My son who was five years old at the time wanted to ride with me on the back of the Electraglide for a few blocks to my fathers house. It was his first time with me on the bike. My father said he would follow us in the truck for safety. Its perfectly legal for him to ride with me as long as he has a footrest which he did, the rear crash bar.
Not a block into the ride I get pulled over be a CHP motorcycle cop on the street. He tells me he pulled me over because my son is to young to be on the bike and his feet do not reach the factory floorboards. i was as polite to the officer as i could possibly be. My father was also witness to the officers conversation. I asked if there was a new age limit law I was not aware of. He said there's no age limit law. I told him I looked into it before the ride and I read all that's required is the passenger must have a footrest. He said my sons feet must reach the factory floorboard and gave me a ticket for VC27800
27800. It is unlawful for a driver of a motorcycle or a motorized bicycle to carry any other person thereon, except on a seat securely fastened to the machine at the rear of the driver and provided with footrests, or in a sidecar attached to a motorcycle and designed for the purpose of carrying a passenger. Every passenger on a motorcycle or a motorized bicycle shall keep his feet on the footrests while such vehicle is in motion.
In court the officer stated my sons feet were supported and agreed with the pictures i provided. To my surprise the Judge then chewed me out for 10 minutes how I should be charged for child endangerment.
When it was my turn to talk i explained there was no age limit. Immediately I was mocked by the judge saying a person could take a 2 year old on a motorcycle as long as his feet were supported. I said I checked the law before I left my house and thought I was legal. The judge said he would need some time to review the law but that he agreed with me that his feet were supported.
After pulling out the vehicle code book flipping pages and saying this doesn't make sense a couple of times out loud. He told me he was going to side with the officer to teach me a lesson about putting my child in a dangerous situation. Also even though the vehicle code doesn't state factory floorboards or pegs that hes going to assume that's what they meant Fine of $204 that he was not going to reduce.
I was in awe. A CHP officer I bumped into 20 minutes later who was present during the hearing told me 199 out of 200 officers wouldn't have giving me the ticket including him. He said that I did a good job proving the vehicle code was unclear and in his opinion the case should have sided with me but that the judge made it clear when he was chewing me out that he doesn't like motorcycles.
I give up!!

 

There is intent and there is the letter of the law... your intent was good, buy by the letter of the law, those are not "footrests", they are crash bars........ the cop was a dick, the judge was a dick..... but look at it this way, YOU GOT TWO DICKS!!!!!

Oh... and if those are the shoes that you actually gave him a ride in.... I would have put him in something with a heel so he would be less likely to slip off your crash bars...eeeerrrrr pegs!

 

I have no moral or safety issues with your setup. The judge obviously didn't grow up on bikes. Better $200 than getting the state involved. Sorry buddy

 

He didnt ride in those shoes just took the pics to show in court. I agree with you her wore boots

 

I'm sorry but I have to side with the judge on this.
I know it's your son and you wanted to give him a ride. But 5 years old is to young to be on a motorcycle even with a parent.

Just my opinion and I'm not trying to open this up to debate of a parents rights.
But I wouldn't let my kids on the back of my bike till they where 13 ..

 

Just another reason I always pay the ticket waiver fine and never go to court....only lawyers win in the court room.

 

You can always appeal?

 

I don't think you can appeal a traffic court case here. Every time that I have sat in traffic court, I have never witnessed someone win. They don't even hide the fact that its a business. Just give me your money and waste as little as our time as possible.
If I could appeal I'm already in the hole $250 a day when I miss work

 

Sad but I figured that one was coming. I know I was on bikes at a younger age than that, times change, now they say u are an unfit parent. I am with you on this one, u did nothing wrong....

 

a 5 year old riding on the back of your bike on a public road ???? That's just nuts. I think the judge got it right.