There's One Born Every Minute! GOTCHA!

Everybody loves sunny days, as do we motor cops.  We prefer things on the cooler side though.  Summer sucks for motor cops.  We're wearing wool riding britches, ballistic vest, tall leather boots (yeah baby!), a brain bucket aka helmet, and extra weight like our gun belts with all of the toys.  

You can tell a motor cop in civilian clothes easily as we sport a very unique tan.  Our tan lines run from the bottom of our short sleeve shirts down to our gloves.  Me, I go from looking like your typical white cop during the winter, but get that sun on me and I look like a migrant farm worker.  So our hands are slightly lighter from our gloves we wear on and off during the day and finally our faces.  We typically sport a sunburned nose, and can look like raccoons from the tan line we get from wearing our polarized eye protection (sunglasses).

So on top of our uniform and ballistic vest, we ride these wonderful Harley's.  Nothing looks like them our sounds like them.  The draw back is that the engines are air cooled.  Unlike the BMW's and Honda's which are liquid cooled.  

The difference between the two is the Harley gets pretty hot after riding around in the hot summer heat.  So damned hot the the backs of your legs sometimes feel like they are roasting.  Imagine yourself straddling a car radiator.....welcome to my world.  I may sound like I'm bitching, but not really because hot or cold I really don't care so long as the streets are dry.  

So one of the things some of us motor cops do is turn off our motors when we come to stop lights to keep the engine from getting too hot.

So one beautiful blistering hot summer day I saw that the traffic light ahead of me was red.  So I turned of the engine kill switch and coasted to a stop next to a motorist who obviously didn't have air conditioning because his was the only car with the windows rolled all the way down.

He comments, "Hey that's a real quiet motorcycle you have there officer.  Is that a Harley."

Me; "Yes it's a Harley."

Driver;  "How come it's so quiet?"

Me;  "It's the new Harley Davidson Road King Hybrid."

Driver; "No way!"

Me;  "Way!"

Driver;  "Wow the technology they have today is just amazing!"

I noticed the traffic light turned green as I hit the starter for the Harley.  I hear the 103 cubic inch engine rumble to life sounding like rolling thunder.  I holler to the driver over the sound of the engine, "Have a nice day." as I ride off into the distance looking for prey.