Radar Detectors for Long Distance Travel

[John_Dumke]

The FJR is not a slow bike. My 2006 likes to travel around 85-90. In the last few days I was traveling from SoCal to Dallas, steadily cruising at 85-100. At this clip, waze and an Escort Radar detector are required for keeping my license. I use a mix-it 2 to combine my iphone and the escort, so I receive an immediate audible alert of Radar warnings.

Yesterday the escort saved my *** from a sure ticket. I exited the 40 interstate to take a more meandering two laner. In the last few miles of the interstate, I was getting a lot of Ka radar. When I got off the fwy on to the nicely paved two lane back road with sweeping turns the Ka kept on occurring. I had a black truck behind me and thought maybe it was an unmarked car. There seems to be a lot of unmarked LEO's in Texas. He was keeping a good clip so I let him pass me, plus I wanted to make sure he wasn't a LEO. Colorado plates, not a LEO, but he also kept a good clip, doing about 85. I followed him for a while. The Ka warnings let up, I had assumed that they were Ka warnings from the Interstate I had just left, so I wicked up to 100+ and passed him. Then after a few minutes the Ka's started up again. I knew the speed limit on this two laner was no more than 70, so I didn't want to maintain 85, nor did I want to hold this guy up, so I pulled over and let him pass me.

He drove past me, keeping his pressing 85mph clip, and I got back on the road but kept a slower 60 mph speed behind him. We then both rounded a sweeping corner. Bammm... a full Ka hit with him doing 85 and me behind him at 60 and slowing. The cop pulled out in front of me with lights on. While I am not happy about him getting a ticket, I sure am glad that it wasn't me. If he were smart he would have taken a lead from me and slowed down, but most drivers aren't that observant.

Nothing better than a game of cat and mouse successfully played!

 

[Bugnatr]

Always nice to have a rabbit. You radar detector is fine for the units blasting all the time but it seems like the chp is using "instant on" a lot more with their radar units. Sneaky, eh?

 

[John_Dumke]

Always nice to have a rabbit. You radar detector is fine for the units blasting all the time but it seems like the chp is using "instant on" a lot more with their radar units. Sneaky, eh?

Instant on... certainly I might be nailed by it. But then they have to see me, which in case I can see them. Or...... they might blast somebody else and I pick up the remnants. But we all know this stuff. What I have found is that my detector + waze gets me out of probably 80-90% of potential tickets.

What does have me more concerned is Laser. While this is clearly much harder to defeat (laser jammer needed), I have not yet seen wide spread adoption of LEO's using laser. I think having an always on radar for police that doesn't have to be aimed is easy enough for LEO's to pick plenty of low lying fruit.

My guess, and this is just a guess, is that Laser will eventually be the weapon of choice. When this happens I will have to invest in Laser Jammers for each vehicle. Has anybody here been nailed by Laser yet? Laser is the real threat.

 

[hppants]

I've got the old Escort 8500 and the newer vehicles with their sensors are driving me nuts on the freeways and slabs. On the two lane, it quiets down a bit more.

On the way home from YFO, I was pulled over by a Texas Highway Patrol - 89 in a 75. His instant on radar got me. Unmarked Tahoe. I paid the $100.00 over the ticket extortion and kept it off my record.

Ya gotta pay to play sometimes....

But yer absolutely correct - on the wide open roads, 90 feels about right.....

 

[Pterodactyl]

I run a V1 and got lased in Nebraska coming home from Vintage Days at Barber. Head on engagement on a four lane divided Hwy. In an odd turn of events being lased helped me not get a ticket. The LEO was confirming my speed as reported by a LEO in an airplane. By sheer luck I had rolled off the throttle just before he lased me, and instead of doing around 15 over the speed limit I think I was down to about ten over. I cannot be sure of my speeds because the LEO never once mentioned a speed and it was not even on the computer generated warning I got.

 

[lnewlf]

replaced my trusty Escort 8500 with a Uniden R 3 'cause the driver assist stuff was driving me nutz...the R3 is GREAT....very quiet and long range...usually it picks up instant on from a car way up ahead...and I don't want the connectivity stuff that the most expensive Escort has...oh yeah, I love a rabbit-especially in a fart car. The Uniden has a loud shriek that is easily heard on a bike...

 

[Pterodactyl]

replaced my trusty Escort 8500 with a Uniden R 3 'cause the driver assist stuff was driving me nutz...the R3 is GREAT....very quiet and long range...usually it picks up instant on from a car way up ahead...and I don't want the connectivity stuff that the most expensive Escort has...oh yeah, I love a rabbit-especially in a fart car. The Uniden has a loud shriek that is easily heard on a bike...

The V1 with the latest software update does a great job of filtering out the lane keeping sensors, adaptive cruise control and other technology now found on cars. In my part of the world it is not uncommon to go for a 300+ mile ride and not have an alert. The LEOs tend not to run with their radar on and encounters with LEOs are not as common in urban regions, but there are enough encounters with active radar to make a detector a wise investment. When I get east of the Mississippi it seems there is a constant stream of alerts for much of the riding day.

 

[bigjohnsd]

I have had, and use, an Adaptiv Technologies TPX Radar/Laser Detector. It, coupled with situational awareness, has saved me numerous times.

I have only seen the Laser warning several times in 55,000 miles of use. I regularly run the TPX in a more filtered no X or K band Highway (more sensitive) mode. If I get an alert I slow down and figure out what is going on. I do not have an aural alert connection, i rely solely on the LED which is directly in my line of sight velcroed to the top of my windscreen.

