Well, these radar detectors do indeed slow one down

[Wenier]

As i understand it now a good detector will save ya most of the time, and the best one i can find from a lot of reading is the Bel XR (STI) followed by the Bel RX950 and V1.

Cant save ya from a Laser thou.

[Lou Girardin]

I think some people put too much weight on so-called range in detector tests. 50 metres is neither here nor there, what matters is the detectors response time. The quicker you get the warning the more chance you have.
Some of the so-called independant US testers are known to have links with certain brands.
There was one test of the V1 which made you wonder if he'd actually used the unit or just read the manual. (Badly)

[MD]

I have had some amazingly long warnings from the V1.. and some damn short alerts.
As I mentioned under the 1/4 mile sprints thread back in Oct 06, the local HP sat at the end of the perfect straight using his car dash system (whatever it's called) aimed straight at the fast approaching sprinters. What, pleasantly may I add, surprised me was how close a bike had to be before he got a reading! I asked him about that and he said bikes were hard to pick up. I watched several approach with one eye on his read out. To labour the point he was stationary with a clear view to the bikes with no road elevations, trees or anything between him and the bikes, but still we had to be within 250m maybe before picked up! Bloody great. just hope it wasn't just his dud set.
I've dropped my V1 and HARD set in to RadarDirect to get fixed. Hope I don't have to fork out for a new one. A detector is like sex, once you've tried it, you wouldn't go without it again.

[Fatjim]

I watched several approach with one eye on his read out. To labour the point he was stationary with a clear view to the bikes with no road elevations, trees or anything between him and the bikes, but still we had to be within 250m maybe before picked up! Bloody great. just hope it wasn't just his dud set.

Shame you didn't get a video, it could be used to raise "reasonable doubt" in the small mind of a district court judge.

[Deviant Esq]

Someone told me once, think it was my old man, that radar detectors are legal, and using them is also legal, but it's an offence to act on the information gained from one. Scumdog?

I wouldn't mind a detector if it was given to me, but I'm pretty careful about watching my speed anyway (read: slower than your mum), so I'm not really too worried about it. But as someone said earlier, can't be arsed checking who, even us nanas exceed the limit every now and then, whether it's passing someone or just grumpy at having been held up... and speed does also creep up now and then when you're concentrating more on the road than on your speedo.

No point of a detector on my little bike though, they're more use on the open road, which is where mine can't really get far over the limit anyway. Maybe on the next bike? I've been pinged in the cage four times, and I'm hardly ever over the limit. Feels like I'm being watched because the few times I've had a bit of a go I get nabbed, while my girlfriend always seems to be over the limit and has never been stopped. Some people have all the luck.

[avgas]

I have seen this type of thing on the motorways in aucks

Seen that clapped out mazda bongo - made me laugh so hard i nearly got a ticket

[scumdog]

I have had some amazingly long warnings from the V1.. and some damn short alerts.
... surprised me was how close a bike had to be before he got a reading! I asked him about that and he said bikes were hard to pick up. I watched several approach with one eye on his read out. To labour the point he was stationary with a clear view to the bikes with no road elevations, trees or anything between him and the bikes, but still we had to be within 250m maybe before picked up!

Don't count on it, I can pick 'em up a ways further than that -and for a lot of the time 250m is all it takes.

[Pixie]

If I get my hands on a laser gun, I'll test to see if LEDS at the right wavelength reduce or intefere with laser.

Yes,when pulsed at 4 MHz

[Pixie]

My mistake, I always assumed that the carrot was better than the stick.

Isn't traffic duty supposed to be about preventing people from speeding rather than punishing them in places where speed isn't an issue. ticketing people for 60-70kph on a 50kph road that in any cililised society would be an 80kph limit road is just a joke. There's nothing there to protect against, and I've never seen an accident on that road before as visibility is great.

Same as the reason the HP sit at the end of passing lanes, real dangerous those. Why not instead hang outside the schools to get people speeding with kids around, or on roads like Tamaki Drive on a Friday night / Sunday lunchtime when all the fuckwits come out to play.

