2015 Police Vehicles

[FJ1200W]

Some great reading here -
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/msp/2015_MY_Police_Vehicle_Evaluation_Test_Book_Compressed_479059_7.pdf
Couple teasers attached -
Enjoy
(and my apologies is this is a re-post)

[Pat Conlon]

We had 6 BMW R1200RT cop bikes here in Palm Desert and they did not last a year.  
Transmission, ring pinyon and rear seal failures took all of them out. They were scrapped, sold at auction for a considerable loss.
The press had a field day. Bad for all involved in buying the expensive BMW's.
In all fairness the BMW dealer kept trying to fix them, until they gave up.
Those bikes were ridden hard, pretty much 18/7 (minus the time they were at the dealers)

The local LEO's now have the Honda ST1300 and they are pretty much bullet proof. Brake pads, tires and oil changes are all they need. I did not see the Honda ST listed in the report, I wonder if they discontinued their police bike in 2015?

It was 122* (50C) today here in the desert, so the air cooled Harley's are not even on the radar screen.

[Bill_Rockoff]

I was lined up behind some car or other today, waiting for enough of a sight-line to make a safe-ish pass across the double yellow.  I looked up to see a Cessna flying low and slow parallel to the road.  The Ducati might or might not outrun a Cessna 172 if I could ride in a straight line, but in the mountains I don't like my chances. 

Plus, those cheatin' SOBs have *radios.*

[fj johnnie]

 The cops here ride Harley's too. Yup, down the super slab with short sleeve shirts. No jacket. Small open face helmets, short sleeves and light pants.

[Pat Conlon]

I was lined up behind some car or other today, waiting for enough of a sight-line to make a safe-ish pass across the double yellow.  I looked up to see a Cessna flying low and slow parallel to the road.  The Ducati might or might not outrun a Cessna 172 if I could ride in a straight line, but in the mountains I don't like my chances. 

Plus, those cheatin' SOBs have *radios.*

Yea, you can't out run a Motorola.....

Those traffic enforcement Cessna's are hard to spot. Once they get interested in a sexy red Italian bike, they can throttle down to ~50mph (44kts clean stall speed) and fly above and behind you, just waiting.... Watching...

Good situational awareness Bill.    Kudos.

[aviationfred]

The Police model FJ.

[balky1]

We had 6 BMW R1200RT cop bikes here in Palm Desert and they did not last a year.  
Transmission, ring pinyon and rear seal failures took all of them out. They were scrapped, sold at auction for a considerable loss.
The press had a field day. Bad for all involved in buying the expensive BMW's.
In all fairness the BMW dealer kept trying to fix them, until they gave up.
Those bikes were ridden hard, pretty much 18/7 (minus the time they were at the dealers)

The local LEO's now have the Honda ST1300 and they are pretty much bullet proof. Brake pads, tires and oil changes are all they need. I did not see the Honda ST listed in the report, I wonder if they discontinued their police bike in 2015?

It was 122* (50C) today here in the desert, so the air cooled Harley's are not even on the radar screen.

Strange to hear that for BMW. Here police ride BMWs for decades. Some bikes are pretty old.

[ribbert]

We had 6 BMW R1200RT cop bikes here in Palm Desert and they did not last a year.  
Transmission, ring pinyon and rear seal failures took all of them out. They were scrapped, sold at auction for a considerable loss.
The press had a field day. Bad for all involved in buying the expensive BMW's.

Those bikes were ridden hard, pretty much 18/7 (minus the time they were at the dealers)

The local LEO's now have the Honda ST1300 and they are pretty much bullet proof. Brake pads, tires and oil changes are all they need. I did not see the Honda ST listed in the report, I wonder if they discontinued their police bike in 2015?

Pat, I know you love hangin' it on BMW's,   but the report is at odds with widespread use of them by Police Depts, 225 of them alone in the US. This sounds more like the cops decided they didn't want them or it was a media beat up, or a bit of both.

Yes BMW boxers have issues (but not enough to keep me away from one) but for me the bike makes it worthwhile and I can fix it cheaply.

My brother has put nearly 200,000kms on his since 2009 and has had bits and pieces replaced, but it has never let him down. With good servicing, anything that was showing signs of wear was detected well before it became an issue. If you were paying someone to fix it however, you would need pretty deep pockets.

I have a friend who has been servicing Police BMW's for decades and has another 3500 (no, that's not a typo) regular customers, ALL BMW's, he simply doesn't (won't) have anything else in the shop.

The experience as reported by your local cops is simply not indicative of their reliability, and across 6 bikes unbelievable.

Regarding their running 18/7, as you know the worst thing you can do for your bike is start it. A low cold start / mileage ratio will kill an engine quicker than anything and is why taxis and courier vans etc do such incredible mileages, on crappy oil and without any particular care, they're always at running temp.

As far as the heat goes, until relatively recent times, air cooled boxers have been the mount of choice for every adventurer crossing the most hostile and hot places on the planet for decades. Their 360 deg cooling around the cylinders makes them like a stationary motor. I know first hand you can leave them idling in 48 deg temps without getting hot (although air cooled, they do have temp gauges) the gauge doesn't even rise.

ST 1300's were withdrawn from service in the UK following widespread complaints of dangerous handling and the death of a cop attributed to it, brought it to a head.

Just a bit of trivia:  There are many reasons why the cops like BMW RT's, but one of them is they often drop them getting off in a hurry and they don't fall right over, making it easy for them to pick them up single handedly. I can't imagine the bloke you just booked or arrested offering you a hand. Another odd one is the fairings are best suited for large logo placement.


Nice to see an Aussie car at the top of the list!


Noel

None of the above is my opinion (other than the Aussie car reference)

[Firehawk068]

Interesting bunch of info.

I am surprised that they did not include the Honda ST1300? (who rocks a MotoGuzzi California anyway?)

Currently, at the County we use ST1300PA's exclusively. They are a pretty durable bike. They do have some issues though, however I'm pretty sure they are a lesser cost to the taxpayers over their life than the other brands. They tend to have clutch and cooling system problems during the hot summer months. (when they are used for training, they most always come in for a clutch replacement)

City of Aurora uses a fleet of BMW's for their motorcycle duty. I see them all over the place.

We sent the last 2 Harleys that were in our fleet to auction a little over a year ago. Both of them included a box of parts (at least, the parts they could find) that came out of the engines. (No joke!) 

I'm not surprised that Harley decided to withhold their horsepower figures.  At 65-70 horsepower, they probably figured they wouldn't sell any bikes.
Their torque figure is good, but that only gets the heavy bike from 0-45 mph. After that, they suck!

No surprises with the car testing.
We pretty much have all of those models in our current fleet.

We are phasing out the Dodge Chargers however. We have experienced a lot of engine related failures with the Hemi V8's, and also the front suspensions fall apart with the "Heavy Use" that the cars are put through.
Any new patrol vehicles that the County is purchasing, have been exclusively Ford Interceptor, and Interceptor Utility models for the past 3 years.

[Pat Conlon]

Hey Noel, I knew my post would ruffle your feathers....I like BMW's, they are good bikes. The cops liked the handling of the BMW's over the Honda ST's.