Welcome to Friday Fudge – a weekly round up of the more ‘unusual’ motorcycle related stories that are just too silly to post on their own, but raise a much bigger chortle when you slap them all together and take the piss.
A busy bobby
How many tickets do you think a motorcycle traffic cop hands out over a career? In the case of California Highway Patrol officer Scott Wall, the answer is over 65,000.
If you think that makes Wall sound like a massive jerk, think again. He says he lets half the people he catches go with just a warning and has made over 2,000 drunk driving arrests in his career, which goes a long way towards making the roads safer for motorcyclists.
Wall is also down on driving and texting; he recently made 32 traffic stops and handed out 26 tickets in a 90-minute span for drivers distracted by their cell phones.
But there’s no preferential treatment with this guy either. his arrest sheet includes a pair of off-duty LAPD cops who were driving around, shooting guns out their truck’s windows.
All in all, he sounds like a pretty stand-up guy — and a bit of a money earner for the cash-strapped state of California of course.
Source: Press-Telegram
Pint-sized police bike
Speaking of motorcycle patrolmen, when we think of them we usually envision them on man-sized Harleys or even hefty Kawasaki KZs.
Well, the California Scooter Company has something new in mind; they’ve developed a mini-bike for law enforcement.
Dubbed the CSC-150P, the machine features a clutch and gears like a regular motorcycle, so despite its diminutive size, the company claims it’s not a scooter.
They think the machine is a great way for officers to navigate congested inner city areas, perform community policing, or patrol tourist areas while cutting down fuel costs. It may be low-tech, but the maker says it’s highly reliable.
The CSC-150P isn’t just a mini-bike with a black-and-white paint job, either. It will feature standard police bike items like emergency flashers, a siren and crash bars.
Somehow, we can’t see officers lining up for a chance to ride this machine, whether it’s a good concept or not. Still, The California Scooter Company is working on importing their bikes to Canada, so who knows, you may soon see these at a detachment near you, or even at a Mad Bastard Rally.
Story source: PRLog.org
A different kind of motorcycle delivery
The Western world gets sex education classes in school, but that’s not necessarily the case in Cambodia. Many Cambodians don’t understand basic contraception methods, and the country’s abortion rates are skyrocketing.
Enter Marie Stopes International, a non-profit reproductive health organization, who has stepped in to do something about it.
Are they taking out radio commercials or PSAs on television? Nope. They’ve taken a more hands-on approach. They’ve hired a bunch of midwives, given them motorcycles, and sent them out to spread their sex-education message to women and girls across the country.
It sounds a bit wacky, but it makes sense when you think about it. Motorcycles are the ideal way to get access to Cambodia’s hard-to-reach rural areas, allowing them to get to work where the rubber meets the road — so to speak.
Source: Google News
Celebrity bikers
Last week, we complained about non-exciting products being increasingly linked to motorcycles through marketing designed to increase their coolness factor.
Alas, the trend doesn’t just hold for motorcycles, as was evidenced by Sarah Palin, who appeared at the Memorial Day Rolling Thunder Rally in Washington, D.C., on the back of a Harley-Davidson.
It’s hard to say how this will affect voters, but it can’t be too long before she starts drawing comparison to bikers’ mama Gemma Teller of the crime show Sons of Anarchy.
But Palin wasn’t the only celebrity trying to boost her image with a bike ride recently. Last week, socialite Paris Hilton made her entrance on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show riding pillion on a sport bike to chat with the mega-chinned host about her MotoGP racing team.
At least she’s putting some money back into to the scene and not just trying to leech off its image for free.
Source: IBN Live
at least sarah palin is on a bike , good for her , she looks great!
reminds me of the disaster the old Toronto Metros incurred with their Velocette LE – touted as “almost silent” so the cops could stealth up on an allyway drug deal, cops didn’t want to ride them and then Velocette went out of business and spares were impossible. Wonder what happened to the 52 they bought?
Those “mini” police bikes have to be less dorky than the Segways that the police were using here in Sylvan Lake, AB for the past few years…why they don’t just give them a mountain bike and be way ahead of the game, I’ll never know…
Later.