Headlights and Radar

[MazTLR]

I was riding on the weekend during the day, and with the TLR the headlights are on all the time. Well I was in a 100k zone, had just over taken about 4 cars at one go, to get to the front of the line,when in the distance the car coming toward me looked like a police car,it was my radar went off, (instant on), so slowed down till he passed. Right what I was wondering is I know it's a good safety thing to have your headlights on to warn motorist your coming , but are you to easy a target to be spotted for police radar with your lights on, if you want to go fast, Should they be off what do you think.

[lukelin250]

ive been wondering the exact same thing, i reckon it would

[Toaster]

Nope... I recommend leaving the lights on - most are hard wired anyway. Increased safety from headlights being seen is far more important than risking getting seen by the police earlier than you may expect.

[Toaster]

another issue is that it is harder to be locked onto as a biker, the target presented id much smaller and more difficult to reflect off than cars.... they make a point of it in the training manual. Trucks are the opposite and reflect radar the best.... and my fat ass.

[Big Dog]

I was riding on the weekend during the day, and with the TLR the headlights are on all the time. Well I was in a 100k zone, had just over taken about 4 cars at one go, to get to the front of the line,when in the distance the car coming toward me looked like a police car,it was my radar went off, (instant on), so slowed down till he passed. Right what I was wondering is I know it's a good safety thing to have your headlights on to warn motorist your coming , but are you to easy a target to be spotted for police radar with your lights on, if you want to go fast, Should they be off what do you think.

Radar works off of mass not light.
Your spine comes before your wallet.
Do your lights attract any extra attention from the police.
Quite the opposite in my experience. if you ever wanna get tailed disco your headlight. Very noticable when I was without a headlight for 24 hours this week every police car I passed at least slowed down (when going the other way) or followed me off the motorway until I left the public road (3 times in 8 hours is not a coincidence.)

[Lou Girardin]

I need to think about this;
On one hand you have a headlight on to warn traffic of your presence and perhaps save your life - on the other you want to turn it off to avoid a fine!
Tough choice.

[SixPackBack]

I need to think about this;
On one hand you have a headlight on to warn traffic of your presence and perhaps save your life - on the other you want to turn it off to avoid a fine!
Tough choice.

Do I detect just the slightest hint of sarcasm Lou.:yes:

[Edbear]

Radar works off of mass not light.



Yup! No effect on radar at all. Does get you noticed, though, and that's why most ride with it on, of course. By the time you've seen the cop, if no detector, he's already had you on his radar anyway.

[madandy]

Keep ya lights on...If you make yaself harder to see for the police think of the cop car to non cop car ratio and do you really want to make yerself more difficult to see for all those thousands of metal objects?

[Motu]

Cover your headlamp with tinfoil - it deflects the radar and looks real techo.

[frogfeaturesFZR]

Now now Motu, play nice.... and with the foil over the headlight it attracts aliens to abduct you anyway !

[WRT]

Pfft, everyone knows the best way to avoid the tin-top fuzz is with a tin foil fez . . .

[RC1]

my lights on the tls dont turn off there is no off switch for them, just low and high beam,

[frogfeaturesFZR]

RCTL, the aliens are gonna get you !

[Squeak the Rat]

I'm surprised how many people have radars on their bikes....


))))))))))))):scooter:

[Paul in NZ]

I've never been picked up by the radar on the Tritanic - I think it's the tinfoil reflector in the gas lamp up front or possibly the stray electrical interference from the bronze age electrical system makes all they high tech gizmos go wonky....

Paul N

Or possibly that 40bhp struggle to propel my blimp like body past 100kph

[RC1]

RCTL, the aliens are gonna get you !

:rofl: :rofl:

[frogfeaturesFZR]

Paul your ' blimp like body' is absorbing the radar. I should be so lucky. On the other hand, can I ride behind you ?

[Ixion]

The Guzzi immunity to radar has obvious reasons. We all know about Eytie electrics. And the radar beam is ELECTRO magnetic, right. So as soon as the incoming radar beam arrives at the bike , it is captured by the inescapable laws of Italian electrical randomisation. Instead of the radar beam being deflected back to the cop car, it causes the left rear indicator to flash twice. Except if the horn is pushed at the same time. Then it causes the neutral light to flash until the side stand is put down.