My experience leads me to believe that most local cops/sheriff's are quite lazy and drive around with their radar continuously on. Dedicated traffic police such as State Patrol, Highway Patrol etc are more likely to actually employ tactics and techniques to actually catch violators. If you are by yourself on a rural road and the LEO is intelligently employing his equipment, radar or laser from a well concealed position, you will likely be apprehended. With traffic you have a chance in that when the guy preceding you gets illuminated your technology has a chance to work. From a practical standpoint the radar reflective cross sectional area of the motorcycle is much smaller than a car or truck so you generally have more time to react to the alert before the Radar gets a lock. Laser, pull over and take off your helmet, hopefully the bald gray head and ATGATT will engender a tongue lashing and no Official Performance Award. YRMV

 

[juniorfjr]

replaced my trusty Escort 8500 with a Uniden R 3 'cause the driver assist stuff was driving me nutz...the R3 is GREAT....very quiet and long range...usually it picks up instant on from a car way up ahead...and I don't want the connectivity stuff that the most expensive Escort has...oh yeah, I love a rabbit-especially in a fart car. The Uniden has a loud shriek that is easily heard on a bike...

The V1 with the latest software update does a great job of filtering out the lane keeping sensors, adaptive cruise control and other technology now found on cars. In my part of the world it is not uncommon to go for a 300+ mile ride and not have an alert. The LEOs tend not to run with their radar on and encounters with LEOs are not as common in urban regions, but there are enough encounters with active radar to make a detector a wise investment. When I get east of the Mississippi it seems there is a constant stream of alerts for much of the riding day.

I've quit using my V1 when I switched bikes because of all of the signals from newer cars and trucks. I've recently have been thinking about putting it back on. How long age did you upgrade the V1?

 

[Pterodactyl]

Updated it about 15 months ago.

 

[Powerman]

Illegal here in VA, anyone have experience with non detectable detectors?

I do spend a lot of time in NC and WVA.

 

[bigjohnsd]

Illegal here in VA, anyone have experience with non detectable detectors?I do spend a lot of time in NC and WVA.

There is no such thing as an "undetectable detector" the super hetrodyne technology used to make the detector work creates emissions that even when shielded are detectable by a Radar Detector Detector. You can hide the physical unit but an LEO equipped with the latest Radar Detector Detector will catch you.

 

[Powerman]

There are non detectable shielded local OSC in Hetrodyne detectors, but expensive.

It appears that the cop detector detectors just got better.

 

[PJ4863]

In NYC and on Long Island, most run laser and not radar.

GEICO gives away a lot of laser units to various departments. In heavily crowded area, I prefer Waze over a radar detector. If I keep my speeds reasonable, I have a better shot at getting out of a ticket then if they see the detector. YMMV of course.

 

[lnewlf]

Supposedly my new Uniden R3 is undetectable...meebee

 

[Bounce]

Still run my V1 between my car and my bike. Lots of false pings because of consumer proximity crap. But the newest V1s can provide a better false rejection than in the past, so that's improved. It's still saves my bacon from instant on and laser (traffic ahead) as well as always on cruisers and skulkers. The locator arrows are wundermous. My V1 is the previous version. I checks their site and it didn't need an update. The difference was that the new one comes with the advanced false rejections turned on by default and mine needed to have some steps done to turn it on (which their site documents).

GEICO "giving away" (or selling for a buck) is another reason I don't give them my money. Clearly a conflict of interest.

 

[Bugnatr]

GEICO "giving away" (or selling for a buck) is another reason I don't give them my money. Clearly a conflict of interest.

It's not a conflict of interest for them, they want you to get a ticket so they can raise your rates. The Lizard and Flo suck.

 

[dravnx]

My Adaptiv TPS paid for itself last week. I was rollling up Hwy 1 in Big Sur and came up on a line of 3 cars. It was a rare, legal passing zone so I rolled on the throttle and just as I was abreast of the first car, the bird dog went off. I zipped in front of the car just as I passed a CHP on the side of the road. This wasn't the TPX's first save so this thing has paid for itself.

Last September I was on Nevada's Hwy 375, the Extra Terrestrial Highway. This is a road is straight, desolate and you can see for at least 5 miles in each direction. It borders Area 51 and there are a lot of military installations in the area. All of a sudden my TPX alerted me to a Laser. It went on for a good couple of minutes. I couldn't see nor did I ever see any type of law enforcement. I'm guessing I was laser designated by a military aircraft that was playing with me.

 

[Fred W]

I had an older Escort Passport 8500 that was constantly going off for proximity radar in newer cars on the highway. Also those speed display signs that they like to set up as a warning of how far over the limit you are going. Those are kind of handy to check your speedometer and GPS against.

Those things are almost all in the K band, which none of the state police use up around here, so when you get a K band warning on the limited access highways you can pretty much ignore it. But many of the town cops still run K-band so you cant mute it entirely. Most of the town cops just drive around or sit on the side of the road with their Kband blasting. Not many people bother to run a radar detector and the average driver goes 10 over posted, so its pretty easy pickings for the revenue enhancers.

I upgraded my old passport to a newer one about 2 years ago, and the new one has better filtering of the false alerts, but still goes off now and then for door openers or fancy cars. Best bet is to just try not to be the fastest jerk on the road. Of course riding around on a red motorcycle doesnt help much, but then again, I always ride with my side bags on. Those touring bikes cant go all that fast, right?