Radar Detector recommendations?

[TurnAround]

V1 here. But I question the sensitivity.. errr.. usability of the laser detection. Not of the V1 alone. I doubt any of them have good laser detection. It's the nature / limitation of the detection method.

In my town the motor cycle cops use laser exclusively. And they are everywhere. It is s major source of income for the city. I have tried many times to take the speed to the edge and deliberately get checked. I know they have "clicked" me.... with me driving right on the edge, and the laser detector has yet to go off. --> Pointed right at me! I have it in the ideal location on the windscreen. Nothing.

Yet the POST works fine, and it's gone off numerous times from LED brake lights, etc.. so I know the circuit functions.

I'm not dissing the V1. I'm saying that it is only really useful for semi to full rural driving experiences where the cops are driving in cars and running X, K, or KA band full time in the oncoming lane. In that case.. OMG the V1 has saved me 3 or 4 tickets in the last year alone. It can smell them over rises, bends, trees, anything.

But in the metro area, your only protection is your eyes. A laser detector is worthless. Even if it does go off you only have about 300 milliseconds to slam on the brakes. My next move will be a laser jammer. I'm convinced this is the only real protection for laser. But here's the thing.. I can't drive fast in metro anyway due to solid traffic, so is it worth it?

Buy the V1, but use it for rural speeding and performance driving. Chill and dig the tunes for metro driving. My .02

[X5 Meister]

Thanks for all the input guys. A few questions:

1. Other then personal experience, which I realize is quite valuable, does anyone have any relatively recent objective data that shows the V1 to be better then the rest? I seem to recall reading somewhere in the past year that a few detectors trounced the V1 in latest testing, but I might be off on this.

2. I also heard somewhere that a radar detector like the V1 should be paired with something like the K40 (?) for complete protection. Any thoughts on this?

3. Are people still putting their license plates behind polarized plastic to avoid photo radar or is that just a myth?

4. Stealth One is no longer being made, though you can still find them on ebay.

[brian5]

Originally Posted by mgruber

Thanks for all the input guys. A few questions:

1. Other then personal experience, which I realize is quite valuable, does anyone have any relatively recent objective data that shows the V1 to be better then the rest? I seem to recall reading somewhere in the past year that a few detectors trounced the V1 in latest testing, but I might be off on this.

2. I also heard somewhere that a radar detector like the V1 should be paired with something like the K40 (?) for complete protection. Any thoughts on this?

3. Are people still putting their license plates behind polarized plastic to avoid photo radar or is that just a myth?

4. Stealth one is gone and my understanding was that in an I-BUS BMW it wouldn't work if you had stuff like Bluetooth or the BMW Assist system since there were not enough channels, or something like that (sort of like not being able to install the BMW ipod adapter (I don't mean the AUX input) if you had a cd changer installed.

1. I supplied links to four radar detector sites in my post above. I suggest looking there for those objective comparisons. And yes, I did look at all those before I replaced my Escort Passport with the Valentine One. If you want a review biased against V1, you can look at radartest.com...
I said I liked the arrows on the V1. Another important item is the detection of radar from the rear. V1 does that....
2. Laser detection is a much written about subject. Some people say that laser detectors should say "You've got a ticket" instead of beeping. Where I drive, laser is not a huge concern.
3. Veil is one of those products that I looked into. Based on what I read, there is no way that I will use it. Look at the links I provided for a LOT more info.

[FSETH]

Originally Posted by mgruber

Thanks for all the input guys. A few questions:

1. Other then personal experience, which I realize is quite valuable, does anyone have any relatively recent objective data that shows the V1 to be better then the rest? I seem to recall reading somewhere in the past year that a few detectors trounced the V1 in latest testing, but I might be off on this.
Brian5 gave some pretty good suggestions for comparison.

