Has anyone's radar detector ever failed them?

[denill]

And boring old man I may be (didn't know character showed so much on the internet) but I've saved tons of money not getting tickets and not buying frivolities like detectors...

Ohh, just noticed you ride a Harley! A boring, (seemingly) old man AND on a Harley. Course ya don't need a 'Tector!

[scumdog]

Ohh, just noticed you ride a Harley! A boring, (seemingly) old man AND on a Harley. Course ya don't need a 'Tector!

And I NEVER speed - how boring is THAT!!

[oldrider]

But I'm still not sure about the '40 years ago nobody got stopped' comment...since I was not driving, riding or even holding a licence back then.

Well I certainly was and had a wall full of tickets as a teenager just to prove how dumb I was back then.

That's one thing you do learn about by being fortunate enough to stay alive and get old.

Well old enough to be despised by the young anyway!

Old age is kinda like winning Lotto but just a whole lot more painful. John.

[denill]

And I NEVER speed - how boring is THAT!!

Simple answer - Very!

When I HAVE to ride at the boringly stupid speeds arbitrarily set for ALL conditions is the day I stop riding.

[denill]

Hey Scummy. You could buy this Ariel:

[scumdog]

Hey Scummy. You could buy this Ariel:

Nah, looks too fast for me.

(And too cluttered for my tassles to show to their full glory)

[Swoop]

I haven't been able to get hold of the old clickety-clickety keyboards for ages - so I am afraid I don't get the sexual satisfaction from the sound of my own typing that I used to.

TOP TIP: CONVINCE neighbours that you own an old fashioned typewriter by wearing metal thimbles and drumming your fingers on a plastic tray. Every ten seconds ting a wine glass with a pencil and run a butter knife along the teeth of a comb before continuing drumming your fingers.

[Morcs]

I have an idea.

Everybody sponsor me to ride round the auckland motorways at night, cruising at 180-200+ too see if my detector fails me.

[scumdog]

I have an idea.

Everybody sponsor me to ride round the auckland motorways at night, cruising at 180-200+ too see if my detector fails me.

A ha'penny is on it's way....

[Patrick]

Well, one of the main points of this thread has been that money is just money, but losing one's driver's licence is a serious pain in the arse.

What's your take on it, Patrick?

Do you think that radar detectors are a valid tool in certain circumstances, or do you think that anything which gives people an enhanced ability to Break The Law (tm) and remain undetected is a Bad Thing (tm)?

Spend all ya $$$ on whatever ya like. A valid tool, perhaps... but a tool for what? Speeding and hoping not to get caught? I just have a quiet chuckle every time I issue a ticket to someone who has a radar detector and wonder if they think it was money well spent...

's a matter of fair play. Like the Rules of Engagement in war, .....

Like the road code outlining what speed limits are, the signage on the roads warning of what the limits are, the "stands out like dogs balls" patrol cars with disco lights... yeah, you're right. No warnings, very sneaky.....

I've been at the side of the road in a fully marked car, with the lights going, and still they approach 20-30kmph over the limit. There is just no helping some dopey people out there.....

[jrandom]

I have an idea.

Everybody sponsor me to ride round the auckland motorways at night, cruising at 180-200+ too see if my detector fails me.

At that speed, it can hardly 'fail' you, inasmuch as its only possible use will be to tell you when you need to start 'cruising' at 250 instead...

[Ixion]

Like the road code outlining what speed limits are, the signage on the roads warning of what the limits are, the "stands out like dogs balls" patrol cars with disco lights... yeah, you're right. No warnings, very sneaky.....

I've been at the side of the road in a fully marked car, with the lights going, and still they approach 20-30kmph over the limit. There is just no helping some dopey people out there.....

Nay, anything in marked cars is all fair and above board. I find the Mark II eyeball (I upgraded the old Mk I a while ago) to be quite effective for them. Can't win them all of course , but that's the name of the game .

[Gremlin]

the "stands out like dogs balls" patrol cars with disco lights... yeah, you're right. No warnings, very sneaky.....

You've living in the wrong place. I have personally seen a few cars hiding behind bushes, basically invisible until you were almost next them. Also seen a speed van partly hidden, and a couple of hundred metres down the road, a second, even more hidden. Geee, wonder why you would put them right next to each other

Also, travelling in a car at around 11pm on a Wednesday night I think, going into the office from some work, and two patrol cars parked on the motorway, out of visible range (jammer saw them, we saw them later), within a couple of on ramps of each other, both trying to ping people.

Legal? Guess so... excellent game. They have tools, I have tools, and then its just a game of tag

[scumdog]

Like the road code outlining what speed limits are, the signage on the roads warning of what the limits are, the "stands out like dogs balls" patrol cars with disco lights... yeah, you're right. No warnings, very sneaky..........

My take on this:

Park on an unlit part of the main street in an unmarked car at night with its lights off.

Very effective

There's no such wanky thing as Rules of Engagement, a win is a win however you do it.

If your on the 'other side' you have detectors, runners, false plates yadda yadda...so we do whatever to counter it.

Old motto; "They have to be lucky EVERY time, we only have to be lucky once".

[jrandom]

Spend all ya $$$ on whatever ya like. A valid tool, perhaps... but a tool for what? Speeding and hoping not to get caught?

Pretty much, aye.

Perhaps I should clarify my attitude on this. A few folk seem to think that I'm some kind of dastardly bandit who rides around mooning the Highway Patrol at a hundred miles an hour in rush-hour traffic.

That couldn't be further from the truth. I religiously stick within the 10kph tolerance on motorways and in built-up areas.

However, there are two particular situations that bother me, where I would feel far better if I had a few more 'senses' that could tell me about nearby radar activity:

1. 80kph zones, mostly north of Auckland, which are there essentially because heavy traffic passes that way and the road is not suited to trucks travelling at 100kph.

2. Long open highways in the middle of nowhere, mostly around the central NI, when it's cold and lonely and late and I can potentially cut half-hour chunks off journeys by upping my cruising speed by 20%.

My daily commute to and from the office, conducted entirely below 80kph and never in excess of any speed limits, is a high-risk nightmare in comparison to either of those circumstances, so I have little patience with anyone who tries to tell me I'm endangering myself.

I never 'play' on State Highways.

None of my 'play' riding, which does indeed reach speeds of more than twice the open-road limit (as is the case for many members of this forum) would be in any way affected by a radar detector, and as such has nothing to do with my reasons for wanting one. In fact, I'd almost certainly take it off or disable it for such rides.

Reviewing all of of the points on my licence at the moment, y'see, none of them would be there if I'd had a radar detector at the time.

I ride to the physics of the road, not the letter of the law, and the additional 'eyes' that a good radar detector will give me will be worth every penny.

I am under no illusion that it is a magic charm against speeding tickets. One suspects that the people with detectors whom you've ticketed may have been under that illusion.