My wife and I were returning to Colorado Springs East bound on Highway 24 from a 3+ hour ride. We had already seen a high level of law enforcement on Highway 24 and were carefully doing about 5 mph over the speed limit when we passed a CSP cruiser sitting in the median. We thought nothing of it. But, about a mile later, we saw telltale blue and red lights behind us and that same cruiser making his way through traffic. Like other vehicles behind us, we pulled over into the right lane to let him pass but he didn't. He caught up with and paced me. So, finally, thinking I was going to get a speeding ticket for 5 mph over, I pulled over, the officer pulled over behind me, and my wife pulled over behind his cruiser.

He got out of his Crown Victoria and walked up to me. Before he could speak, I raised my visor and told him that I had earplugs in and I wouldn't be able to hear him until I took my helmet off. He looked at my wife and her bike behind his cruiser and asked me, "Is that your friend?”. I said, "No, that's my wife." He had a visible reaction to that.

I pulled my helmet off and he had another visible reaction. My helmet off and earplugs out, he said he'd stopped me because of my license plate. It was mounted in such a way as other sportbike riders mount them to evade law enforcement and to run from him. I explained that I only had mine mounted that way for aesthetics and aerodynamics. He remarked that we didn't look like the kind of people that would run. I assured him, we weren’t.

He asked for our driver's licenses, noted our plate numbers, and went to his cruiser for a couple of minutes. Then he emerged smiling. As he approached us, he said, "I hope you aren't offended by me saying this but you're the oldest people I've ever stopped on these kind of motorcycles." We all laughed at that. He went on to say that our tire wear marks (chicken lines) were much farther out than any he normally sees, that most young people's tires are worn only in the middle, no wear at all on the sides.

He also told us about the young people on sportbikes that outrun and attempt to outrun him, a fairly common occurrence. I was surprised to hear that these events happened frequently for him.

He was a gentleman and owns an '04 GSX-R750; he knows what these bikes are for and what we do with them.

Lee