On 6/18/2019 11:21 PM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Tuesday, June 18, 2019 at 11:08:07 PM UTC-4, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/18/2019 1:33 PM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Tuesday, June 18, 2019 at 12:53:07 PM UTC-4, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/18/2019 12:33 PM, Zen Cycle wrote:
On Tuesday, June 18, 2019 at 10:21:25 AM UTC-4, jbeattie wrote:

Motor pacing on a bike is illegal on the road since it is "following
too closely."

Not in massachusetts. The 'following too closely' statute applies exclusively to motorized vehicles here. I've been lectured by more than a few cops from various towns here over the (many) years, but that's it. One said "I'd ticket you if I could".

I knew one local rider who got a "following too closely" ticket. The
judge and his staff laughed about it, and the judge threw it out.


--
- Frank Krygowski

How much did it cost the rider to go to court to have that ticket thrown out?

Zero. I went with her to help explain the crash. Sadly, she didn't even
buy me lunch. (No good deed goes unpunished.)

--
- Frank Krygowski

Crash? What crash? You said the judge threw out the "following too closely" ticket your bicycling friend got. Are you saying that the ticket was thrown out without the bicyclist needing to appear in court? If the bicyclist had to appear in court to get that ticket thrown out then how much in lost wages was the bicyclist out? How much was the ticket for?

I've told about this many times before, but:

Maybe ten years ago, we were on a club ride. My wife and I were on our
old tandem, custom built in 1979 by Jim Bradford, then of Georgia. (I've
been told he now lives in Canada - possibly to escape lawsuits?) The
bike is oversized Reynolds 531 throughout... except the forks.

Anyway, we turned left off a state highway onto a bumpy side road. Some
other riders' turns were held up by traffic, so we were going very slow,
probably less than ten mph. As I was watching my mirror for the delayed
riders, I hit a small bump, and we were on the ground. Both front forks
had suddenly snapped off just below the fork crown.

(It turns out that Bradford, in his haste to finish the tandem before
leaving on his honeymoon, had used track gage forks instead of tandem
gage. The wall thickness of our original forks was one third what it
should have been. Of course, I didn't know that until they broke.)

A woman was riding behind us. When we did our sudden stop, she ran into
us and crashed. Despite her magic hat, she had facial injuries and went
to the ER. A State Highway Patrolman visited her there and wrote a
ticket for following too closely.

I thought it was bogus, so I chose to help her fight the ticket. She and
I showed up at traffic court with my front wheel with two broken-off
fork blades attached. The judge said "This is about a BICYCLE CRASH??"
We said yes, there was no car involved. He said "I'm throwing this out.
You're free to go."

--
- Frank Krygowski