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Radar Detectors: are they worth it?
- Thread starter wabbit
- Start date
P-Ratt said:
I agree, must be alert at all times.
The screamer is so good/loud, that I can hear by friend's go off in front or behind me pretty good at speed.
V1 prevented me from getting a second ticket in Garland (same spot as two years ago, reason I got the V1) on my way into work this morning. Unmarked Black Impala with limo tint on HWY78(S) right before Beltline, he had both Ka and Laser. Picked-up traces of Ka before he came into sight and then he painted us with Laser, the guy that passed me when I slowed down got pulled over. Not even a mile from there, another Garland cruiser, parked in the median, was hitting S-bound traffic on Beltline with Instant-on. Didn't see him pull over anyone, but must have pulled-in behind us, the V1 rear detector picked him up pretty good (Ka). I was very surprised by this morning's events, because Garland PD is usually out enforcing traffic at the end of the month, not the beguining.
One feature I like about the V1 is that it is not only a detector, but a locator, radar presence is as important as location (front, rear).
10-95:
Don't take this thread personal, most of us have the outmost respect for law enforcement. I for one truly appreciate the work you and your fellow LEOs do EVERY DAY to protect us (from ourselves sometimes!), putting your life on the line sometimes to get scum off the streets.
So, A BIG THANK YOU, to you and your fellow officers.
Unfortunately, some PD departments are not very fair in their enforcement practices and some of us have gotten burned. I for one had to fight unfair tickets in court twice; both times judge saw things my way.
El Paso PD on a three wheeler once pulled three cars over in the downtown area (I was the car in the middle), let the guy in front and behind me go, and gave me a ticket for 3-miles over on a School Zone (could not show me my speed on his radar, did not have it in lock-mode), I had foreign plates at the time, so he probably ASSUMED I didn’t have a DL and Insurance, WRONG!!!!
El Paso PD on I10 pulled me over for 5-miles over while driving in traffic, had it dismissed by the judge because I was simply traveling at the prevailing speed.
IMHO the guy driving at the speed limit on the highway (say 60), when the prevailing speed is higher (say 70) is almost as dangerous as the guy doing 10 over the speed limit (say 80). Of course it takes the guy doing 80 much longer to stop than the guy doing 60, but the disruption in traffic puts drivers on the road at risk just the same. So is it fair for one to get a ticket for traveling at the prevailing speed, even if it happens to be above the speed limit? Is there an official provision in the law that I can cite next time a LEO pulls me over under these circumstances (prevailing speed beyond the speed limit)?
Adan said:
Wow........that was a long post. Don't know where to even start.
Basically what the law says is that it is presumed the posted speed limit is reasonable and prudent and therefore lawful. What you would have to do is prove what you were doing was lawful and that a reasonable and prudent person would agree with you. Make sense???
Personallly I believe anyone with 1/2 a brain should have been able to get a ticket for 3mph over dismissed. There would be a simple argument, you have to recognize the offense, verify it with your speed device and the speed device must be checked for proper operation beforehand. There are a few other things that go in there but that is the jest of it. There can be a +/- 2mph difference in actual speed and the readout speed, speedometers can be off by up to 5mph...............word it right and almost any judge will agree. Get up to about 10mph over and this argument won't work.
Oh................and don't think it is unusual for an officer to not lock your speed. A lot of depts do not require it and neither does Texas law. I myself do not usually lock the speed. If I see someone at XXmph I track them and if they drop the speed and I lock at a lower speed I still write at XXmph. You can explain and explain tracking history to most people but all they comprehend is what is locked on the display.
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10-95, can you use LIDAR at night?
I've used radar detectors on my bikes for years. They've paid for themselves many, many times over. The best was a cheap Maxon with an earphone jack. It outperformed much more expensive detectors. Today I have the Bel 945M. I attach it to my Autocomm, and even with earplugs I can hear it when I'm riding at a spirited pace. Staying alert still remains the best defense against speed traps, you can usually make visual contact before they can get a lock on you on the bike.