I know about Italian electrics. Chaos theory has nothing on them.

[Paul in NZ]

The Guzzi immunity to radar has obvious reasons. We all know about Eytie electrics. And the radar beam is ELECTRO magnetic, right. So as soon as the incoming radar beam arrives at the bike , it is captured by the inescapable laws of Italian electrical randomisation. Instead of the radar beam being deflected back to the cop car, it causes the left rear indicator to flash twice. Except if the horn is pushed at the same time. Then it causes the neutral light to flash until the side stand is put down.

I know about Italian electrics. Chaos theory has nothing on them.

Oddly enough - as much as I cannot understand how the Guzzi wiring works and why it needs a harness the size of a ships hawser - it has been a paragon of electrical stability. A few small issues but always caused by other things..... The other odder thing - all the bits are actually german? Weird.

The tritanic is pretty robust electrically but does waste a lot of effort shooting electrons into the air which is quite annoying.

Neither bike is much chop with an intercom - nothing is sheilded and it's all a bit of a waste of time. Fortunately - they both have glorious exhaust notes to pass the time...

[davereid]

Ive put together a web page on radar ...

http://www.eslnz.com/radar.html

have a look it may help.

[roogazza]

I have had many people giving their thoughts on my light being off. I made the decision and have it off. I only ride very early in the morning and never in cities. I figure I want any advantage I can get . (as far as radars locking on to me ) But on the other hand it is nice to be seen in traffic, tough call but I made it . I have to back myself and my nearly fortytwo years on the road. Gaz. ps . Novices, leave your lights on ! )

[oldrider]

Ive put together a web page on radar ...

http://www.eslnz.com/radar.html

have a look it may help.

So, I am at a disadvantage riding around on my own, I should always look for a group to join up with! Not many groups go my way! :bye: John.

[oldrider]

I have had many people giving their thoughts on my light being off. I made the decision and have it off. I only ride very early in the morning and never in cities. I figure I want any advantage I can get . (as far as radars locking on to me ) But on the other hand it is nice to be seen in traffic, tough call but I made it . I have to back myself and my nearly fortytwo years on the road. Gaz. ps . Novices, leave your lights on ! )

Yep, I leave my light off in the country, soon as I hit town or City limits, on she goes.

If a vehicle is turning in front or across of you in the country you can flash your light off and on and they are more likely to see it than if it is just on.

City folk are tuned into bikes with their lights on (well, some of them). Country folk notice flashing lights more than steady light. (my theory anyway)

Notice how many people tell you they saw you because you "didn't" have your light on!

Personal choice, personal consequence. I think/hope I've got it right! :shit: Seems to have worked for me for a long time. Cheers John.

[imdying]

Buy a black bike. When they had the gun at Ruapuna, apparently the nice policeman made the comment that black bikes are a bitch to laser. This was confirmed by some of the KBers who gave it a go.

Of course, a black bike is probably be more likely to get mowed down by a car... I'll be keeping those big twin lights of mine on thanks. If you really want to get your groove on, take it to a track. No coppers, no cars, and all the traffic goes the same way as you :yes:

[philnz]

putting tin foil will do nothing, radar is reflected on mass and it will probably reflect back better
on the outher hand i believe that head light should be on but it does get seen by the cop at a greater distance so he will prob ping the radar on as he sees the light overtaking

[madandy]

I think the tin foil idea was a joke dude;)

[stanko]

Where does this " radar is reflected on mass " fact come from, radar signals are reflected by a metal target, 2000 dead chickens will reflect less radio energy than a meter of aluminum foil. Sports cars with thier headlights retracted reflect less signal than with them extended, even though the mass is the same. Just keep repeating it till it becomes a fact.

[Edbear]

I think the tin foil idea was a joke dude;)




:gob: I wuz jes bout t raid the kitchen cupboard, too...:third:

[davereid]

Yep your dead right stanko ...

