The Police Bike

I have been a biker since the age of 17 and had a number of bikes over the years.

As part of my Mobile Police Museum collection I have an original police bike from 1989, in the form of a Honda CD250U which served with Northamptonshire Police.

In the late 1980's Honda produced the "one off" CD250U to test the emerging market for modern commuter machines. For the UK market it was only produced in blue as they did not know if the machine would be a success. It was cheap and reliable, had electronic starting and was already a suitable colour. The machine was perfect reliable transport, sold well and was snapped up by some police forces mostly with rural areas, providing transport to local village officers who often had a large area to cover.

With the addition of a white fairing and screen, panniers, blue lights, siren and VHF radio, few other modifications had to be made other than to shorten the double seat to make space for what were then much larger radio sets. Other larger Honda machines then became popular with the police services due to their great reliability, such as the 1100 cc Pan-European.

The machine was never considered to be a pursuit bike and I can certainly confirm that it would never catch anyone, other than perhaps on foot. The lights and siren were only fitted to enable an officer to make progress safely through traffic in an emergency. The small 249 cc engine size and addition of equipment limits the maximum speed to about 50 mph. The basic construction and lack of fuel injection and computers make it easy to work on. Many of the parts are unique to this machine so major parts such as centre stands, tanks and exhausts now out of production were never used on following models. Major parts are now rare and often expensive to obtain in a usable condition.

I acquired this as a partly completed restoration project and have now restored it to being roadworthy and reliable. Of course old motorcycles need constant attention and care and there is always work to be done, but this retired police bike turns heads and has cameras clicking everywhere I take it, being so rare and unusual.

Children and "big kids" like me, bikers and enthusiasts love to come over for a chat and have a selfie with the bike. Sometimes in handcuffs!

The bike and I are available for events weather permitting, so get in touch if you would like us at your event.