A California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer working in the Bay Area found out that it’s pretty hard to stop a wheelie-popping motorcycle rider, at least when you’re swarmed by other bikers with no regard for the law.

A video posted Wednesday on YouTube, titled “Cop Chases Bikers Then Biker Makes Cop Leave,” shows dozens of bikers riding south on Interstate 680 near Montague Expressway in Milpitas on Oct. 11. The video, shot by a camera mounted on one of the riders, shows the rider and others popping wheelies at high speed.

The video then shows the group catching up with a CHP motor officer whose lights and sirens are activated. The officer is trying to pull over the lead biker, who doesn’t stop, Officer Ross Lee, a CHP spokesman, said Wednesday.

The officer then gives up and begins going after another biker who has pulled into the front of the pack, also doing wheelies. But that biker slows down and stops doing wheelies, only to be replaced by a third biker who rushes past the CHP motorcycle, doing a wheelie at high speed.

Both pull to the right, then to the left. No dice. After the zigzagging, the rider with the camera pulls close to the CHP officer and makes hand motions before saying something to him. The officer makes a gesture with his left hand across his neck, as if to say, “Knock it off.”

The officer then pulls away, and the rider with the camera waves goodbye.

Lee said it wasn’t safe for the officer to attempt any enforcement stops of the bikers, noting that there were about 100 riders on the freeway that day — and it was clear no one was in the mood to be written up for reckless driving or exhibition of speed.

“There was an officer safety concern,” Lee said. “He decided to remove himself from that immediate area.”

Lee said the video doesn’t show the officer pulling to the right shoulder and calling for backup as the “main mob” passed him. Lee said he didn’t know whether any officers ended up pulling over and citing any of the bikers.

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