Not a fake police biker

So yesterday I was threading my way through London on Triumph's Tiger Explorer 1200 with panniers. Quite a wide load.

Up ahead, I see a police biker and reckon on him being able to part the traffic enough for me to have an easier run down by the river. We set off from the lights, he had a steady start and didn't give the impression he'd swatted up on his Not the Blue Book recently. I get a bit closer to see if he's a real copper as the bike isn't what you'd expect. He's dressed in a police-style but without POLICE on his hi-viz instead he's got TRAFFIC written on the pillion seat hump. I get closer and the bike has LED lights fitted above the brake light. Either he's trialling out the bike or he's a proper geek I tell myself.

I stick with him, thinking he's one of those proper geeks that gets off on looking like a copper and embarrassing all of motorcycling in the process. We're making reasonable progress, get to a set of lights at Parliament Square and he blatantly runs a red. I want to get a photo, so after the lights go green I make some progress through traffic over Westminster Bridge and catch up with him on the run down to Blackfriars. I parked the bike up, lobbed my gloves on the floor and ran over to get a pic. This is all I could muster.

I've googled the number plate and it looks like he's semi-official. But he can't ride in the same way police bikers (usually) can. So who are these TRAFFIC?

By Ben Cope