Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Deputy Kim Morgenthaler of the sheriff's westside substation was one of a two-man team that rode to first place in the Pacific Grove Police Motorcycle Competition.

Saratoga deputies take motorcycle honors

By John Pancharian

Local sheriff's deputies rode to victory at the 11th annual Pacific Grove Police Motorcycle Competition. Deputies Kim Morgenthaler and Ron Karrle, of the Santa Clara County sheriff's westside substation in Saratoga, won first place overall in the statewide competition, held April 4 in Pacific Grove.

"It was a long few weeks getting ready for it," Morgenthaler said. "I didn't sleep until the last couple of days." He and Karrle said they spent numerous hours cleaning their motorcycles, preparing uniforms, shining boots and practicing their riding for the contest, which included meticulous inspections and an obstacle course.

On the morning of the competition, officers from different agencies showed up in their spit-shined best and stood at attention with their motorcycles. Eagle-eyed Marine Corps sergeants, stationed at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, scrutinized the officers for the inspection portion of the competition.

"They did the inspection with white gloves, white handkerchiefs and Q-Tips," Morgenthaler said. He explained that the Marines even ran the cotton swabs inside the exhaust pipes of competitors' motorcycles looking for dirt. He said the uniform and officer inspection went right down to "nose hairs and haircuts."

Morgenthaler said, "They ran the Q-Tips over our helmets and duty belts, and they had us take the magazines out of our semiautomatics. I figured they might do that because last year I had a piece of lint inside the hollow point of one of my bullets, and he caught it."

After the inspection, the 12 two-officer teams rode a timed slalom course while judges watched for perfect synchronization. The team members, riding parallel to one another, began with a figure eight. They then performed a standing stop, completely stopping their motorcycles without putting a foot down for balance, then weaved through a line of cones set 20 feet apart.

"We were going fast enough that each time we went around the cones, we'd lean the bike enough to scrape the boards," Morgenthaler said.

The last part of the course is different every year, and officers do not know what to expect until hours before they ride it. This year it was a tight, rounded U-turn through cones, and Morgenthaler missed one.

"I just went a little long and went outside one cone," he said. "I was so ashamed I was almost suicidal." This put the pressure on for the second scored run. "I needed the added pressure," Morgenthaler joked, "so I figured I'd goof up once."

In the end, the Saratoga team took first place in the inspections; first in the timed riding course, at one minute, 11 seconds; and third in synchronization to win the overall prize.

The Pacific Grove Police Motorcycle Competition began in 1987 and is sanctioned under the California Police Summer Games. The Pacific Grove Police Department started the contest and organizes it each year. This year's win for Saratoga is particularly noteworthy because the competition draws many large agencies, such as the Los Angeles Police Department and the California Highway Patrol, which have hundreds of motor officers from which to select their teams. The westside station has five motor officers who primarily perform traffic patrol.

In the 11-year history of the contest, the only other small agency that has won the overall competition is the Stockton Police Department, which won in 1991 and again in 1997.

The sheriff's department uses motorcycles for access to accidents in heavy traffic and for their ability to monitor intersections where a patrol car would have no place to park.

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