I might be crazy, but why does it seem that motorcycles are always speeding on interstate highways? Even when I’m driving above the speed limit, it seems that motorcycles are always going faster. And I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a motorcycle pulled over for speeding. Do motorcycles ever get pulled over?
They most certainly do get pulled over, well at least I was several times.
I’ve never sen one PULLED over, but I’ve seen them ROLLED over. My doctor calls motorcycle drivers organ donors.
SEEN!
must remember spell check.
When on the highway, I routinely go faster on my bike in an effort to make sure I get around whomever I’m trying to pass and there’s no other car around me. If I’m cruising along at 73 and you’re in front of me going the same speed, I will speed up very quickly to get around you, then resume my speed once safely away from other vehicles.
I have a friend who is a police officer that has told me that about half the time, when he bothers to chase down a motorcycle for speeding, they get away. We’re talking very very fast accelerating, manueverable machines, with tiny license plates that cannot be read by the pursuing officer.
Truth in posting: in my youth, I sped up and got away from a police car. It was late at night and I saw him coming up on me b/c there weren’t any other cars around, and b/c he was driving like a cop coming after me - if you’ve been there, you know what I mean. I geared up, hauled ass away from him, took a quick exit around a bend in the highway and was long gone. Regardless, it was very stupid and I’m lucky to be alive.
Generally speaking, it’s safer to go faster than the surrounding traffic. Car drivers tend not to see motorcycles – even when they’re looking right at them. If you are going slower than traffic, you may get rear-ended. By going faster than the surrounding traffic, the motorcyclist has better control of the situation. It’s a lot easier to see and avoid when you are the one who is seeing the situation ahead and avoiding it.
Motorcyclists do get pulled over. I’ve seen them. I was pulled over on a bike once. (Of course, I was doing 110 – no traffic, 10 in the morning, dry road in good condition, fresh maintenance on the bike, good brakes. The officer said, “You were doing 85.” I said, “Okay.”) I’ve found that cops usually will let a motorcyclist go a little faster than traffic; but if the motorcyclist is going significantly faster than traffic (or twice the posted limit, as I was), the motorcylist can and probably will be pulled over and cited.
Why? Because it’s the whole point of being on a bike, to go fast, faster than everyone else in a car at least…
What Dooku said about passing quickly rings true to me. As a biker, I have to be REAL paranoid about cars. It only takes one idiot yapping on his cell phone and making an unsignalled lane swerve to kill me - or worse yet, paralyze me from the neck down and doom me to having someone else wipe my ass for the rest of my very, very long life. One way I try and protect myself is to stay away from cars. I tend to pass quickly, in hopes of minimizing that danger window when I’m directly adjacent to a car’s rear quarter panel, directly in the driver’s blind spot. It scares the shit out of me to be in that situation, and I try and get out as fast as possible. And of course my bike is more than powerful enough to oblige. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I try NOT to speed while riding, because on a motorcycle I always feel like a cop magnet. I have a flashy motorcycle, and I think most police officers tend to assume (probably not unfairly in most cases) that people riding flashy motorcycles are riding carelessly.
I do stunt. I do pull wheelies. I do take corners too fast. But I only do these things when cars are far away from me. I do not believe the the average car driver is alert enough to brake or swerve around me in the case that I should wipe out while doing the hooligan thing. I’ve seen plenty of morons who do these things though, and I expect that’s something that will never change. I can only hope they kill themselves and clean the gene pool a bit. Pity about what it does to the insurance rates of
those of us who are careful riders, though. 
-Ben