2. I also heard somewhere that a radar detector like the V1 should be paired with something like the K40 (?) for complete protection. Any thoughts on this?
I would recommend some added protection such as a laser jammer. They are fairly inexpensive these days. I have researched the Blinder M25 Extreme laser jammer and it seems to perform well. I agree with TurnAround's post and from personal experience with an Escort Passpost 8500 K50 the laser feature is just a ticket notifier. I have received 2 or 3 tickets from Laser guns while using the Escort properly. One time it did not even go off! The radar detection works amazingly well with the Escort model though. Keep in mind that radar detectors and jammers are illegal in some states.

3. Are people still putting their license plates behind polarized plastic to avoid photo radar or is that just a myth?
I don't personally do this. However, ask me again after I get my first ticket with photo radar.

4. Stealth one is gone and my understanding was that in an I-BUS BMW it wouldn't work if you had stuff like Bluetooth or the BMW Assist system since there were not enough channels, or something like that (sort of like not being able to install the BMW ipod adapter (I don't mean the AUX input) if you had a cd changer installed.

No personal experiance with this either.

I would like to recommend to anyone who gets a ticket with laser to obtain a copy the officers training history. In my state the officers are required to take a Laser/Lidar course that certifies them to operate laser equipment. There have been some cases here where officers were operating this equipment without taking the required course and the tickets were getting thrown out. Not, sure how things operate in every other state, but it may be worth looking into. Chances are the officers paperwork is up to date, but it never hurts to check.

Here is a link to the Blinder laser jammer website

http://www.blinder.net/

[cue03]

There can be only ONE...... V1

[GPSnV1]

You can get a lot of good user info and some expert input in forums at http://www.radardetector.net/ that cover the V1, Escort ... read stickys first ...

I use one of the latest V1s and am ticket free even when driving the X5 at autobahn speeds.

[kevnmurphy]

I have been very pleased with the Beltronics RX65. Plus it was easy to hardwire to the "home console" near the rear view mirror.

[X5 Meister]

Thanks for the info. I started looking at the links late yesterday and they are very valuable. The reason for my question was to see if anyone had already done all the research and had a quick one line answer, that's all.

I haven't gone through the entire radartest.com site, but am amazed that they have obtained far inferior performance results from the V1 then seemingly other sites. Any idea why?

Thanks again for the great help!

Originally Posted by brian5

1. I supplied links to four radar detector sites in my post above. I suggest looking there for those objective comparisons. And yes, I did look at all those before I replaced my Escort Passport with the Valentine One. If you want a review biased against V1, you can look at radartest.com...
I said I liked the arrows on the V1. Another important item is the detection of radar from the rear. V1 does that....
2. Laser detection is a much written about subject. Some people say that laser detectors should say "You've got a ticket" instead of beeping. Where I drive, laser is not a huge concern.
3. Veil is one of those products that I looked into. Based on what I read, there is no way that I will use it. Look at the links I provided for a LOT more info.

[brian5]

Originally Posted by mgruber

Thanks for the info. I started looking at the links late yesterday and they are very valuable. The reason for my question was to see if anyone had already done all the research and had a quick one line answer, that's all.

I haven't gone through the entire radartest.com site, but am amazed that they have obtained far inferior performance results from the V1 then seemingly other sites. Any idea why?

Thanks again for the great help!

Yep, I had spent way too much time researching this 3 months ago so you have my one line answer

Regarding your question about the poor V1 results on radartest.com, there is a long-time feud between Craig Peterson (the main guy on radartest.com) and V1. I would ignore their V1 tests. Look at this link from the GuysOfLidar test site showing that Peterson was sabotaging their radar testing... http://www.guysoflidar.com/march-2007/sabotage.html

Another note: As I've previously posted on this forum, I am not saying the V1 is the absolute best radar and laser detector out there. I really really like the arrows and I really like the rear detection too.

[X5 Meister]

Brian-
A++ to you. GREAT information. The article (and video) are amazing. Hopefully these guys of lidar will stick around and test often. Looks like their last test was about 6 months ago and even though they don't assign points or anything to the detectors, seems like the Valentine 1 was the hands down winner across the board.

I'd be interested in hearing why you won't touch VEIL (I haven't read anything about it yet).