Oh well... After active duy MIL, and my only skills being how to sneak around and kill people, and finishing college to make sure I could be employed with the "finer points" of such skills while demonstrating that I was edumacated... I just recently retired from law enforcement. It's a mentality that you must be prepared to deal with, and unfortunately, sportbike owners are "their own worst enemy".
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To be really clear here, and after watching this forum for a few months, most ZX14 owners are NOT the problem - it's the other millions (and I mean millions!!!) of other ZX, GSX, CBR, unwashed masses, etc., that pose the problem.
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I'd like, however..., to offer some ideas, thoughts, etc., to those contemplating the "need for speed"...
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Pissing Off The Police (Dragon Baiting...), and a historical perspective of how the dragons react to folks who like to drive fast machines...
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Groomlake's Police Rule of Profiling: If the duck looks like a testosterone crazed sportbike duck, and quacks like someone out of a Mel Gibson apocalypse death-biker movie, and has their duck bike tricked out to do things, then it's possible... Just maybe, yah know, they might be in the "could be up to no good" category....
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Groomlake's Police Rule of Probable Cause: If the duck flies by doing all kinds of illegal things and Officer Friendly follows the duck to the pond... Then it's duck for supper...
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Never assume that what Channel 5 (or any other television media, for that matter) shows on the evening news was fair and balanced.
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The police peoples see sportbikes (yum yum!!), follow us, and try to stop ua from stunting, follow us with police peoples blue light thingy's, and when anyone on a sportbike refuses to stop, and speed off into the night... That's when the police peoples (by now thoroughly pissed off....) arrive on the scene of pit stops, etc. Well... down go the ducks...
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Now for the Deja Vu... As in history inevitably repeats itself when players do the same thing again...
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I'll say it yet again (and again... as in over and over again): Don't poke sharp sticks in the dragon's eyes. All you do is wake the sleeping dragon, it's hungry, you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup...
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I know that there are probably a few members on this forum who date back to the halcyon days of the "muscle car", "hot rod", "cruising", and of course what killed it - street racing. I was there... had the "rides", still have a t-shirt, etc.
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It really started in the early 1960's. American Grafitti comes to mind...
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By 1969 however, the dragons were stirring all over the place. Local ordinances like more than 2 vehicles "loitering" in the same parking lot, state laws all over the place banning anything to modify a "muscle car" (it got so bad in Virginia by 1974 that exhaust headers and any wheel that was larger than a stock factory wheel were declared illegal).
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By the mid-70's, the "muscle car" party was over... Dead, arrested, denied insurance, harrassed by the police peoples, all to the point of extinction. Most however, had gotten married, a job, kids, etc., and no longer had the money to play the game. Not to mention their wives and girlfriends threatening bodily injury if they continued down the ole' hot-rod road to perdition...
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Sound familiar?
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The "muscle car" industry was about defunct by 1974, except cosmetics. The insurance industry, state and local 'guvmint's, and the feds had basically made it too expensive to "play" (unless you were 35 years old or better... and statistically had some common sense). What really killed it in 1979 was the oil crisis (an excuse by the oil industry to raise gas prices by up to 500%). 97 octane at .40 cents a gallon when I left was now $2.50 a gallon). And you could no longer find the nice 104 octane for the 13:1 pistons in your ride.
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For me? The party was over... I went "underground" with all my succesive "muscle car" rides, and never, ever violated a traffic law anytime I was motivating. By then... I had discovered "hot rod" motorcycles... LOL!!!
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If I had to think about the one thing that probably led to my survival with a 426 Hemi Roadrunner (among other insane rides through about 1983...) was the fact that I did NOT jack the rear end up, have mag wheels, and made sure that I really, really good (expensive...) mufflers.
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There's little if any "street scene" like the old days... For cars anyways... The folks with the "fast and furious" rides have already come under the breath of the dragon, and they too are learning the lesson... the hard way... The dragons have become far more sophisticated with equipment, tactics and techniques to end street racing, stunting, drifting, etc.
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There's some "moral" to the story...
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The "moral" is that if we, the current sportbike and superbike owners keep screwing around.... then the dragons will make sure that OUR bikes will go the way of the "muscle cars". Simply legislated, ordinanced out of existence, or forced by the insurance industry to drive something else.
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Like a blue Prius...
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Just some thoughts from a now retired LEO with gobs of experience in watching how the "thin blue line" screws with targets of opportunity...

Carry luggage and don't buy flashy colors.

Interesting story and quite applicable to motorcyclists of today. My bigger concern however is the increased militarization of law enforcement and the targeted policing, arrest, and imprisonment of minorities, the poor and the disenfranchised. Things have changed quite a bit, and for the worse since my dad was a CHP in the 50's-60's or when I went through the academy in the 70's. After obtaining my AA in Admin of Justice and going through the academy, came to the conclusion that I couldn't work for such an organization. Good decision...

Not that I think it would get me out of a ticket, but I think the coloration of my riding gear disarms LEOs. Pretty clear that even if I'm riding aggressive, I'm advertising safety over being cool. Being cool often translates into just the type of dick cops like to mess with (and generally for good reason ime).

It could be geo-cultural too. Around here cops tend to understand that a rider that's more aggressive may not be any more danger, but actually doing so to ride safer. I've spoke with a few LEOs from time to time, most understand that bikes face a lot of risks and danger out there and might go 20 over to get out of a bad situation.

well thought out post groom... Something to think about

Not that I think it would get me out of a ticket, but I think the coloration of my riding gear disarms LEOs.

* Last updated by: Rook on 11/1/2014 @ 12:36 PM *

to those contemplating the "need for speed"...

I find that wearing non-flashy gear and rocking luggage helps me fly below the radar.

