Saturday Nights in Kansas City

[MikeW]

My cell is as of lately. Now that i think about it, driving 2 hours with no phone might not be a good idea...

I'll figure something out.

Im coming to KC this weekend to hang with some non-CB7 friends, and i'll hit up the JY on Truman regardless. If anyone is down for this weekend, post up so i can set my shit up, lol.

[mndude07]

Wait are we talking about that weekend im gonna be in KC in april still or something different?

Ryan, if anything, you need to come to Rolla. St. Pats celebrations start here next week.

[MikeW]

Im going to KC this weekend, but i could do something in April as well.

[otacon122]

Basically this is going to be a mini-meet, a little introductory meet for everyone to introduce themselves to the new guys and for the CB7tuner veterans to help out the n00bs with JY cruises and whatnot. Plan on this Saturday. Meeting place is Sears Grand parking lot at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Antioch - meet up at the back end of the parking lot between the IHOP and Krispy Kreme donut shop (look at the pic of my car - that area of the parking lot is where I am talking about). The time will be 11:00am. Once everyone is on site and ready to go, the old-timers will show us newbies the ropes - jy cruises, engine maintenance...The whole deal. The wagon train leaves for the JY cruises at 11:30. First stop before the JY cruise is lunch at my favorite place, Pine Bamboo chinese at Shawnee Mission Parkway just before Nieman. Everyone pays for their own meal. Next stop will be the junkyards, where the old-timers will show us n00bs how to raid the place and what parts to look for and stuff like that. After the JY cruise, some of the old-timers will take us around and show us some of the more reputable mechanics around town as well as places for us to take our CB7's to do the work ourselves. If there is time left, then the old-timers will even teach the newbies basic engine maintenance and repair as well as how to diagnose engine problems and what to know before going to a JY or mechanic.

A little note: This is a spontaneous meet - the police do NOT know we're meeting there, so don't attract any unwanted attention as the cop station is just down the street and these guys don't take kindly to disorderly conduct. I know a lot of guys at the cop station from when my stepdad used to work at the fire department (and from the many speeding and racing tickets I've had over the years), so don't do anything that would get me in trouble. Also, the speeding tickets are expensive - $300 for just going 20 over, but the racing citations are barely even $60...You WILL get both if you're caught, so don't race - also, don't lock up the brakes when you see the cops - if you go the same speed they're going, they usually won't say anything - these boys won't ticket you for anything they're allowed to get away with.

Edit: The meeting in April is still on - this is just a little quickie meet to introduce yourselves to the new guys and get everyone on the same page as far as skill level.

I'm always down with meeting my homies and scoping out the rides.

Another word of advice: These guys will pull you over for your tint jobs, and they don't need any other reason, and if you get nailed for your tint, they will make you take it off before they let you leave. Loud exhausts, on the other hand - as long as you stay away from the residential neighborhoods and don't "show off", the cops generally won't say anything. Loud stereos is a big no-no, as the noise ordnance here in Merriam is max 60dB during the day or 50dB at night.

Final word of advice: The cops here use an all-black heavily-modded Dodge Charger R/T that can run circles around anything we got, so if you absolutely HAVE to run from them, your best bet is to stay on city streets and let the idiot drivers slow them down - drivers around here will stop in the middle of the road if they hear or see a cop with his lights and sirens going.

Note: Word up around these parts is that the popo don't like "tuners" and our cars WILL attract Merriam police like flies to shit. Also, Merriam police have a no pursuit policy - they will tail you just long enough to grab your plate number, then immediately disengage and send a unit to your house with the ticket to wait for you (sneaky bastards, aren't they?) and their speed guns have two antennas - one on the front of the car and one on the back, and these antennas and their signals cannot be detected by the radar detectors because they aim for the front fender area, not at the windshield. The cops here do the same with their lasers - they will wait until you get close, aim right at the front grille, then clock your speed (the LIDAR guns use infrared beams, and IR detects heat, so they aim for the hottest spot on the car).

My last words before I head off to the nap box: I will be the host for this meet, and our first stops before the JY cruises but after lunch will be my haunts - the places I know that can help us out tremendously as we build our cars. After my haunt cruise, the veterans will take over and they'll show the newbies how to do a JY cruise and how to raid the JY's. The stops after the JY cruises will be where the rest of you haunt.

[mndude07]

You need to make it to the big chicago meet.

All the KS and MO people that are going are gonna meet with Mike and I in St. Louis, and we'll all drive up together.

[MadSpleen85]

This is a pretty calm group of people on here. You don't have to worry about excessive burnouts or street racing with this group. Now if this were KCSR that would be a different story.

