I have a friend who is a policeman in St. Louis (Town & Country specifically) who used to run radar at a section of I-270. He says so many motorcycles got away from him that he was always surprised when one stopped. Of course they didn’t have the resources to send choppers and other cars, and I guess everybody knew that.
When I was younger I personally ran away from one on my '86 RS80. The time between when I saw him and when I upped gear and split, he had already turned his lights back off and slowed back down. I can’t even remember my rationale at the time - I think I figured there’s no way he could read my tiny plate…or recognize me later under my helmet.
A friend of the family was a BMW motorcycle dealer. In the wee hours of one morning he was taking one of the newest models home, and decided to open it up on the suburban streets of my hometown. He was going 100+ MPH when he realized he had blown past a local police cruiser. He was quite a ways down the boulevard when he saw the police lights in his mirror, and pulled over to the curb.
The op eventually caught up to where he had stopped, and asked: “Why did you stop? There’s no way I could have ever caught you.” He replied that he was a law-abiding guy who stopped when he saw police lights. The officer just laughed and told him to go home – but more slowly.