Radar penetration

[slopster]

Seeing as it is hard to find a conveinient place to mount a radar detector on a bike I was thinking about just putting it in the pocket of my leathers. As I understand radar penetrates no metallic objects pretty well and should work fine but does anyone know if it will be affected significantly (valentine 1). Of course the laser detection will be nil.

[madandy]

View this thread(click here) (http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=20610&highlight=radar+detector+mounting)

[What?]

Seeing as it is hard to find a conveinient place to mount a radar detector on a bike I was thinking about just putting it in the pocket of my leathers. As I understand radar penetrates no metallic objects pretty well and should work fine but does anyone know if it will be affected significantly (valentine 1). Of course the laser detection will be nil.

Your radar detection will be close to nil as well. It has to mounted horizontally for optimum detection, which could be a bit of a challenge in your pocket.

[Ixion]

Um. How does that work on motorbikes then, which are seldom vertical. Are you saying that if you mount the detector horizontal with the bike vertical, that it won't then work if the cop pings you when you're banked over ? Cos then the detector won' be horizontal any more. I've never seen one mounted in gimbals.

[davereid]

Actually its sort of true. If you dismantle the radar detector you will see it has a horn antenna - sort of like a reflector for a headlight, but working the opposite way. It concentrates the recieved radar signal onto the detector diode. So if the horn is facing the wrong way, the radar detector will have very low sensitivity. The antenna is rectangular, with its widest edge in the horizontal plane. That gives it good sensitivity to signals from in front and to the sides, with less sensitivity to signals from above, or in the ground. If you put the detector on its side you reverse this. It won't stop it working, but it will be very much less sensitive. So... you dont need gimbals, but keepo the detector as high and as level as you practically can. Think of it as a light, and where it shines the brightest is where it is the most sensitive.

[sAsLEX]

Um. How does that work on motorbikes then, which are seldom vertical. Are you saying that if you mount the detector horizontal with the bike vertical, that it won't then work if the cop pings you when you're banked over ? Cos then the detector won' be horizontal any more. I've never seen one mounted in gimbals.

LIke said earlier, its not pointing to the sky like in a pocket, but still facing up the road semi parallel to the road surface then you will get decent returns. Normally cops dont sit on the corners, they are at the end of passing lanes or along long open straights behind the only bush/tree on the side of the road hiding in shadows waiting for the dangerous 111kmhr killers.

[TerminalAddict]

get a stem mount or handle bar mount ..

[sAsLEX]

get a stem mount or handle bar mount ..

or make one...
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=8788&d=1112077125
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=8787&d=1112077013

[WarlockNZ]

Why dont you just build your own custom mount ???

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=47148&d=1164850381

It gets the job done :)

[Biff]

It really should be mounted horizontally (due to the ‘horney’/directional antenna’), as the clever man said, and with as little as possible between the sensor and the open road.

Through a plastic screen you can loose as much as 10bBm (a fkin lot) in incoming signal strength, but that depends on the type and coating, and angles in the screen. In other words that equates to less response time from you. My (aftermarket double bubble) screen attenuates the incoming signal by 6dBm, which is still quite a bit. But I can live with that. As most of us have to.

In your pocket, covered with leather (there be water molecules in there, not good, then the leather itself, then the screen and whatever else in the way to restrict/deflect signals) and not mounted horizontally, you would probably get just a little bit more warning that if you were to simply stand up on your bike and had a good look around for the mobile tax collection agency. A waste of time and money IMO.

And if you've got a Valentine, then you'd be daft no to mount it properly, as it's a top notch bit of widegtary.

[Lou Girardin]

Having less than optimum reception while you're dragging a knee mid-corner would be the least of your problems.

[What?]

Um. How does that work on motorbikes then, which are seldom vertical. Are you saying that if you mount the detector horizontal with the bike vertical, that it won't then work if the cop pings you when you're banked over ? Cos then the detector won' be horizontal any more. I've never seen one mounted in gimbals.

Now listen 'ere, buddy.. I am the nit-picking bastard that finds different interpretations of straight-forward phrases. It's what I do, and what I am known for. Demarcation is what this is and if it continues, then :shutup: :shutup:

Ok - you got me. 10 points.

[slopster]

Well what about mounting it between the front fairing and a mirror. Ugly but at least it would stay out of the way of the screen. I previously had it mounted on it's side in a clear lunch box (cable tied to the zxr ram air tube thingies) and that sidewaysness may have been why I got a pretty poor warning from what I expected.