Don't try and tell me that ticketing speeders is about safety, but I can tell you're an ok guy, and I suspect that (like the rest of us) you're merely doing as you're told.

Poor naive little grasshopper.
It's all about revenue collection

[Pixie]

Not true - it's just because they are too stingy, they would have sussed out that even at'free' there would have beena money sucking catch, everything is on the cheap cheap cheap like a bunch of chickens.

I thought chooks went book book book

I just realised I made a funny

book book book lol

[scumdog]

Poor naive little grasshopper.
It's all about revenue collection

Only from losers that get caught.....

[JT.]

Don't count on it, I can pick 'em up a ways further than that -and for a lot of the time 250m is all it takes.

They probably deserve a ticket if they can't smell a pig at 250m. Either they're sleeping or they're covering more ground than is safe on our poor excuses for roads.

As i understand it now a good detector will save ya most of the time, and the best one i can find from a lot of reading is the Bel XR (STI) followed by the Bel RX950 and V1.

Cant save ya from a Laser thou.

Na mate, a dectector is only as good as the person using it. With instant on and other tricks, they catch out the idiots who rely only on a dectector.

And yes they can help save you from laser, bikes have a good advantage with their size. The smaller surface area of the bike makes it a lot harder to get a reading, so more time to slow down. Laser traps are no where near as common as radar though.

Laser has instant on too.

It's no good any other way. Or do you do just set up a tripod and tape the trigger down?

[MD]

Get the remote for your TV.
Hold it in your hot little hand.
Imagine the no.1 on the remote is the button that turns the radar on (when on instant-on mode).
Imagine the no.3 is the 'lock' button that locks on the speed on the screen.

Now imagine you are driving down the road in your cop-car and your thumb is hovering over button no.1
Imagine 'ol Scumdogs hog is hooning towards you at warp factor 3 (C'mon man, IMAGINE!)

Now press no1 to turn on your radar.
Say 'ka-ching quickly.
Now hit button no.3 quickly.

THAT is how long you have to react to your detector going off and peel away your speed.

Scumdog has a very good point here. I can vouch for it. I went out of my way to prove it even last weekend.
First, the radar has saved me dozens of times over and several times that day when the taps were fully opened it gave me enough notice to drop from 'start walking now!' to 'why's that bike sitting on 100? But I am the first to admit it is only a matter of time before luck smiles on the other fella.
So here I was rolling down the Desert Rd in really thick fog. Bit of a bugger because it was the long straights where normally you can see for miles and know with 100% certainty that you can give it full berries. So I'm thinking ...this is cop territory, can't see more than 250m ahead, the A1 GP traffic patrols will be heavier than usual, totally reliant on any HP having their radar on...umm, better slow down. So I cruise at about 125 to 130-ish but just as I enter a heavier bit of fog and again think, bugger this better back right off soon..whooaa, out of the mist there he was, coming at me like a great white shark with it's radar off! It was like a scene from a classic old western. The sheriff comes unexpectedly face to face with the villian at high noon for a quick draw. It was dive, dive, dive. He dived for his TV remote - channel 1 then 2. I went for the brakes and as the forks dived, off went my detector! Oh great, now you bloody see him. I only scrubbed a few Ks off.
So I'm forever doomed to ride the demerit roller coaster- points build up, up, up, some points drop off..some more points climb on board. Just one year I would like to have a clean slate! And without a forced 3 month clean up I mean (touch wood, never happened so far).
He did say my speed was pretty reasonable considering the road and nothing like what he normally comes across. Friendly enough and cut me some slack if you know what I mean. He rides a 600 even. How big was the shark, a 20 pointer no less.

[tipper]

interesting thread this... a bit of clarity for me though, the hand held guns, they're laser right? do they have the 'instant on' capability? or are they in cop cars...

lasers emit such a narrowbeam, that by the time it gets to your detector, you've already been pinged. I have a blinder on my cage, and it works OK, but lasers really aren't used a lot (in my experience).

I find 'eyes' are still the best copper detector out there ('cept for the lazy ones that leave it on) - many years on the open road means I can almost 'smell' them

[slopster]

Does anyone know how a laser gun would respond to putting an IR filter over one headlight?