Merriam PD usually has better things to do instead of run radar, and when they do run radar they usually stick right around I-35, Johnson Drive, Shawnee Mission Parkway and Antioch Road. As Bri (pittcb7grl) can tell you, I always have at least one scanner on and with me. I am usually monitoring North Zone, which includes Merriam. Merriam and many agencies have been running under staffed for some time, due to the poor state of the economy and hiring freezes.

I have had Merriam PD called on me 3 times since I started driving at 16. Every time they have been pretty cool about how things were handled. I have been hassled more by Shawnee, Overland Park, Lenexa, and Prairie Village PD's when it comes to traffic stuff. Its always great to hear your plate number come across the scanner when you know the cops are following you. Only 2 tickets since 16 and have heard my plate number ran too many times to count.

The loud stereo stuff is very difficult to enforce, unless you are driving around making it clear that you are the one making all the noise it can be very hard to tell who or where the "music" is coming from. Also with loud exhaust, different people have different tolerances of what is loud. Very few departments have sound level measuring equipment in multiple vehicles. Even if they do there are all kinds of variables and loop holes with those ordinances.

If you are talking about the Charger R/T that I am aware of, it is not truly the R/T model it is false badging for deception purposes. It is HEAVILY MODIFIED and the Deputy that is behind the wheel is a very skilled driver and a real cool guy who knows his cars. And that is not nearly the only heavily modded unmarked car in the Johnson County fleet. Shawnee, Lenexa, Olathe, and Overland Park all have modded stock looking cars. I am sure there are more that I do not know about.

About the "speed guns have two antennas - one on the front of the car and one on the back" most Patrol Cars have had those for years, that is nothing new. I do not know about Merriam PD but Shawnee only has a limited number of LIDAR units. LIDAR is not new but it is still very expensive and mainly used for on the Highway where a getting a fast reading is crucial. Most agencies still utilize older "Ka" band technology that does not have a real quick reading time but it is accurate, easy to use and cheap to maintain. A decent newer model radar detector will detect LIDAR, however LIDAR uses instant on/off technology that it is only active for the split second that you are being targeted, so basically you have no time to react to the alert from the detector. Once you are painted you speed is already recorded, its too late to brake.


EDIT: I probably wont be out until later in the day on Saturday, especially if it is nice out I have stuff around the house that needs to get done. So I would probably be meeting up with everyone in the evening. Whatever I do it will be on the cheap, I am saving my pennies for a new camera.

Joe, check in if you are lurking. Havent seen you around in a while.

[otacon122]

About the "speed guns have two antennas - one on the front of the car and one on the back" most Patrol Cars have had those for years, that is nothing new. I do not know about Merriam PD but Shawnee only has a limited number of LIDAR units. LIDAR is not new but it is still very expensive and mainly used for on the Highway where a getting a fast reading is crucial. Most agencies still utilize older "Ka" band technology that does not have a real quick reading time but it is accurate, easy to use and cheap to maintain. A decent newer model radar detector will detect LIDAR, however LIDAR uses instant on/off technology that it is only active for the split second that you are being targeted, so basically you have no time to react to the alert from the detector. Once you are painted you speed is already recorded, its too late to brake.

Actually, Merriam PD uses LIDAR almost all the time now. They switched over from Ka to full-time LIDAR a few months ago. And as far as loud stereos, they do have a defined limit as far as ANY noise coming from the car - 50 feet. Any noise from the car that can be heard more than 50 feet away is an automatic ticket, though I managed to find a loophole in the loud stereos thing - if you play music other people like (Billy Joel, James Taylor, that stuff), the vast majority of people here won't bother calling the police - heck, even the police won't say anything. The loud exhausts thing...As long as you aren't sitting in residential neighborhoods constantly revving the car to show off, nobody here will say anything about the loud exhausts. As far as the Chargers - Shawnee, Merriam, and Overland Park all use the heavily-modded Chargers, not just the Sheriff.

And your suggestion the local cops have been on a hiring freeze, that too is false. Merriam has plenty of money for police equipment, evidenced by every police car now having an MPH Industries Bee III Ka 'POP' gun with same-direction mode permanently mounted and a hand-held Kustom Signals ProLaser III LIDAR gun, the fact every police car uses LEDs and strobes instead of the usual "cherry" (light bar), and the fact that they special-order Interceptor V8 cruisers equipped with I/H/E out of the factory and are rated for 150mph maximum speed. Also, Merriam Lieutenant Mike Daniels recently went on a hiring spree for new recruits, but that ended the first week of February.

