Police motorcycles, especially the traditional Harley-Davidson models here in the United States, aren’t exactly light or nimble. That’s why their motorcycle training and skills courses are fairly rigorous. Here in Philadelphia, for example, it takes 80 hours of training to earn Highway Patrol wings. There are also competitions, sometimes called police rodeos, that mirror the civilian moto gymkhana scene with their twisted traffic cone courses. How quickly can a Harley scrape through one of these exercises, you ask? Here's the best run at the recent Keystone State Motorcycle Skills Safety Seminar.
Motorcycle police are rarely involved in high-speed pursuits for a number of reasons. (An obvious one being that many motorcycles will show a clean pair of heels to a Big Twin and all its extra equipment.) No wonder the police focus on low-speed maneuverability and control. A 20-year-old literbike could easily lose these police bikes in a straight line, sure, but an urban pursuit might be a different story.
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