police dealt with that type of problem at the time (mid 70ā€™s)

I remember asking my dad what those ā€œabsoluteā€ signs above the 30 MPH speed limit meant. I guess they meant 31 and youā€™re done.

A gentleman came in once wanting a new speedometer for his Subaru. That led to why; not working at all?
Nope. A small town cop (Longdale, OK) had stopped him and ticketed him for being 2 MPH over the limit.

We told him the cop was just screwing him over and showed him in the factory service manual the margin of error on the speedometers. Around 1 MPH at lower speeds to almost 2 at highway speeds.

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Decided to rent a 10 x 20 storage unit for those ā€œnon essentialā€ parts so Iā€™ve been boxing and inventorying that stuff. Iā€™ve run across parts that I cannot even remember where they came from. All worth some serious money.

This is a 1939 towbar which was used on the Servi-Cars; or 3 wheeled Harleys. SCs were heavily used by police departments; mostly for parking enforcement and so on.

Very few SCs or tow bars were made in WWII and and after WWII there was a tow bar design change. Car dealers and independent repair shops often used the SCs for car delivery and service pickup purposes. Clamp the tow bar to the car, drive to where the car needs to be, and head out for the next job on the SC. Pic below is my tow bar. One below that is tow bar in action although that tow bar and Servi-Car is pre-1935. SC is also fitted with a winter windshield.
That tow bar is heavy and I would be a bit antsy with it. If there is a collision the rider is going to get raked by that tow bar pretty badly; possibly disemboweled or an inadvertent open heart surgery as in the folded position it protrudes above the headlamp. They went to an off-set tow bar after WWII; maybe for that reason.

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Then you run into another problem if you just pull over ONE of those vehicles and not the others.

Come on Mike,lets quit playing ā€œwhat ifā€. I know how radars work, probably more than anyone you know. Itā€™s not a question of which vehicle is producing the highest return but what can be proved in a courtroom full of people who have no idea. It is also common sense on the part of the police officer.

The cop using the radar knows who is responsible, but proving it to a judge who knows nothing about radar with a BSā€™ing lawyer and an ā€œexpertā€ witness who is telling only what he is paid to tell is another problem. So cops for the most part will only ticket the most egregious offenders under circumstances that are hard to refute.

Back to packing and storage. When we last moved I had everything stored in three different locations. When I would write out the label for the box, I made a carbon copy of it. So when I got done if I needed to find something, I could look at the labels and see what box number I wanted and what storage garage it was in. Came in handy as our builder delayed and delayed and delayed much longer than expected. Some of the boxes havenā€™t been opened in 20 years.

Of course now you could use the computer for some of it but box number, contents, location. Just my method that worked for me.

that is if you donā€™t pack the computer for the move. :wink: :smiley:

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Thereā€™s a town along I80 in northern Nevada named ā€œBattle Mountainā€ that has a reputation as a speed trap. Apparently some of those trapped didnā€™t like it ā€¦ lol ā€¦

Iā€™ve driven through that area many times and never had any problem. I think it would be a pretty good place to live actually, lots of outdoor activities nearby. Given the title of this thread, Iā€™ll add my own eponymous bit of trivia: One of the segments of the recent PBS mini-series ā€œAround the World in 80 Daysā€ takes place in Battle Mountain.

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Iā€™ve wasted quite a bit of time (in a good way, I suppose) on Atlas Obscura. Very interesting stuff. I just keep clicking on the link to the next weird place and go down the rabbit hole lol. Originally found the site researching ghost towns. Abandoned or obscure places are just interesting to me.

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