Many cops I have spoken to said that often the first thing that attracts their attention is noise: and a car or bike with a loud exhaust is guaranteed to draw their attention, even if they are just crusing around not looking for speeders. Same thing with people screaming through the revs: it just makes them look. Especially relevant when they are just crusing the suburbs.
Of course this is a little different if they are perched on a freeway doing nothing but looking for speeders, but its worth noting: whack the bike in a gear so the engine is pulling the fewest revs, to minimise noise.
One could also try another hypothesis I have thought up (but not tried): if one keeps the bike in 1st or 2nd and pulls a near vertical wheelie past the cops, the exhaust will be aiming at the ground, perhaps creating a bike with the audio version of stealth
A few other things:
- The obvious: if you are coming near bridges, hills, crests in the road etc behind which they can hide, slow down.
- if you are in a car and its busy traffic, change your rear profile: ie they see you whiz past in the traffic, and by the time they catch up they may not be able to determine which car was yours...doing things like turning on your headlights (in many cars this will turn on the rear lights too) etc can make them not be 100% sure if it was you as the car they saw speed past didnt have rear lights on etc. All adds an element of doubt. Not sure how well this woudl work in a pack of cars with only you on a bike in the middle of it though!
- Dont weave in and out too much. They tend to be trained to look for that as its a sign of people going faster than the traffic flow - which they are trained to recognise as a dangerous activity. If you minimise weaving you minimise the attention drawn to you from a distance. If they are looking down a long stretch of oncoming road, a car or bike changing lanes frequently sticks out like a sore thumb.
Perhaps ride right on the line between lanes and you can then ride in a straight line at whatever speed you want..... (See Ghostrider for an example!)
- If its a regular road you travel, its usually not hard to find the spots they always sit. They tend to have a certain number of spots they rotate. In general in country areas they are often more interested in catching people who arent locals, so they dont tend to mind that locals know all the spots. (Im sure some locals would disagree).
- They often tend to look for speeders at the same time regularly. Ie the morning or afternoon rush, etc etc. If you know things like what time their shift changes, that can help too....out my way (Australia) they change at 7am, so any time from about 6.45 to 7.15am is a very safe time! Even if they see you do something unless they are new cops they will tend to ignore it rather than risk the paperwork meaning they clock off late.
Oh, and guys be thankful: in Victoria Australia we have a Nazi state government (I dont use that term lightly)....they book you for 4kmh+ over the limit: yes you read that right: if you do 2.5mph over the limit and the speed cameras will snap you.
And its not like the fines are small either: 2.5mph over the limit = AU$131 fine (thats US$96).
Automatic license loss for a month at 15.5mph over the limit.
And so on!