{"id":3254,"date":"2012-07-26T08:18:47","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T14:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/?p=3254"},"modified":"2012-07-26T08:18:47","modified_gmt":"2012-07-26T14:18:47","slug":"my-first-motorcycle-speeding-ticket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/my-first-motorcycle-speeding-ticket\/","title":{"rendered":"My First Motorcycle Speeding Ticket"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Kansas\/Colorado state line on U.S. 36.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

I figured from the outset that by the time yesterday came around, when I had been on the road for 17 days and was headed home, that I would be like a horse headed for the stable. What I didn’t count on was that after a journey of nearly 3,900 miles, I would get stopped for speeding within 50 miles of home. Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.<\/p>\n

In all my years of riding, this is the first time I have ever gotten a speeding ticket on a bike. Sure, I’ve had speeding tickets in cars, but never on a bike. I mentioned that to the officer and he laughed saying he had gotten plenty of tickets on his motorcycles when he was younger.<\/p>\n

What happened was that I had come across Nebraska and Kansas, coming into Colorado on U.S. 36. Of all the states I’d been through, the only one I didn’t have a map for was Colorado. I was running low on gas and thought for sure there was a town out there called Last Chance. Isn’t there? Figured I’d get gas there. But I reached the Adams County line and passed the hazardous waste facility out there and still no Last Chance.<\/p>\n

So without a map, I wasn’t clear on how far it was yet to Byers, where I knew I could get gas. I figured I must be a good ways yet, so I kept blasting. That’s when I passed this Arapahoe County Sheriff vehicle going the other way. I looked in my mirror and saw him pull over and then turn around. When he turned his flashers on I pulled over.<\/p>\n

He was a nice enough guy, and I was certainly polite, and I let him know I had been riding for 17 days and was just a few miles from home, hoping he’d cut me a break. No such luck. I asked him how far till I could get gas and he told me Byers was just 15 miles ahead. Fifteen miles? Then the racetrack must be very close by, I said. Oh yes, it’s just up that hill, he said. And sure enough, when I took off again, I crested the hill immediately ahead of me and there was High Plains Raceway. Dang, if I’d know that I really suspect I would have slacked off on my speed a bit, knowing I was so close.<\/p>\n

Oh well. It could have been worse. Truth is, I had been going a lot faster not that long before. I’ll take my ticket for going 77 in a 65 zone, rather the 87 or so that it might have been. I understand we need things like speed laws but I still fail to see how anyone was harmed by my going that fast way out there on the prairie with almost zero other traffic.<\/p>\n

So one thing I did not do, at the end, was to say “Thank you” to the officer. I know that is a common thing that people do, because they’re trying to be completely polite and respectful to the officer. But that just strikes me as perverse. I acknowledged him and was very pleasant, but I did not say thank you. I really didn’t feel I had anything to thank him for. I really wish I’d never met him. Oh well.<\/p>\n

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner<\/strong>
\nMaking the rounds at Vintage Motorcycle Days<\/a><\/p>\n

Biker Quote for Today<\/h3>\n

Don’t mind the slidin’, the crunchin’, or even the sudden impact . . . it’s wakin’ up to the wife bitchin’ that bums me out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I figured from the outset that by the time yesterday came around, when I had been on the road for 17 days and was headed home, that I would be like a horse headed for the stable. What I didn’t count on was that after a journey of nearly 3,900 miles, I would get stopped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[197,228],"tags":[456],"class_list":["post-3254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colorado-motorcycle-rides","category-motorcycle-touring","tag-speeding-ticket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3254"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5607,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3254\/revisions\/5607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}