Police Motors

The California Highway Patrol had a cool booth at the Long Beach Motorcycle Show this past weekend, including two of their latest motorcycles – the Kawasaki Concours police version and the  tried and true Harley Davidson.   Cool bikes.   First, a shot of the mighty 103 cubic inch Harley…

The Harley is a cool bike, and I was able to hear it run when the CHP motor officer rode it past our booth.    It sounds like you would expect a big-inch V-twin to sound (which is cool).    It’s a 103 cubic inch engine…

103 cubic inches.   Wow!   That’s just under 1700cc, which means the engine in this Harley is just a little bit smaller than the engine in my Subaru.  Or, stated differently, it’s more than 11 times the size of the engine in my Baja Blaster CSC 150.

Here’s another shot of the Harley…

And here’s a photo of the cockpit gadgetry this bike carries, including what I’m guessing is a personal reminder of some sort…

One of the CHP motor officers told me that the CHP is also using the Kawasaki 1400 Concours as a police motorcycle.   The one at the show is the first Kawasaki Concours CHP bike I’ve ever seen.    1400cc…that’s still a lot of motor.   1400cc is about 85 cubic inches.    They used the KZ1000P Kawasaki for years, and of course, that’s the motorcycle that starred in the TV “CHiPs” series.   Jon and Ponch were in it, too, but I think they played bit roles compared to the Kawi police bikes.

I think the Kawasaki Concours makes for a good-looking police motorcycle…

My guess is that the Kawasaki would probably outperform the Harley.   That notwithstanding, the CHP is phasing out the Kawasaki police bike and they will exclusively use Harleys once the Kawasakis are retired.   It’s all based on meeting the CHP specification at the lowest cost (and not which bike offers the best performance).

When I wrote the The Complete Book of Police and Military Motorcycles a few years ago, virtually every motor officer I interviewed also rode recreationally.  It’s kind of funny…a few years ago, every officer felt that the BMW was unquestionably the best police bike, and every one of them said the reason they felt that way was BMW was the only motorcycle offering an anti-skid braking system (bear in mind this was more than a decade ago).   Even with their feelings about BMW having the best police motorcycle, nearly all of the motor officers owned Harleys as their personal bikes.   The motor officer in charge of the Ontario, California police motor officer squad was the only exception:   His personal ride was a Triumph Speed Triple.

Well, with all this business about police motorcycles at the Long Beach show, you’re probably wondering why we have such an interest.   Funny you should ask…

Hey, you never know…you might just be seeing Jon and Ponch on RX-3 motorcycles next year!