Been a cop 23 years and riding that long also. Hate to be negative, but most commercial "gizmos" such as jammers or plate covers dont work. The different type of radar units available now are not affected by or can circumvent these things. Sorry!!

 

I heard from a leo that those are smart cameras, as long as your rear axle clears the last crosswalk line as you enter the intersection it will not photo you for a tix. I was even told it accounts for motorcycles and inclimate weather so if a vehicle entered on a rainy day it allows more space and time.

 

The funny thing is most people believe these things work, and they continue to throw their money out the window.

 

From a LEO perspective, I think radar detectors are kinda humorous. I call em 'ticket indicators', cuz if it goes off that means Ive already hit you! It only protects you if I'm rolling around with the radar on hoping to stumble upon a speeder, in which case, great, I'll get the next guy. If I'm working dedicated speeding violators, youre done.

 

Things are only as smart as the people programming them, installing them, maintaining them, and how money motivated the bean counters are telling the techs what to do.

All that aside, my point is, there are some lights in town that are setting up drivers to fail. You haven't entered the box yet, so your rear axle has not crossed the last 'crosswalk' (there's not even a crosswalk at most of these intersections), but point is, you aren't in the real or imagined BOX yet, but the light turns yellow, you are too close to the box to stop, so you have to go through, but if you're going the posted speed limit, the box/intersection is too wide for you to get to the other side and you get a ticket. Happened to me, and many others so I know, I've watched it happen many times.

So the option at these intersections become slam on the brakes and possibly slide into the intersection and/or get rear ended, or get a ticket. If the yellow light is too short for the speed and width of the intersection, it doesn't matter how 'smart' the camera is, the light sets you up to fail.

And at a busy intersection, EVERY SINGLE LIGHT CYCLE, someone is forced to make this split second decision to slam on the brakes or try to beat the light. When they ran the red light program, you could sit out there all day and watch people panic at every light cycle about what to do. To the point that once I learned these intersections, I would drive OUT OF MY WAY to avoid them. 35 mph limit, extremely wide intersection, very short yellow light, yeah, they were sending tickets out for almost every single light cycle during peak times, probably racked up $10,000 a day at one intersection, no joke.

 

I have an old Beltronics 960 that I bought 5 years ago and it still works like a champ. Most police still use the old Ka band, however the newer radars have built-in GPS with camera locations, and the ability to mark new camera locations and speed traps in the GPS. The Passport 8500s have always a good rep along with Valentine. Laser jammers are expensive, and really no feasible way to put it on a bike..not to mention they're illegal in most states and not worth it. If a cop gets a screwy signal back from hitting you with a laser, he's gonna pull you over anyways. I've heard of some states (California Highway Patrol) that the cops use a new Super Ka or some crap like that..it's pretty much an instant on and shoot at the car to get the speed..and it's so fast that the radar detectors don't pick it up..and if they do you've already been clocked.

 

All I can tell ya from a citizen standpoint is I've had less problems while running radar than I have while not running it.

Have I enjoyed a little speed now and then? Sure. Most of the time, though, I'm just trying to drive normal.

I don't like to get hung up by other vehicles, and I like to avoid/get away from vehicles that I think may cause some sort of problem (throwing crap up from the road, stuff falling off the trucks, people not driving well, etc.), which some times results in going faster than the posted limit for a short period of time to get away from these various situations. The last ticket I got was for passing two semis. I was driving the close to the limit on my way home for almost 2 hours, came up on a semi passing another semi, each of which almost ran me off the road at one point in time and one through a rock up that hit the windshield so hard I thought the whole thing was gonna shatter, sounded like a gun shot. I tried to create a little distance from them since they were driving erratically, come over a ridge and get nailed for speeding when I was just about to slow down to the previous speed, but since he was behind the ridge trying to 'catch' people and hide, he couldn't see any of the events that just transpired leading up to my situation, so to me that is taking things out of context and not really all that fair.

It is also difficult to keep up w/ the changing speeds on many roads, local surface streets and highways alike. Especially when traveling less than familiar areas, and even more so in areas that generate a lot of revenue from tourists and through traffic via the use of speed traps, say it's 65 for a long time then it suddenly drops to 55 or lower, and there's no distinct difference in your surroundings indicating you should slow down, if you miss a sign, and there's an LEO waiting for the next victim to miss that sign, you're done.

It's very expensive to get tickets etc., and I would argue that there are many occasions where someone may be attempting to drive the speed limit for the most part, but miss a posted sign, or have other vehicles that cause them to temporarily speed up to avoid a situation, or even just get distracted momentarily and don't realize their speed, that get nabbed for speeding when it really wasn't their intention.

To me, this is the legitimate reason for radar detectors. At least then, when your radar goes off, it's another reminder to check your speed. Check to see if you drifted over your intended speed, ck to see if there's a posted sign around to make sure the limit is what you think it is, or consider the ramifications of passing the gravel truck that is making swiss cheese of your ride.

I know, there's a lot of speeders that don't care about anything and give you LEOs a bunch of sob stories and all that, but I just hope you realize that it is not always the case in a given situation, and someone running a radar detector isn't necessarily trying to get over on you, they may be using it as a tool to try to keep themselves in check most of the time...

 

of course most cops will tell you they don't work. But i can assure you they do. Most radar detectors will pick up instand on from a car ahead of you. Well, the good ones anyways. So even instant on when traffic exists a detector can save you. But no detector will save you if instant on hits you first. Same with laser unless you have a jammer. Or you can just drive the speed limit and not worry.