That and choosing the proper time and place for shenanigans helps.

YMMV

ALWAYS choose the time and place for shenanigans. Or you might get whacked witha shillelagh

Worked as a Police Officer for 6 years while I was going to college, know how it feels to be on the "other" side.

Loud exhaust is like wearing a sign that says "Please stop me" on your back. First reaction when you hear a loud exhaust is to turn and look, guess what, it's the first reaction of an officer too! I prefer like Rook said to "carefully" choose my time and place. If you ain't on the radar you ain't gonna get shot down.

If you do get stopped, and I can't emphasize this enough, "BE POLITE and RESPECTFUL"!!!!!! The Police Officer might just be in a bad mood because the last person he delt with was an Ahole, don't compound your problem by being the same way.

Groomlake make a LOT of good points, we could very well be the instruments of our own demize!!!

If we can't police ourselves, we'll be policed by the law until it isn't fun anymore.

Local anecdotes section (LOL!!!)...
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Couple weeks ago I'm down at the local "peeples" bike accessory store (there's only one here, LOL!!!) negotiating a Godfather deal on the Yoshi headers, etc. The local "motor unit" OIC shows up and we was all friendly and talked about all kinds of policely things and other neat things. Well after the social amenities were properly dispensed with... we started to discuss the local sportbike "scene".
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At the shift roll call (for you non-police folks - that's the first 20 minutes of your shift to bring you up to speed on what's happening, get coffee, do the political rounds if it's day shift, etc.) any complaints about the godless, pot smoking, daughter molestin', no-count, smelly feet, and general miscreants of the sportbike world are reviewed. And then they plot and plan... The midnight shift (which starts at 11:00 PM...) dragons are prepped, and while they are certainly looking for other more socially meaningful crimes..., they also are sharpening their shish-kabob skewers in anticipation of a close encounter of the 4th kind.
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4th kind, you say? yah, that's the same as 3rd kind, but they get to do some probing, etc... Dragons are easily amused, in many ways, and the mere thought of catching a pimpled out idiot with an attitude on a Gixxer for any reason just seems to release the philosphical hard-on chems into their reptilian cortex. Been there, done that!!! Give me a target!!! Make it fun!!
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Don't laugh, my esteemed brethren!! No-sirree!!! That's what the dragons do! Police operations are rarely pro-active in the sense that they want to prevent crime (although they will argue that point...). If I tell you crimes are being committed in an area and you shift your attention, then that's NOT pro-active, that's reactive...
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Forget pro-active; primarily because that's a mind-set that means you, as a police peep, are willing to reduce crime (and the crazy bikers...) down to a level that means you don't need so many police, jail staff, etc. Now that's just not gonna' happen what with unions, police/ corrections voting blocks.
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To justify the police manning, equipment, and funding levels, you have to have an enemy!!! Orwell and others come to mind.
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This argument, or "modus operandi", to use the policely catchy term.. is prevalent here, and after discussing who's doing whatever on two wheels that can be construed as a "free food" ad for the dragons, I can only come to the conclusion, at least here, that the local constabulary has at least embraced the mission of sportbike extinction. Or at least being able to tell the fine, upstanding, august, and well respected city and county elders that they are working on eliminating this most recent example of the downfall of society and public welfare as we know it in the western world....
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I wonder what would happen if the owner of the other ZX14R here was to "jihadi up" (the scarf, beard, and call himself Abdul when stopped and asked to identify himself?
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The strategy for LE is to self-sustain their jobs, and satisfy the local politics. Sportbikes are just a convenient tool.
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We would do well, of course, to "infiltrate" and recon our own local jurisdictions. Whenever you are stopped, or have a chance to speak with a "dragon", engage them in a conversation about, not so much why you may have been stopped, but what and who has driven them to being awake and feeling hungry....
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Besides, it's a good survival tool - "Oh, I know you, and you're a good guy" comes to mind...
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You can trust me.... I used to work for the government... LOL!!!

You know, I often wondered if the cops got together and brought up who was doing what, what they look like and how they might be caught in the act. My bike is so easy to identify. I've had a few close calls with the cops. One, the cop was on the other side of the expressway and no way to get over to my side real quick. Another, I'm slowing down from about 120 to enter the expressway---OOP, there's a cop car coming down the road just 2 lanes over---OOP again, there's a bike cop about 2 seconds behind him. Oh he gave me a mean look. Glad I kept slowing down.

So are these guys getting together saying, "that was that black sportbike with the white stripes we were discussing at last weeks meeting." ? I wonder if they know who I am (or knew who I was?)

"Paranoia strikes deep...

Into your life, it will creep...."

LOL, how small is your local police jurisdiction or how often do you "run a close encounter in your district"? maybe in the the same stretch of roadway?

If you are such a "hot topic" at roll call for the locals, its time to park it or relocate!

I have no idea how small the Sheriffs dept is in Milwaukee but it's probably the same officers out there on the same road...I would think. I see way more of them than I do other sportbikes going extremely fast. Of course, I don't usually sustain high speed long. Just getting on or off the expressway. I suppose that's what most other speedsters do, too. ...or else they would get caught left and right.

I think the term "Dragons" is much to prestigious for these government employees. Yes Rook they most definitely talk about that black sport bike with the stripes. It really messes with their God complex when you blatantly break the law in "THEIR" house. How dare you?

well, I suppose talk dies down after a while because they haven't caught me yet. I have a close encounter about 2 or 3 times / year on the expressway. I might actually go really fast a couple times down the expressway/ year for less than a half mile if there is someone who wants to play but that is as much risk as I can stomach. I might do a 160 170 mph run out in the sticks maybe once or twice/year after I scout the road for cops. I keep the odds in my favor but there's always a chance I'll roll snake eyes.