I just finished a photo shoot with Andy Reynolds for Seattle Metropolitan magazine. He had a few ideas, but the one that was the most fun to shoot was the wheelie shot. We went just down the street from my mothers home to find a little green field to shoot in front of. I then spent about 20 minutes driving back and forth over and over the same 100 feet of road doing wheelies in front of the camera. With the busa’s 1300cc engine, it’s not hard to bring the front wheel up… just cruise at 3500 rpm and goose it… it’s raise up on you. I’m interested to see what work might be done to the photo when it goes to press (if they choose that shot).
After we spent a couple rolls of film, he started packing up and I drove off down the back roads to have a bit more fun before meeting him back at my mother’s house to shoot some different ideas. About 45 seconds later and a mile away, I was pulled over by two county sheriffs for going, well, extremely fast in a 35mph zone. They also said they had reports of a motorcycle terrorizing the neighborhood, doing burnouts in people’s driveways and doing wheelies from one end of quiet residential streets to the other. My how people exaggerate when they call the cops. Anyhow, when I passed the first sheriff who was hiding a bit in someone’s driveway, I just pulled right over and took my helmet off before he even had a chance to pull out or switch his lights on. I usually find that no matter what I’m driving, if I just pull over before they have to chase me down… if I can do it fast enough so I’m pulled over while they are still busy trying to pull into traffic, I find I usually get warnings rather than tickets. This was no exception to that rule. Let’s examine… I was going over double the speed limit. I had forgotten my wallet at my moms (no license on me). There were reports of a motorcycle terrorizing the neighborhood. I get off with a “big ass warning”. I’m not trying to be a smug prick about it here, I really do appreciate the fact that the authorities are willing to be so lenient with me… I’m just surprised at how quickly police become so jaded with the public to the point where someone who knows they did wrong will just pull over and accept the blame will get a warning and people that continue on down the road, trying like a little child to pretend it didn’t happen yet staring in the rear view waiting for the punishment to catch up with them, will get a ticket… actually, you know what… scratch that… I’m jaded with the public too.
Funny story… I was once rear ended by a guy who had been annoying me on the road for some time. Once he hit me, I got out expecting to at least exchange some hot and heavy words with the guy. I opened my door, jumped out and started toward the guy… but once I got a good look at him through his windshield, I realized it was someone I knew. The entire attitude of the discussion changed instantly, even before the first word was spoken. We bantered a bit about it and later that week he took me out to dinner, where I gave him crap about his bad driving. I guess my point is, before I knew who it was, he was “the public”… I had no patience nor sympathy for “the public”… and “the public” just completely wrecked my car and put my life in mortal danger by physically attacking me with a 4 wheeled 2000 pound weapon of mass destruction. However, once I realized I knew the person, it suddenly became a silly accident with only a minor dent you could hardly see. I guess I can see how the police might feel the same way about a person accepting responsibility and just pulling over before having to be chased down.
