American Police Motorcycles [Paperback]

Buck Lovell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 2002

American police motorcycles built between the early 1900s and the 1980s are featured in this tribute, as historical and archival photographs -- along with firsthand anecdotes -- tell the story of these two-wheeled workhorses. Lovell includes Harley-Davidsons, Indians, and lesser-known manufacturers such as Pope and Ace. With the cooperation of motorcycle police associations around the country, the author includes numerous firsthand accounts by retired motorcycle officers who rode some of the featured models. Ponch and Jon of "CHiPs" would be all smiles after reading this book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Wolfgang Publications, Inc. (August 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1929133081
• ISBN-13: 978-1929133086
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,230,851 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great photos, but the author needs to learn his subject, February 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: American Police Motorcycles (Paperback)

The many photographs in the book are great. A great collection of photos covering 90 years of Police bikes. However the author assumes a lot of things that are not factual. Simple things like a motorcycle that has the radio speaker mounted on the handlebars he says "The red light is turned to the rear, which is a mystery to this author". He then identifies the famous picture of four 1920s police sidecar units in front of Ernest Cerini's Donora, Pennsylvania Harley dealership as "somewhere in West Virginia". He shows a photo of the Los Angeles Police Dept. Drill team on page 116 and again on page 117. but on page 117 he identifies them as riders in American Legion uniforms. He shows a photo of an officer wearing the early CHP uniform with what he identifies as a 1936 Indian Chief with early CHP logo on the gas tank. He then misidentifies the officer as a Los Angeles County Motor Patrol officer. The L.A.C.M.P was merged into the CHP six years earlier. These photo misidentifications are just part of the errors in the hastily prepared book
The photographs in this book are priceless. But don't put a lot of faith in the authors description of what is on them. The author really needs to do a lot more research on this subject and learn how to use spellchecker.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love the book, May 19, 2005

By 

Felix Mendel "Felix" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Police Motorcycles (Paperback)

The photography is fantastic, as the other reviewers noted. I gave a copy to each of my motorcycle-enthusiast friends and they thoroughly enjoyed this book. I learned a lot about the history of police bikes and found the writing entertaining.