New BMW police bike

[Boxerboy]

These things sell at auction here for around OZ$8-11K after 40K kilometers.
Or at least the 1150 version does.

http://www.bmw-motorrad.co.za/bikes/news/display.asp?Id=405

[DarthRider]

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/52717812-M.jpg

[TorqueMonsterMT-01]

It sounds like they are just broken in!

That is a good deal.

[RiceBurner]

I can deffo see me having one of those 1200RT-Ps when they're 2nd hand. :)

[Dallara]

But oddly enough...

What do you think the Berlin Police (Polizei) department is riding?


http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/53723555-M.jpg

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/53723550-M.jpg

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/53723553-M.jpg



Weird, huh? Here they have a great home country built Police motorcycle like the BMW R1150RTP/R1200RTP and they go with a Japanese built sport tourer police bike conversion...

And over there I doubt it could be the price issue. (That's a 2005 Yamaha FJR-1300, by the way)

Cheers!

Allan (Dallara - Proud to be Banned Where Mods Think They're Gods)

[arkline]

I might like one of these, tricked out this way, so that I could cut through the afternoon traffic without fear of recrimination. Once they notice you're not really a cop, it is way too late....Not enough flashy blue lights though.
http://powersports.honda.com/images/police_cruiser/pc1300_main.jpg

[Dallara]

Ya' know...

Given that Police departments can now get BMW R1150RTP's/R1200RTP's, Honda ST1300P's, and Yamaha FJR1300 police bikes...

Being a motor cop has got to be a lot more fun than the days when your only choices were Harley's or Ponch and John's Kawasaki KZ1000P's...

At lot more comfy, too.

A bit of useless trivia here - Did you know that when Kawasaki first released their Z-1 based KZ-1000 Police models that they had to speed limit them to no more than 115 MPH? Why, you may ask?

Because with the windshield fairing arrangement they had the bikes would get into a wicked aerodynamic induced weaving headshake if the speed went any higher. Kawasaki worked diligently to solve this problem, but for a while they were stumped. The final solution was the addition of a rather huge weight hung in between the fork tubes between the triple clamps to change the polar moment of the front end around the steering head.

Still, even after this modification was in place Kawasaki placed a very conspicuous warning label on the bikes stating that they should still not be operated above that speed.

In other words, quite often the police cruiser Ford Crown Vic's and Chevy Impala's were rated for higher pursuit velocities than Kawasaki's cop bikes!

Weird, huh?

Cheers!

Allan (Dallara - Proud to be Banned Where Mods Think They're Gods)

[arkline]

Given the wide variety available to the various and sundry police organizations around the country, buying a pretty well broken in bike should be easy...:)

[DJ Down Under]

Anyone know what country this is....and what it is that they're riding? http://members.optusnet.com.au/~djp1/mypic1803.jpg

DJ

[arkline]

DJ,

Isn't the follow-on model to the Suzuki GT 750 Water Buffalo????

[Promethean]

Considering that they're riding on the left side of the road...there are several possibilities.

-Abhijeet


Anyone know what country this is....and what it is that they're riding? http://members.optusnet.com.au/~djp1/mypic1803.jpg

DJ

[fnfalman]

BMW releases also the K1200GT police version as well.

[Boxerboy]

Anyone know what country this is....and what it is that they're riding? http://members.optusnet.com.au/~djp1/mypic1803.jpg

DJ

Are they riding armadillos?:)

[TorqueMonsterMT-01]

Allan;
I can't speak for the Police bikes, but my 75 KZ900 had a serious high speed wobble at around 120 mph. It didn't do it every time, just when it wanted to. Straight line, smooth highway, all of a sudden, wham wham wham wham. Scary stuff.

[Dallara]

Double weird, TorqueMonsterMT-01...

I actually ended up owning TWO different 1974/75 KZ-900's (Z-1A's in Kawasaki's internal parlance... though they were both sold to me as 1975 Z-1B's), and both of them were that deep-dark green with the hideous collection of green and yellow stripes all over the place... Just like these:

http://www.beezeees.com/partimages/bfs/z1a/rhsnews.jpg

http://www.classicbikes.co.uk/images/z1aconcours505.jpg

http://www.classicbikes.co.uk/images/z1aconcours501.jpg

(Only I was so stupid as to have thrown away the stock pipes and put headers on both of them... And don't get too concerned about the model year discrepancy. Remember that 1975 was the year all the US federal law changed about all that model year hokum...)

