RogerTOWM

Two things, first I apologize for my previous post. It seems that I misspelled cruiser. Second who was defending the accused? One of the things you asked was why you see cops speeding. Trophy and I both tried to answer your question. You made generalizations without giving facts, and then you fault us for not giving stats. Sounds like you are asking me if I still beat my wife and then demand I only answer yes or no to the question. No way can I win on that one. As to why departments do not come out at the beginning and say what discipline they are going to do. Well shouldn’t they investigate first? And it is common practice when you have criminal charges to hold off on the investigation until after the criminal case is over. To do otherwise could interfere with the criminal case. Then even if the officer is found innocent in the criminal case he may be disciplined because of the department’s investigation. You have thrown out a figure of 10% of law enforcement being bad. Where did you get that figure? That would be one out of every ten cops being crooks. I would not work for a department like that and I’m pretty sure Trophy would not either. Generally speaking law enforcement in Southern California is pretty clean. Do some cops mess up or become corrupt? Yes the do and they go to prison for it. Still I do not know of a single agency in San Diego County that has anything near a 10% corruption rate. Oh and I think a plated 300 2 stroke would be great. Maybe after fuel injection comes out?

There is a long protocol that is used to determine when you can and can’t go code (lights and sirens). Many times running with lights just confuses others drivers and delays the officer getting to the call. People seem to lose their minds when they see a marked unit on the road. If you pull off the highway to take a phone call or look something up on the computer all you will hear are tires squealing as other motorists slam on the brakes. Do the speed limit or just a little below the speed limit even in the far right lane on the highway and you get the same effect. Drivers come up on you and then slam on the brakes. This can cause the drivers behind them to run into them. Then somebody is stuck writing accident reports for the next several hours. If a marked unit drives slightly above the speed limit or with the flow of traffic (which is almost always faster than the posted speed limit) it does not appear to have the same effect. I guess drivers think that well it is ok for me to speed because he is speeding also. I personally like to travel in one of the right lanes at or slightly below the posted limit. My pickup truck gets the best power and mileage at 3000 rpm, which will put me at 67 mph in overdrive. At a posted speed limit of 70 mph I am below the speed limit so I stay to the right lanes. If I were to do that in a marked unit I would be interfering with the flow of traffic and that is not a good thing. So yeah you might see cops driving faster than the speed limit without emergency lights on. But before you make judgments you might want to get all the information. Is the officer responding to a call? Is he the secondary unit (not primary) to that call? Primary units may be told to run code while secondary units are just to get there as soon as possible. A southern California cop driving through traffic at 120 mph to get to the doughnut shop before it closes will not be long on the job. If a cop here did what that Florida officer is accused of doing he would be looking at doing time for reckless driving and evading. I suspect the officer in Florida is looking for a new job. As to never being helped by a cop, well did you ever need help? Did you ask for help? The majority of people never have contact with police, so of course they will never have been helped by a cop. I have found that the people who do interact with law enforcement a lot are doing something to stand out of the crowd. Something like continually excessively speeding perhaps? The best way to beat a ticket is to not get it in the first place.

sorry double post has been edited

totally agree- due to the huge expanse between SD proper and riding areas, you have to pick your poison if you want one bike to do it all... how much more does the 690 weigh, as opposed to a DRZ I would guess you are within 20 or 30 pounds with a full tank... not much when you consider how miserable the 5 speed DRZ with off road gearing is on the freeway. Something else to consider is the maintenance required. The smaller displacement European and some Japanese bikes need oil changed almost every ride and valves checked / adjusted very often. These bikes are dirt bikes with a plate. The bigger displacement bikes are normally not as maintenance intensive, but they are a little heavier. The KTM 620 and 690 are great bikes as is the Husky TE 610 / 630. Some of the guys here ride the Honda 650L, its a big bike but it will get you there. Pyro rides his KLR 650 everywhere but he is one of a kind I think. Crawdaddy has his little Yamaha 250 as his adventure bike, but it might be a bit underpowered for sand. Lots of bikes to chose from. Id suggest bringing out your DRZ and riding it for a while, give yourself some time before you decide.

I can't understand why he would ever get a ticket and I think his court room actions or defense should have gotten him out of this ticket. After all it was just the cops fault!

Happy Birthday Zina, hope you enjoy the chicken.

Welcome to the club and to San Diego Mr. Canadian. The club does mostly dualsport rides where a light weight bike is best. Less numerous rides are long range tours which are better for bigger bikes. There is a little something for everybody here. The DRZ or Ktm 690 would do great. Club President Randy rides a KTM 950 adventure even on the small bike rides. (Huffy, really, you show a snow photo to a Canadian? What you don't think he knows what real snow looks like?)

Sweet bike. Lucky boy and great Mom! Will you adopt me?

Happy belated Birthday Mimi. Nice house on wheels!

Me like!!

Happy birthday Tommy.

I know I'm a bit late but thanks for the birthday well wishes. I'm in the Texas Panhandle driving a tanker truck hauling water in the oil fields and dodging tornadoes. No open land to go riding on out here but the county roads are all dirt.

I’ve been thinking about how you can carry a month’s worth of food for the puppy (yeah I know who imagined that I could think). The best plan I could come up with is to have food sent to people along the route. You could go on Adventure rider and ask for drop houses along the route. While you may get some rude responses I’ll bet you could find several good people who will help you out. Then you could just stop by and restock up on food.

Zina, Jack Russells are great dogs; smart, lively and just the right size. I would love to be able to ride with a dog. But I think that Paul may be right this time. The TAT is a very long trip. The western sections have areas that may demand the rider’s full attention. It just seems to me that it might be too dangerous to the dog for him to be carried on Wayne’s back. Also how would you like to be in a pack day after day for the time it takes to ride the TAT? I’m will to bet that he loves to be with you and Wayne but does going on this trip with you two really the best thing for him? Think of it from his point of view. I would love to watch him for you guys as you travel the TAT. Heck I would love to ride the TAT with you guys. But unfortunately I can do neither as I will be driving a truck in Texas when you are riding the TAT.

We are on dualsports so we have horns…right? Give a beep on your horn before passing to let the rider in front know you are there and are going to pass. I don’t know how many times I have been startled by someone passing that I didn’t even know was behind me. It safer to let the person in front know you are there so they don’t cross in front of you as you are passing. When passing another group of riders going the other direction it is polite to tell them how many riders are in your group. Example hold up 4 fingers to tell them there are 4 riders behind you. The last rider in the group should let the other riders know that he or she is the last one. Many times when you come across a group of jeeps on the road they will pull off to the side to let riders by. It is polite to also let them know how many riders are in the group and when the last rider is by.

Sucks to be a bad guy doesn't it?!

Great photos Randy, beautiful area. Cody is looking good, you on the other hand….well whatever… But one part of your story doesn’t ring true. You know, where you said you slowed down. I ridden with you, you never slow down!

Great photos and great Trip report Randy, it is truley awesome where you take that big bike to!!!!!! It was good to see that Dale and his bike are still going strong. I remember him explaining the mods he did to that bike. He was amazing and his demonstration of the push stick and it’s leverage was truly unique. Thanks for this report buddy.

Merry Christmas to all. I wish everbody a great new year (with lots of rides).

Mimi thanks for sharing! That looked great! I’ve been in snow lately but without a bike. Keep up the reports please.

Happy birthday from the frozen Salt Lake in Utah Bob.

Wait until I leave and then make this offer!b I see how YOU are! Have fun and be safe.

Hey Rog, luckily you're well insulated Hey I'm just trying to be the happy Budda there pegleg!

I'm surrounded by snow.