Never thought I'd buy a detector!

[Edbear]

I have never had a radar detector and never thought I needed one as I don't drive fast enough to get speeding tickets. The only ticket I've had in the last 20 years was when I was distracted going down a slight hill and by the time I checked my speed and backed off it was too late and got pinged for legendary 112km/h.

Any way, I get the notices from 1-Day and GrabOne and there was a detector for a ridiculous price! I thought it would just be a basic outdated one but it was right up to modern specs with 9-band detection including instant-on and could tell the difference between emergency vehicles and Police, had front and rear laser detection, all the fruit!

So I grabbed it thinking it would be a fun toy, even if I didn't need one. I didn't tell Mrs. Bear of course, I thought I'd see if she noticed it... Ahem, she noticed it alright! As soon as I started the car, there was this cacaphony of sounds, (I had turned the volume up when I installed it as I didn't know how loud it would be), as it woke up and ran through its testing procedure! Poor Mrs. Bear nearly had a heart attack! "WHAT THE...!!!"

First bit of fun out of the way, we set off, and of course I had to keep adjusting the volume and put it on City mode as it was sounding off every few seconds at one of the 9 bands! "Are we going to have to listen to that the whole trip? Because if we do it's going out the window!"

"No Dear, I just need to get the hang of it and adjust it right." I assured her... "Well you better do it quick or you'll go out the window after it!" (My wife is endlessly patient and understanding with me... )

Sure enough, once through the city and on the Southern Motorway it started to settle down and by the time we stopped at the Auto Bahn for a late lunch I was sure I had it sussed. Of course from then on we never saw a cop car anywhere all the way to Whangamata, (I had to call on a customer there on our way to Whitianga). Going through towns on the way it would give a sort of half-pie beep as though there was something there but it didn't know quite what.

It wasn't until on the way back this afternoon that we came upon a Cop hauling out of a side park on the Kopu hill with all lights and siren ablaze to catch a wee small white car of nondescript appearance, that the detector went crazy! Of course Mrs. Bear scoffed that we had already seen the cop car in all its glory at the same time as the detector went off. I couldn't really say much to that...

Only one more time would we see a "cop" and of course it was the usual camera van on the way back through from Thames. However the detector didn't take any notice of it. I said it was because he was facing the other way and not pointing in our direction. "Huh!" said Mrs. Bear!

So the verdict after two days is that I have no idea how effective a detector is! Still it gives us something else to talk about on a trip.

[nzspokes]

How much? Work on a bike?

[SMOKEU]

Disable K band as cops don't use it, but speed camera vans do use it. That will prevent the annoying noise when you go past automatic door openers. The cops use Ka band here so that will protect you on the open road.

[Edbear]

How much? Work on a bike?

It was a Cobra ESD-7100 and was $70.00. I think it would, but you'd have to weather-proof it.

Disable K band as cops don't use it, but speed camera vans do use it. That will prevent the annoying noise when you go past automatic door openers. The cops use Ka band here so that will protect you on the open road.

That may be why it was the K band signal most of the time in towns.

[nadroj]

Mobile speed camera's have a weak signal as they get you when you are rather close. It won't take long before you have one of those moments and will realize it has paid for itself.

[steve_t]

Yeah, if it can't pick up the camera vans at all, you might as well have K band and X band off. A side-by-side comparison with a name brand like Bel STi or Valentine 1 would be interesting. Hard to find a fixed Ka source around here though

[SMOKEU]

Watch out for the cops with instant on radar as well. I managed to get snapped speeding by instant on radar. The cop was nice enough to let me off with a warning though once I pleaded my case.

[Katman]

The cop was nice enough to let me off with a warning though once I pleaded my case.

Did the taste last long?

[Edbear]

Watch out for the cops with instant on radar as well. I managed to get snapped speeding by instant on radar. The cop was nice enough to let me off with a warning though once I pleaded my case.

LoL! I really only ought it as it was so cheap and for its entertainment value. I'm an old fuddy duddy these days and it would probably only be of real benefit if I was not concentrating or something. I usually use cruise control so I can concentrate on driving without having to check the speedo every few seconds. Having the GPS I can set it by that rather than the optimistic speedo which is 5km/h fast.

[HQfiend]

Do a search on google/youtube on the detector Ed. They are crap and you just wasted $70 + freight. Sorry.

If you want a detector that works then 5 minutes of research will show you that Bel, Escort and Valentine are the best brands and you will pay accordingly.

[Edbear]

Do a search on google/youtube on the detector Ed. They are crap and you just wasted $70 + freight. Sorry.

If you want a detector that works then 5 minutes of research will show you that Bel, Escort and Valentine are the best brands and you will pay accordingly.

You may be right of course. Still it was fun... I won't toss it out just yet though.

[SMOKEU]

Did the taste last long?

I don't kiss and tell.

[spanner spinner]

instant on police radar units have rather made all radar detectors redundant.

[steve_t]

instant on police radar units have rather made all radar detectors redundant.

No they haven't because there's a good chance the police will scan a vehicle in front of you and if you have a good detector that can detect Ka band about 12km away line of sight, you'll pick it up. If you're the only one on the road and you continue to speed towards an oncoming car, you're an idiot and deserve a ticket
4km/h tolerance FTW... oh, hang on, it hasn't worked this weekend...

[Boob Johnson]

instant on police radar units have rather made all radar detectors redundant.

Bollocks, L2Radar noob!

edit: what Steve said!