Another Great Ride (foiled by an involuntary donation)

[LKLD]

It looks like I'm not the only one that's "impatient". I don't like being in the wrong lane any longer than I have to, so I pass with enthusiasm, then immediately back off once in the right lane.

Looks like you were a victim of circumstance. Bummer.

 

[Niehart]

Fred,this won't make you feel any better but I was riding with a couple of friends in the sweep position. Jeff made up a song about me while we were riding and it went something like this: "My name is Black I have too many tickets so I ride in back."

 

[Fred W]

Fred, I still use the 8500 X50 RD and don't get the false positives you're getting. I have TSR set to ON and I have turned off X-Band. Each area is different, but I sure don't get falses from other vehicles.

Tom,

TSR? What is that? (If you meant LSR I have that on too) I also have X band turned off as that only picks up door openers and such these days.

I actually own two Escort Passport RDs, an older 8500 and a newer 8500 X50. Both of these units are falsing nearly constantly on car emissions. I can usually pick out which of the cars it's coming from as it will be a newer upscale model with the collision avoidance as an option. It is an expensive option, maybe people down your way are just not laying down the cash for it?

Bummer, Fred. On the bright side, you can afford it, you had fun, and think of all the times you didn't get caught?

Yes, all true. I don't mind the $124 donation. It';s the potential of increased insurance rates I'm more concerned with. Plus in New Hampshire they tend to yoink your "privilege to drive" after 3 tickets within 3 years. My job requires me to have a license, so loss of it would be a very, very bad thing.

The last two times I have been pulled over I managed to skate away with warnings. One was a pass made across a double yellow where the off duty town chief of police was following me a ways back (without his radar on). After he lectured me and ran my license and reg, he just gave me a verbal warning. I don't think he had his ticket book with him and didn't want to be bothered. And the other was speeding during passing, just like this one, but with my wife on the back seat. I think the cop thought she was going to give me an earful, so he cut me some slack.

I guess my good luck has finally run out. This ticket may have its intended effect and cause me to take it easy for a while.

Within the scope of this thread's topic is the particularly annoying tendency of many ignorant drivers who think the yellow corner entry speed markers are speed limit signs. Those markers are there for for big trucks, and even for them are only a suggestion, not a limit.

Drivers who last studied the rules for their driving test when they were pimply faced teens often don't know the rules of the road or the actual meaning of many road signs, will slow down to that speed thinking they are being good citizens. Even when I'm driving my pickup truck behind them that pisses me off.

Just one of many of my driving pet peeves.

 

[El Toro]

I prefer the rear, particularly with some riding partners. I get sick of the whiny BS from guys who think they're so cool as "the leader."

Ride your own ride .... and for a guy who prefers to ride alone, like me, the back is the best.

The only aggravation at the back is when the peckerheads who have to duke it out at the front screw up and take a wrong turn on the route.

Then I've got to show impatience and get to the front to make the correction ... or else just make the correction myself and be the leader of a smaller group.

I thought that the "whose is biggest" arguments would have been sorted out by about age 25 ... but what do I know?

 

[mcatrophy]

... I pass with enthusiasm, ...

I've been accused of that on many occasions, but so far never by an officer of the law (or, much more likely, a speed camera). Touching wood ...

Safest way to overtake in my opinion.

 

[John d]

I had a red bike once. It got too much unwanted attention. So far black on black has been working well, or I'm just getting old and slow.

 

[TomInPA]

Fred, the 8500 X50 is equipped with the ability to reject traffic safety radar. This is also the band that many vehicles are using for automatic breaking and closure alerts. TSR is by default set to off on the Escort. You need to go through the settings and turn it on, and consider whether you need X band or K band as well. Most police are using Ka, but there are exceptions.

Here is a discussion about TSR. FWIW, I get very few false alerts. The oldest 8500 units do not have TSR, so you might want to catch that $139 deal on Woot today.

In PA only the State Police are authorized to use radar. Local police are prohibited from using it and must use clocking devices or pacing to cite. This helps us a lot because most VASCAR and pacing methods usually mean, if they can see you, you can see them. So it pays to stay alert.

 

[Geezer]

I have used three different 8500 X50s. The first two, each after several years of use on the motorcycle, would give more and more false alarms. I have cleaned them inside and washed off the flux which was left during manufacturing and each time I cleaned one it helped, but did not resolve the problem entirely. I now have a newer black X50 and it has not given a false signal after one season. Time will tell if it is actually better than the older grey ones.

I use a couple of different models of Beltronics detectors in my cars and the only time I get a false signal from them is a false laser when the sun is at a particular angle.

 

[Fred W]

From the Escort web site:

Important: If the FCC ID on the bottom of the radar detector begins with QKL85 - we CANNOT add the TSR software or ESCORT Live.

Guess what mine says on the bottom. I just bought it from Escort (refurbed) this past summer.

I was wondering why I didn't remember seeing a TSR option in the menu. It isn't there.

