After following the lives of "Ponch" and "Jon"of the California Highway Patrol for 139 action-packed episodes CHiPs comes to an end.
CHiPs was an ultra-lightweight action crime drama, full of over-the-top freeway pileups, lost little children, the occasional "bad guy" and enough ladies to keep the macho, rambunctious Officer Francis "Ponch" Poncherello busy week after week.
In real-life CHP cops rarely ride in pairs, in early episodes this was explained by placing the trouble-prone Ponch on probationary status, with Jon assigned as his field training officer. Making sure Poncherello kept out of trouble and kept him and his bike "inspection-ready".
Public perception links the later P-Series Kawasaki Police Special with the TV show, fact is they rode the earlier C-Series Kawasaki, which had an oval windshield similar in shape to the windshields on the older Harley-Davidson Electra Glides, then the popular cop bike of choice.
Both C and P-Series were equipped with windshields, saddlebags, pursuit lights, folding floorboards rather than footpegs and all designed to carry radio communications equipment and were wired for electronic sirens.
All the Kawasaki Police Special bikes had inline, four-cylinder, four-stroke, double overhead-cam engines and chain drives, and larger generating systems than similar civilian models. Police Specials were also equipped with Dunlop tires designed to stay on the rim in case of deflation. These "run-flat" tires were able to increase safety significantly by enabling the rider to safely slow to a stop if the tires are damaged in a high-speed pursuit. However, problem was the very thick sidewalls on "run-flat" tires transmitted a much greater level of road shock to the handlebars which increased rider fatigue and also generated excess friction/heat which resulted in above average tire wear, prompting police departments to switch back to standard high-performance tires. As a result, Dunlop discontinued production of the "run-flat" models.
The C-series borrowed features from the American police bikes, including a spring-cushioned saddle and a speedometer equipped with a solenoid to trap the indicator needle against the glass when the pursuit lights were activated, to mark the speed at which an alleged speeder was traveling at the time. Both of these features were eliminated in the KZP.
Today in motorcycle history proudly supports the National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD). www.nabd.org.uk
