Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125814
CODE TNREEAT CYCLE NEWS WEST by Art Friedman Photos by Tom Culp, Howie Fowler, Dave Schoonmaker, and Friedman Haven't you ever felt the urge to throw a leg over one of those black and white police motorcycles, flip on the siren and red ligbts and go howling .off down the road? What are those mysterious machines like? Is it true that some of the Harley·Davidsons have displacemen ts ranging up 1600cc and will touch 140 MPH? What about the Hondas and the Moto·Guzzis, have they been breathed on? Then there's the inevitable question: Can you outrun a police machine? Maybe no, but if not, it's because of the tremendous skill of The Man behind the windshield - or because you're drivin'g a Corvair. The big Harley 74 FLH has been the traditional American police bike, so we tool!- the old Harley as a point of departure and looked at the New Breed of police machines: the Moto-Guzzi 850 Eldorado; the 74's little brother, the Harley-Davidson Sportster XLH; and the sophisticated, thoughtfullydeveloped Honda 750. How do these rookies compare to the proven patroller? They aren't superbikes. They have been modified for reliability and long-houn;-in-the-saddle comfort with no accent on performance. The 1973 HaTley has a lowered compression ratio on their police machine, and the others are powered by stock engines with over 100 pounds of police gear tacked on to slow it down. The fastest "moto" (That's trick police jargon.) that we tested was the Honda 750 which was powered by a stock K-l engine and weighed in at 620 pounds in police trim - hardly the hot set-up for firebreathing performance. There is more tbat limits the performance of the machines than their weight. Tbey are equipped with windshields, floorboards, and saddlebags. The windshields and bags stick ou t in to the air stream and slow you down. The floorboards, while very comfortable in extended use, do interfere with hard cornering. Tight turns are impossible to negotiate on any of the police bikes at any significan t speed. All of the police bikes were equipped with indirect shift linkage (such as is standard on Harley 74's) to clear various protrusions and fit the foot. This Johnson rod arrangement produced a slight hesitation in setting ii1to a gear, compared to the "right now" snick of the street racer. . The other equipment that is standard on police machines is as follows: a solo saddIe, radio, siren, red lights, green (or blue) running lights for the rear, and four-way flashers. In addition, all the machines that we tested had thro ttles that didn't dose' when released. The reason for the non-snappy-twistgrip is that it is more comfortable for Long hours on the freeways. The solo saddles are installed to allow room for radio gear, billy clubs and other equipment at th,e rear of the machine. There are two types of antennas that we encountered on the black and white scooters. One is the normal whip antenna. The problem with this type is that as-you throw your leg over the rear of the machine, you hit the whip with your leg and probably snap it off. One officer told us that he ~ w Z W ..J U >- U Cycle News tests the three makes of police motorcycles. Early model police machine with CN General Manager. Tom Culp firmly in, sac;tdle, 'Well, officer. you see we're riding these police bikes because we're doing a test on them." ··S.ure, kid."