Well yesterday a pack of twelve of us was headed for Rolling Thunder in DC about a hundred mile ride. A MD state trooper was headed the other way on a 55 mph road and turned around and pulled three of the twelve bikes over with myself being one of them. We didnt even make it 8 miles from home. The officer was very arrogant wich is usually not the case with the MD state police. I asked if we were speeding or something and he said we didnt have the proper DOT headgear and we were not speeding. I didnt argue that point but he never even looked at any of the helments for inspection. Here is when it got crazy as he said he would not let us go with out DOT helments and that if we didnt get them we would have to have bikes towed and if we left with out the proper helment anyway he would have us arrested. So we sat on the side of highway for over an hour trying to find helments while the officer watched us from down the road. I then called the state police headquarters from where the officer was located and talked to the supervisor on hand and asked for his advice and after explaining the scenario he told us we were free to go and he would pull off the officer and that he shouldnt have kept us on the shoulder of a highway and that we couldnt be arrested for leaving. The supervisor said that the helment ticket was much differant then an inspection sticker you would recieve for having a bulb out or something. I just think it was odd because all the friends that I know and myself have never been bothered about the non DOT helments. The ticket is for 70$ and all of us are probaly going to go to court just because of how everything was handled. After talking to supervisor it sounded like this was not the first complaint on this officer. Because of the long hold up we didnt even make it to Rolling Thinder and that is what makes me the maddest oh well thanks for letting me vent. Please post any other stories similar to this one.

 

Every time I go to buy a non-DOT, this is what I think of.

Sorry you couldnt make it down.

 

Wow that sucks, sorry to hear you missed it. We have a small town near by that most bikers stay away from. They will ticket you for your pipes and helmet $250 each! My buddy got a $500 ticket last year. I switched from a skid lid to the DOT carbon fiber and i'm loving it.

 

That is pretty lame for a trooper. Doesn't he have drunk cagers to look for?

 

Did you guys files a formal complaint on him? Also go to court on it! good luck!

 

The cop was pissed. Holliday weekend and he had to work while you guys were out riding and having fun. You can buy bogus DOT stickers for your helmets. Maybe the judge will throw out the tickets seeing that the cop harassed you and put you in harms way on the side of the road. Good luck...................BG

 

Sorry you missed the ride Roady [:@]

 

Yeah missing the ride to the Wall is what had me mad as heck. Last year I was out of town for work and really was looking forward to this year. I do plan on going to court but how do plead and what do you say ? I always respect police officers by saying yes sir, no sir , and so on but he almost had me stooping to his level. I have some good friends in law enforcement and they said he was probaly mad because of having to work the weekend also. If we were goofing off and deserved the ticket I would have no problem with the officer at all and this thread wouldnt even be here but that wasnt the case at all. Thanks for the supporting replies.

 

with all the idiots on the road, you'd think they'd have better things, more important things to do.....

 

There certainly are a lot more crazy things going on around here then what we did. I think that someone on a motorcycle must have made him real mad to single us out like that.