How come people who drive those "sport" bikes are always missing license, insurance, or registration?

Question

My friend is a cop, and he says he always pulls them over whenever he sees them, because their documents are always illegit. They are always missing something. Knowing this, why are the people that ride them turning them into cop magnets?

Answer 1

It's not just sport bike riders. I've stopped quite a few cruiser style bikes for riding stupid only to find the rider didn't have a motorcycle license. However, I would say the majority, though not by a whole lot, were sport bike kids who didn't have a Class M license.

I had one just three days ago put his feet on the back pegs, crouch behind the windscreen and open it up through traffic. I stopped him to find, surprise, no motorcycle license. His response was, "I didn't know I needed to get one".

What I liked the most was his surprise and reaction when I pulled my Police HARLEY in front of his Gixxer 600 and pointed him to the shoulder. He just hung his head. Sorry sport bike folks, I just had to twist that one in a little bit :)

Oh, and for the record, I didn't even give him a ticket for the license, weaving through traffic, or the speeding. I simply gave him a warning, seeing as how my ticket book happened to be empty.

Moral of the story, don't ride like a fool and you won't attract unwanted attention.

Answer 2

'always' is perhaps not the best word to use. a experience police traffic officer doesn't pull over a 'type' of vehicle without cause- maybe a experienced 'hunch' based on the previous finds, but more often on a short observation of the attractive nuisance vehicle of the silly riders inexperience is obvious. The traffic officer statistics regarding deaths and other disasters of the particular vehicle is another factor-- a short wheelbase Jeep CJ5 doing 70 mph legal limit is statistically more likely to loose control than a Wagoner or CJ6- so pull it over if it does anything close to wobble and check it out, slow the driver down. A sports bike has some statistically higher crash and death rates than registered numbers ratio compared to cruisers or even choppers- so slow the rider down, run the tags, insurance and license, give a warning if appropriate and come down hard on the unlicensed new riders so they can survive until next season, pay some tax's awhile longer. A sports bike doing 19 miles over the limit ridden by a gray beard with the AARP card and very old motorcycle license just gets a warning after the tag check, insurance card presented- even if 3 other police cars had joined the chase. The second time?- well, a 19 mph over ticket can be paid off without going to court, it is a convenient ticket to issue even if the speed over was a bit more than 20- (but at least not over 50).

Answer 3

"I agree w/ jkc6229...Most people that ride sportbikes are Particularly "Squids". Most of them are Young, Aggresive, Irresponsible & Inexperienced Newbie Riders. It takes a lot of Restraint, Discipline & responsibility to ride those sportbikes+you have must have the know-how skills & Proper Documentation w/ your bike. I have been riding motorcycles everyday(don't have a car) for 9 years now...8 bikes owned all that time, toured 4 States + Canada Under My experience belt so i know what i'm talking about here. Reasons why cops pull over sportbikes aside than the missing proper documentation of the bike are: loud/illegal exhaust pipes, speeding, unnecessary weaving in/out of traffic and hotdogging or showing-off. When a cop pulls you over & asks for your documents...be sure everything's updated & have them ready and be polite, honest & give them back the respect (like calling you Sir/Mam) the officer gave you. In all my 9 years of riding...iv'e been only pulled 5X & it's usually either Warnings or my turn signal wasn't working..etc..etc...But never Moving Violations because i always followed the rules. To Top that, i'm 45 yrs.old & they're usually easy on you at this age +(If you have a clean record & Have no Moving Violations, usually They let you go w/ only a warning.) Keep this in mind: We motorcyclist are usually prone to be stopped by cops due to the fact that we're 16X more likely to be in an accident OR Killed rather than cage drivers & They (cops) Have to make sure that we know what we're doing. That's one of the reasons why most can't get a M1 license w/o having a Car license first ( it's a special endorsement).It really doesn't take a lot to get killed on a motorcycle if one's not properly trained to ride it. Riding a motorcycle specially a sportbike is kinda like flying a low-altitude cruise missile w/ 2 wheels attached to it. I hope this answers your question".....

