AMERICAN POLICE MOTOR-CYCLE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 93, 13 January 1939, Page 6

AMERICAN POLICE MOTOR-CYCLE

Hutt Valley Inspector’s

New Machine

The American police motor-cycle, made familiar to New Zealanders by the motion pictures, has now been brought to this country by the Lower Hutt and Betone borough councils, who have acquired one for their traffic officer, Inspector A. J. Archer. It is the last word in motor-cycle luxury. With its high-eompressioii heads for quick acceleration, this two-cylinder 7-9 horsepower machine which develops 24 horsepower at 4000 revolutions a minute, has a speed of 80 to 90 miles an hour. No motorist has yet travelled fast enough through either borough to test ill; full capacity. It weighs four and a half hundredweight and cost £l5O. It has an automatic speed-cheeking device. When the inspector follows a speeding motorist he makes a measured cheek over a certain distance —usually a quarter’ of a mile on a main road —and then presses a switch on the speedometer. This locks the speedometer at the speed the motorist was doing and when the inspector pulls up alongside the offender and stops him he can point to the speedometer and say “you were doing — miles an hour.” The siren is friction driven off the rear wheel. The pressure of a heel on the operating attachment, which is near the left footrest, will keep the sir.en sound-' ing as long as desired. There is a special parking light set in the broad front mudguard for use at the scene of accidents. A warning coloured-light device enables an instant check on oil pressure and generator charge. *" . A special thumb-screw steering damper will keep the machine to a straight course at high speed without the rider touching the handlebars. It is in the oroginal American police cycle colour —a standard on for this type of machine iu the United States —which enables it to be seen easily at night; it glitters in the sun and is plainly seen under dull conditions.

The machine is believed to be the only genuine police model iu New Zealand. A civilian in Wellington is interested in one, but it is possible with the new import restrictions, that the importation of any more will not be possible.