One final note - Its not Kansas police you need to worry about. It is Parkville, MO police. Those guys are better equipped than most governments, they are no-nonsense people who won't put up with people going 5 over the speed limit, and they are very sneaky in positioning their speed traps - 99% of the time, you can't see the Parkville officers until a split-second before they use their LIDAR gear on you. Merriam's two primary sources of income are property taxes and excise taxes from the dealerships. Parkville's moneymakers are its huge commercial districts and the fact all land is bought, developed, and sold by private developers.

[otacon122]

Anyway, I will know for sure on Thursday what all is wrong with my car, so hopefully by Saturday I will have a list of parts I need from a JY. One thing I REALLY need, though, are a couple fellow CB7 tuners close by that would be nice enough to help me learn to work on my CB7 and who would let me work on my car at their place. I want to get the car back to the way it was when it drove off the lot before I do anything else to it, but I don't have a garage here that I could do all the work at, nor do I have my own tools. I am so new to the tuner game that I have nothing to help me get started let alone get my car working properly again.

[hondaccordgrl]

I put pictures of my new accord up on my MR page if you guys want to check it out...and I may come out with you guys, if you dont mind a CD5 haha LMK

[ryaniskingofyou]

fuck that, we dont want no cd5 bullshit round hurr...
i keed, yeah, come out. sounds like its gonna be a good time

[ryaniskingofyou]

and i still need someone to help me get my legend lip on any takers? will be reimbursed sexually.
kidding. but seriously. ayudama por favor

[otacon122]

I put pictures of my new accord up on my MR page if you guys want to check it out...and I may come out with you guys, if you dont mind a CD5 haha LMK

Hey...Any Honda is welcome for this meet on Saturday - Civics, del Sol's, Preludes, CRX's, Accords, don't matter. If its a Honda, bring it. Honda motorcycles are welcome, too.

[otacon122]

and i still need someone to help me get my legend lip on any takers? will be reimbursed sexually.
kidding. but seriously. ayudama por favor

I say we use this meet to get to know everyone and find someone or someplace who will help us build our Hondas for relatively cheap - the prerequisite is they must be willing to teach us as well. Aside from the JY cruises, we could go scope out a few places that would let us build our Hondas.

By the way, best way to get a hold of me is either via email or instant messenger. I don't use my cell phone much at all because I had to strip a lot of the features off the plan to be able to pay the bill every month. I am generally on instant messengers during the day or as late as 10:00pm every night. If I am not online, I'm more than likely at school. I check my email several times a day, and if I'm on my instant messengers, I'll be alerted to the fact I have an email and I'll be able to check it and respond to it almost immediately. My email address is wthrfrk23@yahoo.com and its my primary email, so its the one I use all the time.

[ryaniskingofyou]

lol well yeah thats also a good idea. I know how to put it on, its just no fun when you're the only one working on a car that and I dont have a heat gun

[MadSpleen85]

Merriam PD being all LIDAR is news to me..

Merriam PD is part of the Johnson County Sheriff's office. The operate on the same dispatch and provide instant mutual aid to other SO Jurisdictions that surround their city.

Like I said before

If you are talking about the Charger R/T that I am aware of, it is not truly the R/T model it is false badging for deception purposes. It is HEAVILY MODIFIED and the Deputy that is behind the wheel is a very skilled driver and a real cool guy who knows his cars. And that is not nearly the only heavily modded unmarked car in the Johnson County fleet. Shawnee, Lenexa, Olathe, and Overland Park all have modded stock looking cars. I am sure there are more that I do not know about.

I did not say ALL agencies have been operation under a hiring freeze. I have not seen any Merriam recruits going through the academy in at least 3 months. I applied for a Police Officer position with Shawnee, Lenexa, Overland Park and Olathe. All who informed me that they were hiring a very limited number of new recruits if any new officers at all. Shawnee has 4 open Officer positions and many Officers not normally assigned to patrol have been working patrol shifts to cover the difference.

Basing an agencies economic standing based on equipment is hard to do. Police equipment is essential to the safety and job duties of Officers. You cant put an Officer in just any car with no equipment and expect him/her to accomplish much of anything. The old style "Cherry" light bars are being removed from fleets do to the cost of operation, maintenance and low visibility. LED light bars consume less power to operate, last 10 times longer and offer higher visibility. LED equipment costs more up front but pays for itself rapidly. When an agency is facing tough economic times they cut spending where they can and that is usually hiring new recruits. Vehicle maintenance and equipment cost cannot be cut if you still want to have an operable Police force.