Pan-Europeans ditched by Police?

I was due to do a bikesafe course at Stoke this weekend - got a call today to say it's cancelled as the Staffordshire Police have had to stop using Pan-Europeans, which leaves them desperately short of bikes and unable to do the training. He said this is a nationwide issue so presumably all other forces are doing the same.

The high speed handling problems have been well reported, especially after one police rider died. Preseumably the action to stop using them comes after this:

On 27 April 2007, Coroner Dr James Adeley, speaking at an inquest into the death of experienced police motorcyclist PC David Shreeve, announced that he would be writing to all Chief Constables in England warning of the "serious threat" to riders' lives posed by the ST1300A, and the "catastrophic result" of the high speed weave. [1] PC Shreeve was thrown from his bike and killed on 9 November 2005. Subsequent safety checks resulted in one examiner sustaining several broken bones in a similar incident

Some forces ditched them ages ago, others are still using them. Some people are of the opinion that it's the way the police load the bikes with equipment, others that it's inherent in all the bikes. Either way, I know two people who have decided against getting a Pan 1300 (the older 1100 is fine) on the back of this news, so it's definately hurting Honda's sales.

As an aside, quite why a coroner feels he is an expert in the field of motorcycling, over and above police riders, still puzzles me.

Yeah, but I think this is a nationwide directive and means that NO forces will be allowed to use them, at least until the issue is resolved.

[TEC]

Originally Posted by Well Oiled

Yeah, but I think this is a nationwide directive ...

Err what directive? From what I read its a coroner saying the bike is dangerous, he hasn't actually said "you must use them"

.... at least until the issue is resolved.

It will never be resolved if they don't pack the bike with the kit evenly, one pannier is said to have been empty

Originally Posted by TEC

Err what directive? From what I read its a coroner saying the bike is dangerous, he hasn't actually said "you must use them"

I can only go on what the bikesafe organiser told me when he phoned. He said it was an immediate order for them not to use pan's, and that it was nationwide. I guess the senior police sfaety bods have taken a couple of weeks to digest the coroner's report and then decided to stop all use.

Originally Posted by TEC

It will never be resolved if they don't pack the bike with the kit evenly, one pannier is said to have been empty

I think they need a bike that can remain stable under these conditions. It's not just this incident, it's been a few. I don't know but I wouldn't think all of them involve one pannier full of kit and the other one empty.

[Bluepete]

We still use ours, all be it with an 80mph limit imposed. The bikes have all been to Bruntingthorpe with the riders and Honda's suspension experts have set them up (apparently)
When the bikes are made up to Police spec, all they do is replace the rear seat with the "hump" which contains the led bar for messages to the rear, a carbon light pole and a radio which weighs about the same as a car radio. The panniers usually have a ticket book and and a few personal bits'n'bobs as well as a small fire extinguisher.
When you look at it like that, you realise it's not about them being loaded up, after all, a Pan will carry one fat bloke and his chunky passenger with no probs. Maybe it's the way they are ridden. Most Pans I see in civy spec are being ridden reasonably sedately. Cops however, thrash the living daylights out of everything we have; kit, cars and bikes.
Maybe the Pan just isn't up to the extremes they are being put through?
Maybe that's why we now have two BMW 1200RT's being tested?

My understanding of the Bruntingthorpe day was that with the suspension set as Honda specified and the tyre pressures set correctly the weave didn't occur, this from the rider of a high mileage Pan with a close affiliation to the police.

My baikesafe on Tuesday just gone, i was with a police officer on his own fazer thousand i was looking fwd to the full livery treatment, all others were on BMW's

This was metroplitan North group btw

update - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6657709.stm

[Viney]

Still see a few pans around these parts, but also a few Beemers, but they have been around for a while.