I wonder if the ones being sold cheap are all like mine. Pretty much useless with all the false alarms.

edit - I just checked the Woot deal. they are the 8500 X50 black models and say they have the TSR option. You just cost me $150. Guess have to I'll see if I can sell the X50 gray on FleaBay or Craig's List. The older 8500 (non-X50) is an antique and in rough shape, but still works. Might see what I can get for that one too.

As for the local police not having radar, I think that is unique to PA. All the locals in the 6 New England states plus NY have radar donation collection units, and they use them with utter abandon. Most of the townies run K band (probably less expensive) and the states tend to run Ka. Townies tend leave their radar continuously blasting as they ride around, while the states are a bit more stealthy and switch them on and off.

 

[Big Sky]

As a "youth" I earned a "blue" probationary license (1985), ordered to traffic school, etc. This is when I was running a radar detector on my bike. In hindsight, it encouraged me to take speeding risks and, yes, prevented some tickets. I gave up the RD for truck or bike in about 1990. Since then three speeding tickets - two in the last four years - currently just one on my MVR, gone next fall. This means I've reduced my rate of about 1.5 tickets per year to .1/per year. My last one was for 69 in a 50 on U.S. 12 over Lolo Pass about 15 miles into Idaho. Yeah, talk about ruining an otherwise fine ride! (My riding pal got dinged at the same time for 71 - cost him twice as much.) We used to be able to wick it up a bit there. No more! My last three runs over that revealed heavy patrols, both deputies and troopers. You may have luck with the county guys, but will not with the state LEOs.

They recently raised Interstate speed limits in most places here in Montana to 80 mph. That is almost immaterial to me since we always avoid the slab, but we do have lower truck speed limits on both Interstates and secondaries. It was 75 on Interstate/65 for trucks. Now: 80/still 65 for trucks. I think they should have bumped truck limits 5 mph too. By the way, 10-over and less is $40, no points on Interstate; $20 and no points on secondaries. We can live with this.

 

[TomInPA]

What? Not even a "like"?

You just cost me $150.

 

[Fred W]

Sorry, I was delinquent. Just liked both of your posts. If that $150 saves me from getting a second ticket sometime in the next 3 years it will be the best $150 I ever spent. :thumbsup:

 

[FJReady]

sorry about your 'incident' Fred. This is a good reminder to me to grab that Woot deal. I've been meaning to add a RD to my electronics suite for a while. I average about one Performance Award every 3 years or so. Hopefully using a RD will cut that rate down.

 

[lnewlf]

money well spent....myX50 [not black] has saved my arse more times than I can count....] and I seldom get a false from car emissions..

I do think your NH bears are rough-especially around Loudon.. My NYS trooper riding bud had all he could do to talk the NH man out of a ticket [50 in a 40] up near Gorham one nite..

 

[Spud]

I don't have a radar detector but I do have a guardian angel. I was once on HWY 93 in NV between Jackpot and Wells, and I was flat hauling the mail with no traffic on the road, dropping to 80-90 for every car. Slowed down for an oncoming car, he flashes his headlights at me. I dial it back to 65. Come up over the crest of a hill in the complete middle of nowhere and there's Johnny Law with a radar gun pointed at the crest of the hill. I would have been so done....I owe someone big time ha ha....

 

[TomInPA]

How many times have you had a LEO turn his lights on as a warning, then let you go on your way? I have seen this so many times, I think I'm Gandhi.

 

[El Toro]

How many times have you had a LEO turn his lights on as a warning, then let you go on your way? I have seen this so many times, I think I'm Gandhi.

Not common here. If the lights on, you're going to have a meet 'n greet.

Enforcement usually does not begin until 10 over, and lately on I-40, the right lane runs 10 over, and the left 15 over, with only rare enforcement, minimally visible.

Someone mentioned that local police couldn't set up shop on the interstate. Here they can if there is enough of the interstate running through their township. It's a problem in Wilson County in the Lebanon area.

 

[TomInPA]

How many times have you had a LEO turn his lights on as a warning, then let you go on your way? I have seen this so many times, I think I'm Gandhi.

Not comon here. If the lights on, you're going to have a meet 'n greet.

Enforcement usually does not begin until 10 over, and lately on I-40, the right lane runs 10 over, and the left 15 over, with only rare enforcement, minimally visible.

Someone mentioned that local police couldn't set up shop on the interstate. Here they can if there is enough of the interstate running through their township. It's a problem in Wilson County in the Lebanon area.

I have not gotten the 'salute' in your area, but I did get off Mt. Mitchell without a ticket.

 

[Geezer]

How many times have you had a LEO turn his lights on as a warning, then let you go on your way? I have seen this so many times, I think I'm Gandhi.

I only remember getting that one time, and I was in Pennsylvania at the time. In NY the LEOs like to pull people over and chat for a while so that a lot of other drivers see them.

 

[TomInPA]

How many times have you had a LEO turn his lights on as a warning, then let you go on your way? I have seen this so many times, I think I'm Gandhi.

I only remember getting that one time, and I was in Pennsylvania at the time. In NY the LEOs like to pull people over and chat for a while so that a lot of other drivers see them.

LOL, welcome to my world Mother Teresa!