Doc
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I'm assuming that the return reflection for radar or lidar has to be made off a surface that doesn't redirect the return away from the receiver ? Now, I know that they are probably fairly generous in this, as 10-95 pointed out he just hits the rider in the chest or the car/truck in the middle of the grille, and there are other options. I have a very aerodynamic (lots of lie back angle to the facing surface) nose fairing (in pic on left) that presents a sharp profile forwards up to about my helmet face shield. The twin headlights are probably the target, as they are old school round 5.3/4" types. I've been wondering if I could "buy some slow down time" with a coating on the windscreen to reflect the return because my chest and torso up to my helmet is behind a very laid back angled windscreen.
We're only taliking about the ability to slow from 80mph to something they might let slide like 70mph ... I don't ride real fast in traffic areas but I do ride slightly faster than surrounding trucks and cars, it helps them see you if you move through them SLOWLY not quickly.
Now, for our LEO types here, I have the utmost respect for them and the job they do (if they are reasonable human beings and most of them are) but the fact is, as a motorcycle officer in Melbourne Australia we were TRAINED to move through traffic 5mph-8mph above the prevailing speed the traffic was moving at because this was deemed the most effective way to passively make our presence known while minimising the risks associated with passing traffic or moving through it. High speed overtaking was not the point, it was to allow the rider the ability to be known to the driver with greater effect and thus avoid the "I didn't know he was there" syndrome, while at the same time not creating a "speed kills" consequence which is without a doubt true the faster you travel.
It's all about avoiding the situation before it can happen. It was proven to be safer to travel (with alertness and judgement making the call to pass or not to pass) on a motorcycle in traffic at 5 - 8mph above the bulk traffic flow as long as you did it in a manner where your presence was made obvious. you look for eye contact in mirrors and such at the same time, and at a slow rate of overtake you have more time to do this, and adjust (slow) if something says "wait a minute".
I raise this issue because with prevailing traffic running at 70mph in a 60mph zone ... I am going to be (for how I was trained to ride with safety and accident avoidance being the prime task to pursue) travelling at 75-78mph in a 60mph zone, and this is I think pretty much an automatic ticket in most cases I have witnessed here.
In Australia it was a lot simpler, prevailing traffic DOES NOT SPEED because we are very savage over there about speeding. It is brutal. Police are less busy with non traffic type crimes (we have no guns, and a very low crime rate compared to here) and yet we have about the same cop to civilian ratio ... so if we are out in a patrol car or on a bike we are generally policing traffic all the time. So doing 5-8mph over the limit is no big deal, because it really is only 5-8mph over as no one is speeding.
Unlike here.
So I'm curious what 10-95 would offer here as advice, I want a detector option to allow me the safety zone of MOVING SLOWLY THROUGH TRAFFIC like I was trained to do ... and to avoid the fiscal drain on my meagre financial resources that will result from riding in the manner that has kept me alive through over a million miles of riding through traffic on a motorcycle.
One thing became clear the minute I got here and started riding, traffic is a bigger risk than it is back home and all I had been taught is tested far more thoroughly than it ever was back home, and I'm averaging 2 tickets a year which is too many for me, the resulting 60-90 days deferred adjudication is killing me when it's twice a year. That's 6 months of every year when I must ride without "moving through traffic" and the risks I have experienced doing that are quadruple what they are when I ride like I was trained to ride in traffic as a motorcycle officer.
Sorry that was a lot of typing, but I wanted to be clear where the "move slowly through traffic" thing came from, unlike what most people assume, it is not the desire to speed or race cars, it is a manner of riding that sees me here posting after more than 1,000,000 miles of riding through traffic.
We're only taliking about the ability to slow from 80mph to something they might let slide like 70mph ... I don't ride real fast in traffic areas but I do ride slightly faster than surrounding trucks and cars, it helps them see you if you move through them SLOWLY not quickly.
Now, for our LEO types here, I have the utmost respect for them and the job they do (if they are reasonable human beings and most of them are) but the fact is, as a motorcycle officer in Melbourne Australia we were TRAINED to move through traffic 5mph-8mph above the prevailing speed the traffic was moving at because this was deemed the most effective way to passively make our presence known while minimising the risks associated with passing traffic or moving through it. High speed overtaking was not the point, it was to allow the rider the ability to be known to the driver with greater effect and thus avoid the "I didn't know he was there" syndrome, while at the same time not creating a "speed kills" consequence which is without a doubt true the faster you travel.