In fact the Brits used this principle during WW2. They knew the frequency of the German radar transmitters. So they knew the wavelength. So they cut bits of Aluminium foil to exactly 1 wavelength. Then they dropped the foil out of a bomber. The german radar saw the foil as a large target, because it was electrically speaking a tuned length. So the germans would scramble fighters to attack the large formation of bombers, but couldnt find them. Not till they were almost out of gas, then the real bombers would arrive.

With regard to laser guns, black bikes are hard to get a lock on. And I would think a headlight would make it harder again - its hard keeping a good aim at a blinding light, and its possible it desensitises the laser too. Specially if you got a box of IR LEDS and placed em all at the front of your bike.

[Ixion]

Hm. So if we knew the frequency of the cop radar ......? Bet the bastiges cheat by switching back and forth or something.

[davereid]

Yep, I designed a little gadget to stop radar locking. Never got to test it.

Dont speed much now, and it was a bit big for a bike, but heres the design if anyone can be bothered making one.

The Stalker radar has a wavelength of 8mm. So cut yourself a lot of 8mm long lengths of copper wire.

Then get a round bit of wood - a cylinder, about 100mm diameter.

Cut it so it is 8mm long - now it looks like an enormous coin.

Glue the bits of copper to the cylinder so they look like notches across the cylinder.

Now get a toy motor, and connect it to the center of the disk. You can now spin the disk at will, just by applying power.

Bung the disk and motor in a tin box, with just the top of the disk showing above the top of the box.

Start the motor. You are now spinning the disc, and the little bits of metal are acting as radar reflectors. At least the ones at the top of the box are, because they are not shielded by the tin.

As seen by the radar unit, these little aerials are moving towards (or away depending on the way you spin the motor) the radar unit. It will try to display the speed of the spinning aerials.

Good luck constructors... let me know if it works

[Big Dog]

Yep your dead right stanko ...

In fact the Brits used this principle during WW2. They knew the frequency of the German radar transmitters. So they knew the wavelength. So they cut bits of Aluminium foil to exactly 1 wavelength. Then they dropped the foil out of a bomber. The german radar saw the foil as a large target, because it was electrically speaking a tuned length. So the germans would scramble fighters to attack the large formation of bombers, but couldnt find them. Not till they were almost out of gas, then the real bombers would arrive.

With regard to laser guns, black bikes are hard to get a lock on. And I would think a headlight would make it harder again - its hard keeping a good aim at a blinding light, and its possible it desensitises the laser too. Specially if you got a box of IR LEDS and placed em all at the front of your bike.
Is that why you see more hogs than sportbikers pulled over?

[scumdog]

I need to think about this;
On one hand you have a headlight on to warn traffic of your presence and perhaps save your life - on the other you want to turn it off to avoid a fine!
Tough choice.

I'm with Lou (again you say?) on this.

The first post on this thread HAS to be a troll, right? right?

I don't know of ANYBODY down here that targets bikes with a 'radar'.

Most bikers get cut a shitload of slack even though they might not realise it.

But that's down here in good ol' Southern redneck teritory.

[Pixie]

And I would think a headlight would make it harder again - its hard keeping a good aim at a blinding light, and its possible it desensitises the laser too. Specially if you got a box of IR LEDS and placed em all at the front of your bike.

Even worse if you pulse them at 4 Mhz...
oops...sshhh

[Ixion]

4 Mhz ? That's fast, too fast for the human eye to notice. Wotz it do? Can a LED pulse that fast? I guess it's a diode not a filiment, so maybe it can.

[Lou Girardin]

Do I detect just the slightest hint of sarcasm Lou.:yes:

Who?
Moi?

[Lou Girardin]

Hm. So if we knew the frequency of the cop radar ......? Bet the bastiges cheat by switching back and forth or something.

We do and it does. Ka band is a wide freq band, which is why it's so difficult to jam.

[Pixie]

4 Mhz ? That's fast, too fast for the human eye to notice. Wotz it do? Can a LED pulse that fast? I guess it's a diode not a filiment, so maybe it can.

Makes the laser unit think it's seeing a stationary object,35 meters away