General
The history of police motorcycle designs
We wanted to write a post like this, combining our two greatest passions, motors and design, for quite some time now. We’ll be presenting a brief history of motorcycles used by police forces and examples of motorcycles used by the police forces of various countries. We hope this will be an enjoyable read.
It seems the first time motorcycles were used by police forces was ate the beginning of the 20th century. Chief August Vollmer of the Berkeley, California Police Department is credited with organizing the first official police motorcycle patrol in the United States in 1911. However a few police departments used motorcycles before 1911. It’s documented that the first Harley-Davidson police motorcycle was delivered to the Detroit Police Department in 1908. Also, the police department in Evanston, Illinois purchased a belt-driven motorcycle for its first motorcycle police officer in 1908, and the Portland, Oregon Police Bureau had a police officer who used his personal motorcycle to patrol the city as early as 1909.
Back on the home front in the 1920s, state police forces were being formed in several states of the US to protect rural areas from lawlessness and to enforce Prohibition. The motorized vehicle of choice on rutted rural roads was the motorcycle.
Police motorcycles in the United States typically use purpose-built motorcycles marketed by Harley-Davidson, Kawasaki, Honda, or BMW. Kawasaki Police Motorcycles, which were built for the US market in Lincoln, Nebraska, ceased production in September 2005.
In Germany, BMW is by far the largest provider of motorcycles for authority use.
In the United Kingdom the most common police motorcycles are the BMW RT series, the Honda ST series and the Yamaha FJR1300, although most forces have withdrawn the ST1300 Pan European since the death of an officer was blamed on the machine. Some police forces also use scooters within towns.
In 2004, BMW claimed to be the largest seller of motorcycles for authority use, as more than 80,000 BMW motorcycles were in official use in over 150 countries on five continents. BMW produce police-specific models such as the R1200RT and R900RT, the latter not available to the general public. More than 140 U.S. law enforcement agencies, including the California Highway Patrol, had BMW authority motorcycles in their fleets of patrol vehicles.
Harley-Davidson has maintained a long relationship with police departments and law-enforcement agencies. As of 2007, Harley-Davidson offered the FLHTP Electra Glide, the FLHP Road King and the XL883 Sportster in police and fire/rescue editions.
Police Motorcycle Designs old and new organized by countries :
Austria
Australia
Belgium
China
Czech Republic
Featured Designer #4 - Jeremy Prasatik
jp33.com is an award winning website/portfolio that has been featured in numerous magazines and websites across the globe.
14 funny church signs
Making a web 2.0 logo in Photoshop
This Photoshop tutorial will explain how to make a web 2.0 glossy logo or icon if you like. I tried to keep it as simple as possible. If you have any questions post them in the comments below.
I am starting with a 400×300 px white canvas. Draw your basic shape. I have started with a custom shape from Photoshop’s presets.
Step 1
Fill the shape with a nice orange color (I am using #ff6600)
Step 2
Apply Bevel and Emboss to the layer using the following values :
Structure
- Style : Inner Bevel
- Technique : Smooth
- Depth : 100%
- Direction : Up
- Size : 200px
- Soften : 0px
Shading
- Angle : 120 (use global light checked)
- Altitude : 30
- Highlight mode : Screen, Opacity : 75%
- Shadow mode : Multiply (color : #ff0000), opacity 75%.
Step 3
Stoke the layer with an orange color 3 pixels in size (I am using the same orange as the fill : #ff6600)
Step 4
Apply an inner glow, size 40px.
Step 5
Create a new top layer and using the Elliptical Marquee Tool create an oval over the top of the original shape layer. Fill this layer with gradient from white to transparent (white at the bottom, transparent at the top). Give this layer a 50% opacity. You may rotate this layer so it will look cooler.
FreeRice.com - beautiful initiative
I was navigating randomly from site to site and I came across a beautiful and creative initiative, called FreeRice. I am saying beautiful initiative because on this website you can have some fun and help people in need at the same time.
How it works ?
You go to FreeRice.com, play their vocabulary game and for each correct answer you give, 10 grains of rice are donated by the sponsors to poor people. It’s a good system because FreeRice.com gets traffic, you have fun, sponsors get the page views they need, and people in need get helped. It’s a simple, effective and humanitarian idea, so if you like it please spread the word.
For more information see their FAQ page.