Answer 4

Sportbikes are a magnet for the young and inexperienced, but that's not why they are not carrying the required documents.

Sportbikes are usually targetted by insurance companies, governments, and unfortunately cops just for being sportbikes.

Governments raise the registration rates for sportbikes because their riders are deemed irresponsible by some. Some sportbike riders will be paying more than $1,300 just to register their bikes.

Insurance companies penalize sportbike riders for making too many claims and jack up their rates. A young person can pay $4,000 just to insure their bike.

Cops hassle sporbike riders for having noisy exhausts. Some do, but none I have ever heard are nearly as loud as most cruiser bikes I seen. Sportbikes are the minority in North america and cruiser bikes that have exhausts that are 5 or 10 times louder don't even get noticed by the cops. Then you have the smart cops that test your exhaust by inserting a flattened coat hanger in it. If it goes all the way in, its an illegal exhaust can. As if thats a valid test. Therefore sportbike riders are issued more tickets on average.

All these points I mentioned mean that sportbike riders are forced to pay more just for the pleasure of riding a sportbike. So most (usually younger riders) choose to go without insurance, or don't/can't pay tickets, or don't renew their registration because they can't afford it. Once in a while they'll go out for a joy ride and will get pulled over by a profiling cop.

In my opinion (which is also called common sense by those who still have it) registering a motor vehicle is a flat fee...for all vehicles. It's a simple fee which is intended to compensate the government agency that creates a folder in their database with your specific vehicle and identity information. The cost of doing that doesn't increase with the type of vehicle that is registered.

Concerning insurance, have the riders with bad records pay more, instead of burdening all sportbike risers with the actions of a few.

And have cops go after all bikes with noisy exhausts...and please come up with more scientific tests (such as a decibel meter) in order to determine what is legal and what is not.

Your cop friend should not be profiling sportbikes. This is a bad practise that should get him diciplined. Although I doubt it, as common sense has gone the way of the dinosaur.

Ride Safe!

Answer 5

They're mostly riders who are young and interested in a flashy bike and speed. They don't think about the legal issues. Their only concern is how fast they can go. Some probably think they could just out run the cop. It's just immature riders. As far as the argument that there is no room to store license, insurance and registration on a bike, that's just not true. Are these guys riding naked? I keep my license, insurance card and registration card in my wallet in my pocket. There's no excuse for not having these items.

Answer 6

I keep all my documents under the seat. I think some of you are stereotyping just a little bit. There is more to sportbikes than just going fast. 9 out of 10 bikes you see on the road are driven responsibly, but you don't see us. Those few idiots that go untagged, no license, no insurance, ride drunk, and so on are the ones that stick out in your mind. Those are the same idiots that drive their cars in the same condition. You cannot define a persons character or level of responsibility by how much plastic is on their bike.

Answer 7

****this question was made to piss people off. note the use of "always" and the generalization of a group in a negative light by way of a question.***

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A sign warning not to "feed the trolls".
A sign warning not to "feed the trolls".

Experienced participants in online forums know that the most effective way to discourage a troll is usually to ignore him or her, because responding encourages a true troll to continue disruptive posts — hence the often-seen warning "Please do not feed the troll".[citation needed]

Answer 8

Because they're usually 18. Once they hit 25 the crotch rocket kids don't ride anymore. They either have to sell the bike for $30 to support their fat pregnant girlfriend or they hit a tree going 80.

Answer 9

In my experience, as a licensed long time rider, I have to agree with you for the most part. The trouble is that those bikes - flashy, fast, relatively inexpensive and easy to handle - attract mainly young, inexperienced guys. They're testosterone rockets (both the bikes and the guys) not good for much else than riding at full throttle for short distances.

Far too many of those kids don't bother getting licensed - they just hop on, so sure they can handle it. I have seen way too many crotch-rockets smashed up on the road, along with their smashed up drivers.

But, that being said.... they are fun to ride!

Answer 10

You think maybe the Jokker is doing a little Profiling concerning the original poster ?