It's all about avoiding the situation before it can happen. It was proven to be safer to travel (with alertness and judgement making the call to pass or not to pass) on a motorcycle in traffic at 5 - 8mph above the bulk traffic flow as long as you did it in a manner where your presence was made obvious. you look for eye contact in mirrors and such at the same time, and at a slow rate of overtake you have more time to do this, and adjust (slow) if something says "wait a minute".
I raise this issue because with prevailing traffic running at 70mph in a 60mph zone ... I am going to be (for how I was trained to ride with safety and accident avoidance being the prime task to pursue) travelling at 75-78mph in a 60mph zone, and this is I think pretty much an automatic ticket in most cases I have witnessed here.
In Australia it was a lot simpler, prevailing traffic DOES NOT SPEED because we are very savage over there about speeding. It is brutal. Police are less busy with non traffic type crimes (we have no guns, and a very low crime rate compared to here) and yet we have about the same cop to civilian ratio ... so if we are out in a patrol car or on a bike we are generally policing traffic all the time. So doing 5-8mph over the limit is no big deal, because it really is only 5-8mph over as no one is speeding.
Unlike here.
So I'm curious what 10-95 would offer here as advice, I want a detector option to allow me the safety zone of MOVING SLOWLY THROUGH TRAFFIC like I was trained to do ... and to avoid the fiscal drain on my meagre financial resources that will result from riding in the manner that has kept me alive through over a million miles of riding through traffic on a motorcycle.
One thing became clear the minute I got here and started riding, traffic is a bigger risk than it is back home and all I had been taught is tested far more thoroughly than it ever was back home, and I'm averaging 2 tickets a year which is too many for me, the resulting 60-90 days deferred adjudication is killing me when it's twice a year. That's 6 months of every year when I must ride without "moving through traffic" and the risks I have experienced doing that are quadruple what they are when I ride like I was trained to ride in traffic as a motorcycle officer.
Sorry that was a lot of typing, but I wanted to be clear where the "move slowly through traffic" thing came from, unlike what most people assume, it is not the desire to speed or race cars, it is a manner of riding that sees me here posting after more than 1,000,000 miles of riding through traffic.
Doc said:
This is probably what is getting you, depending on where you are. In most of the metro areas you would be moving about 20-30mph over the posted limit. At least in my experience going to Plano or Houston to visit relatives if the limit is 60 most are doing 75 or better. A safe number would probably be about 6mph over the limit. No sense in bringing attention to yourself.
Just use common sense. As a motor officer in your native country what would you stop first? The road train at 70 or a Holden at 70?(I hope you appreciated the "Aussie" lingo
) I generally find a rabbit and use them to my advantage. They're easy to find. 
There's no coating that's gonna save ya, or even make it less.
If ya get a detector you can get a hit when a LEO pops a guy in front of ya, but ya still have to HAVE a guy out there at the right distance to get tagged and set it off.
And if he's speeding he's going to get nailed and not you anyway.
I haven't had a detector for years, since I gave up commercial driving. When I did 250+ miles a day I had one, it more than paid for itself 1000x over as a million dollar liability policies in metro houston commercial ain't cheap.
These days I just tag a rabbit and and hang back, or just do the speed limit. I'm not in that big a hurry to get anywhere and unless your going a couple hundred miles trip speeding doesn't save you enough to be worth the extra gas you burn.
If ya get a detector you can get a hit when a LEO pops a guy in front of ya, but ya still have to HAVE a guy out there at the right distance to get tagged and set it off.
And if he's speeding he's going to get nailed and not you anyway.
I haven't had a detector for years, since I gave up commercial driving. When I did 250+ miles a day I had one, it more than paid for itself 1000x over as a million dollar liability policies in metro houston commercial ain't cheap.
These days I just tag a rabbit and and hang back, or just do the speed limit. I'm not in that big a hurry to get anywhere and unless your going a couple hundred miles trip speeding doesn't save you enough to be worth the extra gas you burn.