two questions about them, in case anyone works for the police

1. Why are the rims so thick? They look like 2" wide or something

2. Why do some of them appear to be advertising "Smith & Wesson"?

S&W are cheap rubbish supermarket bike shaped objects – the plod hate them.
Each force chooses it's own bikes so some forces ride decent Trek/Spesh £1000 hardtails.

policemen round ere ride apollos from halfords 🙂

1, No idea, maybe durability?
2, Because they're Smith and Wesson bikes

Round here they are on Chameleons.

each force area buys its own bikes, i was responsible for my area bikes a while ago and got us 10 cannondale hardtails!

Don't know if they still do but Trek and Cannondale used to build 'police specials'

not sure what out boys and girls ride, must check next time I see some but i always say hi, I like seeing them on bikes.

yanks

north yorks:


(shit)

what to do in an attack:

A Northumbria police cycle patrol officer directs traffic. Notice the very minimal livery of his cycle, just a few centimeters of battenburg markings on the horizontal frame. This is so it does not become a target for vandals when locked up in a public place.

Santa Cruz:

Getting more weight over the rear wheel can reduce the chance of skidding when braking, as demonstrated by this police officer.

nhs skater boy

and his equipment

god i'm sad.

They have rebadged Hardrocks round here

They have Merida bikes round here, they look ok.

Anyone ever been tempted to commit a crime in front of them too make them chase you? Think I'd lose them easy…

I have never heard of smith and wesson bikes, they make guns

ok I found the web site of their bicycle line, they look appalling.

So, to summarise, the world famous gun manufacturer is rebadging shite bikes with their name. They are made especially for police, so there is no point in advertising them as a bike manufacturer.

So our bike police advertise guns.

reading's got landrover bikes, there's no hope, those things look out of alignment even from a distance!

I always thought it would be a potential business to offer consultation and sourcing of bikes for public sector use, i cant imagine its much fun having to be forced to pootle round on an ill fitting apollo all day that would break if you mounted a kerb on it. Surely the police need the right tools for the job when theyre looking for motorway patrol vehicles they dont pop down to suzuki and pick up a few altos now do they.

Our shop (well, me as the mechanic) did the local police bike maintenance. The Smith and Weston bikes are horrific things. They were worth about £200 (They look like cheap giant's, prob made by them), possibly £300 with the add ons and the police were charged £600 each for them!
They were soooo not up to the job.. Mangled wheels, bent mechs, busted plastic pedals, scary brakes.. Some bureaucrat must have received a pretty back hander to award that contract.

Tactical (!) Police Bike

each force purchases its own

yet another reason why the public sector costs so much – never heard of 'group' procurement!

They have rebadged Hardrocks round here

Same around us, either that or Rockhoppers. They look decent, all white with Police stickers on them, full Deore, hydro discs.

Plod in sheff have SC Chameleons with Rohloff Speedhubs, bling Hope discs/f-hubs, XT transmission & RF finishing kit with Manitou forks. Whilst these elicit a degree of envy its good to see "proper" funds being directed to a worthwhile scheme. The same cannot be said for the Mitsubishi Evo 9s!

Now I know what to do if confronted by a man/lobster chimera.

Some of the Sheffield plod ride Speshes, Rockhopper?

(The policebike is the one on the left)

tidy unit.

They have a combination of those horrible S&W bikes and some Spesh Rockhoppers down here in Brighton. Some areas of the seafront are out of bounds for bikes… i've often wondered if they'd chase you for riding in these areas… NOW THAT COULD BE FUN 😀

(Mr MC posting)

ref: "each force buys its own" and "no wonder public sector…"

Here in Thames Valley they arent bought consistently at a force level. Different police areas buy different bikes, and then change their requirements as the years go by. I was a "pro active cycle officer" on blackbird leys a few years ago and rode cheap £200 Giants 8hrs a day, chasing twoccers and plastic-yardie drug dealers down alleyways, great fun (probably the most fun Ive had in the job). Other more established teams had nicer bikes, and oxford city centre officers currently have ~£500 Marin hardtails. We proved cheap bikes were a false economy by hammering the giants, but not sure if "my" team ever got better bikes. Each area will have a business manager who runs things and I'm not aware of any accepted force-wide or nationwide spec requirement (such as they have for standard response cars for instance). Probably seen as part of local spending to solve a local problem rather than a forcewide deployment.

theyve introduced cycle skills courses which are fun but demeaning for serious cyclists, but common sense and organisationally reassuring as they were putting people out on bikes who could barely ride a bike.

opne of the police bikes in Sheffield is a Santa cruz

but they don't even have 'standards' for car purchasing – I listened to a man from Ford once complaining how if the the Police would actually purchase en-bloc he could have had a line producing a load and they'd (as in we'd) get a lot better deal

quote]theyve introduced cycle skills courses[/quote]

And a 93 page manual 😉

Avon and Somerset's latest purchase:

These guys supply lots of forces, and produce custom clothing too

http://www.kitinfo.co.uk/products/bicycle-section.html

but they don't even have 'standards' for car purchasing – I listened to a man from Ford once complaining how if the the Police would actually purchase en-bloc he could have had a line producing a load and they'd (as in we'd) get a lot better deal

Most forces actually buy fleet under a national 3 badge contract (they avoid being tied to a single manufacturer in case of supply or recall issues).

My force unfortunately bought some Smith and Wessons fitted with some lethal semi slicks and Dart forks with cable discs. They weigh half hundredweight and cost a packet to purchase. The public sector way is to very often get someone to do the purchasing at full RRP and that someone should ideally not have a bleeding clue or ever likely to use the item/vehicle being purchased! At least these days you dont find 'management' driving about in freebees like they used to!

Our local bobbies use specilized bikes.