The weird thing?

Both of them were the best handling Z-1's/KZ-900's/KZ-1000's I ever rode. Neither ever wiggled or wobbled unless there were some pavement irregularities... Though neither was exactly confindence inspiring near the limit when cornering.

Oddly enough, one's engine ran CONSIDERABLY stronger than the other. The first one I got felt like the slowest Z-1 I had ever ridden, and no amount of tuning, fiddling, jetting, etc. ever made it feel very stout. The original "New York Steak" red-on-red Z-1's I had ridden would jerk the side covers off my first one... However, the second one ran stronger than a mare's breath, and was far smoother vibration-wise, too.

Both were trade-in's at a Honda shop I worked at... The first one only having about 900 miles on it when I got it, and about 3,000 when I sold it. The second had about 1,500 miles on it when it was traded in, and I sold it with about 4,500 miles on it. (both were traded in on Honda GL-1000 Gold Wing's, BTW)

One thing I discovered when a buddy of mine and I were occasionally endurance racing his Z-1-based racer (which wobbled and wiggled worse than any one I ever rode). The wheels were mis-aligned on a bunch of Kawasaki's back in those days. We finally discovered that the rear wheel on his was nearly a half-inch off to the right compared to the front and the centerline of the frame. We measured a bunch of them and found the same thing. We also heard of Z-1's not having the steering head perpedicular to the ground or square with the frame (perpendicular with the axles), though that was not the case with his. We had to make up some different rear wheel spacers to try to get the wheels aligned, but we never could get them dead-lined up because then the sprockets wouldn't line up!

We also discovered that its chain adjustment marks were so far off that we ended up grinding them off and making our own!

Still, that pig never handled right, and I swore was going to kill me damn near every time I rode it.

Point of all this?

Well, essentially that apparently Kawasaki's quality control regarding frame construction was rather dubious at best... At least for a few years.

Hence, some were built on *good* days, while others... Well... :embarassed:

Good to know these days, TorqueMonster, that that kind of thing is now just part of our past!

Cheers!

Allan (Dallara - The Rubber-Banned Man)

[TorqueMonsterMT-01]

Good to know these days, TorqueMonster, that that kind of thing is now just part of our past!

You can say that again. I used to do the stupidest things on my KZ. (Mine was custom painted when I bought it used from a guy who never rode it, so I don't know the original color.)

Speaking of the mis-alignment issues. i sold the bike after three years with about 40k of my own miles added to the 600 that were on it when I got it.

The guy that bought it stripped it down to powder coat the frame , chrome the swingarm and generally customize the entire bike within a stock looking setup. It was sweet. He told me that he never checked the alignment before stripping it, but he took a lot of care aligning things when he put it back together. I know this because I warned him about the wobble, but he says he never once found it.

I'm guessing the things you mentioned played a big role.


Speaking of the power delivery between the two you had. If I'm not mistaken, the 75 model had some improvements in the cam chain gear setup as well as some nylon bushings in the cam bearings. Maybe that had an affect on power too.

I had my crank welded by some drag racing buddies and I installed a 1050 bore kit with some cams and a kerker exhaust. That bike was very very fast for it's time, but would still run with some modern bikes in a straight line. It was a good experience ownig the KZ.

[DJ Down Under]

Boxerboy said...


Originally Posted by DJ Down Under
Anyone know what country this is....and what it is that they're riding? http://members.optusnet.com.au/~djp1/mypic1803.jpg

DJ


Are they riding armadillos?

Hey boxerboy...I'm not really sure...but I don't think Armadillo's grow that big.

DJ

[RiceBurner]

Anyone know what country this is....and what it is that they're riding? http://members.optusnet.com.au/~djp1/mypic1803.jpg

DJ
Bog standard Met Riot Squad.

;)