Crash course in OPP precision motorcycling

BILL SANDFORD FOR THE TORONTO STAR

The OPP's Golden Helmets precision motorcycling team shows how it's done.

Mark Richardson

WHEELS EDITOR

ORILLIA–A half-tonne of Harley and hero roars down the asphalt.

Its sirens wail, and the red and blue strobes flash.

It's headed straight for a phalanx of motorcycles with a closing speed of more than 100 km/h.

At the last moment, the motorcycles peel apart and the bike passes through, unscathed in the cacophony of V-twin engines and blur of lights.

It's just another day at the office for the Golden Helmets.

"Cutting the diamond" is actually not that dangerous, though it looks dramatic and kids love it.

There's little room for error but, provided the other bikes remember to turn the proper way, the chance of a mistake is small.

But the 18 riders can't just jump on their bikes and do it – first there's practice, practice and more practice.

That's why we're here at an otherwise empty parking lot near the OPP's provincial headquarters, to get everything figured out during a week of practice before the force's precision motorcycle riding team starts its season this weekend at a demonstration in Niagara Falls.

There are four new members of the team this year, and they need to perfect the routine before their debut. If one of them makes a mistake, it could mean that everybody goes down like a line of dominoes.

Not that anyone can remember that ever happening.

There were a couple of crashes last year and the occasional stumble, but nobody was hurt. "It's all about safe riding for us," says the team's leader, Sgt. Lise Grenier. "We don't do wheelies and stunts – we don't even like to scrape our floorboards."

Yes, "floorboards." These are the big cop Harleys, each weighing around 400 kg, which are police versions of the largest Harley-Davidson touring bikes. The only modification is that their steering head stoppers have been filed off, to permit a tighter turning circle.

It's one thing to ride around a bunch of cones in a parking lot on a nimble dirt bike or scooter, or even a regular motorcycle, but these big Ultras demand a special kind of respect, especially when there's another big Ultra within centimetres of your handlebar.

"They told me not to worry about the guys ahead of me, and not to worry about the guys behind me. Just watch the guy right in front of you and follow where he's going," says Const. Wayne Maxwell, who's based in Caledonia and is starting his first season on the team.

"If he's okay, you'll be okay."

Each show lasts about a half-hour, and there'll be probably 40 performances around the province this year. The schedule is stepped up because the OPP is celebrating 100 years of service to Ontario.

The Golden Helmets were founded in 1963 as a public relations exercise that lasted almost three decades, before a lack of funding forced its disbandment after the 1991 season. But Deeley Harley-Davidson, the Canadian importer for Harleys, offered enough sponsorship to re-establish the team in 1997 and they've been riding strong since.

There are two other police precision motorcycle riding teams in Canada.

The Winged Wheels are 18 officers from Toronto's Traffic Enforcement service, while the Vancouver Police Drill Team has 15 riders taking turns on 10 bikes.

The Toronto police show is a little different, because the bikes never stop moving throughout the 22-minute show. "If you see a foot go down at any time, you know somebody was a little nervous," says Staff Sgt. Larry Bryson.

Toronto's signature manoeuvre is The Zipper, in which one bike rockets toward a narrow pair of columns of motorcycles, similar to Cutting the Diamond except the approaching bikes are closer together.

"We can beat that," says Const. Jeff Peterson in Vancouver. "We have two bikes side by side that ride into three rows of motorcycles. It's something to see."

The West Coast team has been operating since 1954 and the Toronto team for the last 20 years. Officers from all three teams agree the public relations they generate are invaluable.

"It's a very successful PR exercise for us," says Grenier, who's based in Orillia and has been with the team for 12 years.

"The best part is dealing with the public and being around the kids – showing them that police officers can be trusted to help them if we're needed."

Every member of the Golden Helmets is a serving OPP officer who rides the motorcycle as part of his or her regular traffic duty. Their detachment commanders allow them the time away from work to ride to and from performances on the bikes, but there's no overtime and much of their time away is volunteered.

The team members raise money by selling hats and T-shirts, and at the end of the year all the proceeds are donated to charity. Last year, the Golden Helmets donated $16,000 to charitable causes, including $1,500 to the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund.

Probably the trickiest manoeuvre of the 27 in each performance is "The Wheel," in which two bikes park beside each other, facing in opposite directions, and then 12 bikes ride in tight circles around them, three bikes side by side each forming one of four "spokes."

It's not that tough for the outside motorcycles, but the inside bikes are turning in a very tight radius at a very slow speed; they're all aligned with each other, and there's no room for mistakes. These are 400 kg machines, don't forget, and if one loses its balance, it'll take the rest down with it.

"We did it last year at Niagara Falls right on Clifton Hill," says Const. Peter Tucker of the Niagara Falls detachment.

"We were on the slope, so we couldn't keep the clutch and throttle constant. We had to give it throttle going up hill then coast down the slope. That was a real challenge."

During the performance, a commentator explains through loudspeakers to the public what the team is doing and gives some history of the OPP and its involvement with motorcycles.

Last year marked the 100th anniversary of Harley-Davidson supplying bikes to police forces. The new 2009 models, though, with their revised suspensions, are not so good for precision riding: their tires are wider and the saddlebags are also wider.

"There's really no reason for a detachment to have motorcycles," Maxwell says.

"They count as one vehicle (on the fleet, the budgetary equivalent of a car) and we can't ride them in the winter, but they do have their advantages out on patrol. You're higher up, for one thing. You can see right into a car while it's driving and see beer in the cupholders, or joints in the ashtrays."

They're not used for pursuits if it can be avoided. The big Harleys have a top speed of maybe 180 km/h and they're not too stable at that kind of velocity, so they'll keep watch on a fleeing vehicle until a marked cruiser can take over (the same rule applies to unmarked cruisers).

To ride a police motorcycle, an officer must first take a three-week course, taught by Grenier, and then pass a stringent test that includes some precision riding.

There are 63 operational motorcycles on the OPP's provincial fleet, shared by some 200 uniformed riders, and there's a waiting list to join them.

But only 18 of them will be Golden Helmets.

And as one officer observes, "people could care less about the cruisers, but they love the bikes."

Mark Richardson is the editor of Wheels. He can be reached at mrichardson@thestar.ca

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Photos: Practising with the Golden Helmets

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