A few Thursdays ago, myself and a group of about 8 guys, including several forum members, took a ride North of Pittsburgh for the weekly bike night at a local restaraunt chain called Quaker Steak & Lube. So after a very nice ride up, we get off the main highway and are about 3/4 mile from the bike night when we come to a traffic light that is moving unusually slow...like 2 or 3 cars every time it turned green. Soon the reasoning became apparent.

Cranberry Township cops posted a "sobriety" checkpoint about a half mile from the Lube....At 6 o'clock PM (rush hour) on a bike night (the real reason). Needless to say, I didn't see any drunk drivers or cars for that matter get pulled over, but for some odd reason they decided to inspect and subsequently hassle every single biker....ON BIKE NIGHT.

Aside from the $80 citation I got for not having my inspection sticker, I was verbally hassled and given a written warning for my license plate location and for not having my visor down when going through the checkpoint. Great job pigs...thanks for reminding me that my visor needs to be down. Even though it's 92 degrees and I have a leather jacket, jeans, boots, and leather gloves on, I typically ride at freeway speeds with my visor up. Now that I finally know it's ILLEGAL to have it up, even if I am just waiting in line to have my 4th amendment rights violated while my bike is running at 235 degrees underneath my *** on a 92 degree day, I will make sure I go ahead and put that visor down from now on. DICKS!

The worst part about this entire experience was that after we had finished eating and checking out all the bikes for awhile, we headed back home the same route....only to find that they had moved the checkpoint TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD!!! So, once again I had to deal with cops giving me **** over minor technicalities. I said to the cop "you know you guys just gave me a citation for this an hour and a half ago, don't you?" to which he responded "oh, really?" At least this time my visor was down the entire time, even though it fogged up so bad that I couldn't see a thing in front of me. I guess obeying the law to its strictest interpretation is far more important than me being able to see.

 

tell us how you really feel lol. Cops can be real stoopid at times.

 

I can't believe they gave you a ticket for rollin through the checkpoint with your visor up....

oh wait, yea i can believe that.... their cops and they like authority

 

I thought it was legal to not have eye protection if you have a windshield.

 

Not in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania...

 

they dont consider the windscreen on a sportbike as a windshield in any state I that I know of. Its a technicality they play when they wanna be ******.

 

Sun glasses won't pass?

we need to realize they just hate us! So the feeling should be mutual....

I guess it's like a fishing trip, There out there to catch the marlins (d/drivers) and if they happen to catch some sea bass (minor infractions) it's just a bonus (more money). No wait its the opposite.That's all it was a money trap, write as many local funding tickets as possible and if we catch a drunk driver our cover won't be blown.

 

they will if they are shatter proof.

 

Shortbus,
I don't want to be an ***, but what part of your 4th amendment rights were violated? The 4th amendment protects against search and seizure. Anything that is in plain sight is exempt from search. They didn't take anything from you, (other than maybe a little dignity maybe[:@]). But look on the bright side, I'm sure that they gave you a few points on your blood pressure in exchange.

RCR,
When I ride my cruiser and wear my "brain bucket" helmet, I wear sunglasses and have never had anything said to me. Granted, cops tend to look down on sport bikes more than cruisers usually.
But in all fairness, that is a reputation that is usually well earned. Why do we buy sport bikes? it's not because of the comfort. It's because (usually) we want to do 0-60 in 3 seconds or have the availability to do 170MPH even if we would never do that.

Just my $.02

 

Total bull**** brother. As soon as I start having less of a hatred for cops I read about **** like this. They dont understand that not everyone who rides is a throttle jockey, some of us are actually mature, responsible riders (most the time). So yeah, sorry about your luck homeboy. No excuse for this ****...