Cordless Radar Detectors

[12bar1]

I have been thinking about getting a radar detector for the bike and was wondering if anyone has any experience with the Bel 946 ($160) or the Escort Solo S2 ($330) and if the escort is worth twice the price of the Bel. I thought it might be a good idea to have one on the bike for the ride to and from the Bash next month.

[jamming]

Check with Chris(HiOSilver) he had one one his bike at the ERC, He said what what it was, but I can't remember what it was.
Roger

[fganger]

12Bar1,

I just read your post about radar detectors. Are you still looking for info/thoughts on them? My wife has one of the cordless Bel's and I have a Valentine.

Frank

[Road Dog]

Warning - don't be getting on your brakes when the buzzer goes off. One of my friends had this bad habbit. He would have knocked me under a truck when his buzzer went off if I had allowed some overlap on his track.

He has several hundred thousand miles under his belt but last week totaled an Aprilla when he jumped on the brakes in a curve when his radar detector went off. He high sided at 65 MPH while following a cruser.

He was lucky, all this bad habit netted him a expensive helicopter ride, totaled bike, trashed helmet, boots and stitch plus a little road rash (unzipped jacket). All because of a little beep, beep, beep.

I am leary of riding with bikes using radar detectors because not all, but with some of theses riders you never know when they are going to brake hard for no aparent reason (false alarms).

[Bonnie]

12Bar1,

I just read your post about radar detectors. Are you still looking for info/thoughts on them? My wife has one of the cordless Bel's and I have a Valentine.

Frank

The cordless Bel worked ok, but you can't put in in your pocket when you are riding. The buttons are not recessed and I kept turning it off without realizing it. It has to be on a mount or in the tankbag top pocket.

Bonnie
Frank's better half

[Dallara]

Just saw your post for the first time, 12bar1...

Or i would have responded sooner. Anyway, IMHO stay away from any and all the cordless radar detectors.

I have been avidly using radar detectors since my 1970 Autotronics "Super Snooper". Mostly in cars, or course, but also on bikes over the years. Like most who like 'em I have been lulled multiple times by the siren song of the convenience of cordless on bikes... Only they don't work. At least not nearly so well as their corded brethren. This was brought to dramatic light a few years ago when we assembled an interesting group of detectors to compare, and had a cop buddy join us in his radar equipped cruiser for some evaluation.

Detectors on hand:

1.) Old, original Cincinnati Microwave "Escort" - X & K Band only
2.) Old, weird Cobra - X & K only
3.) Extremely rare "Escort DSP" - X & K only - made for only a very short time (and would provide an interesting surprise)
4.) Early, original "Escort Solo" - X & K only
5.) "Escort Solo S2" cordless - X, K, & Ka
6.) "Valentine One" - X, K, Ka, & Laser
7.) "Escort 8500" (my current detector of choice) - X, K, Ka, & Laser

Our cop buddy's cruiser had a K-band radar unit, but we also brought along an ancient X-band unit we used with our race cars. We had no access to a Ka gun or laser.

Quick and dirty bottom line... The corded detectors trounched the 2 cordless ones, often lighting up their alerts more than twice as far away as the cordless detectors, and this was with fresh batteries. Just for fun we tried the Solo S2 with some rather tired batteries and its performance was even worse - by a lot.

Like I said, my personal recommendation is to stay away from cordless detectors, but if you do get one always make sure the batteries are as hot as you can get 'em. It helps. Tired batts cause considerable drops in performance.

Now, the surprise of the test?

That ultra rare, ultra expensive (at its time) "Escort DSP" (stood for Digital Signal Processing) absolutely DUSTED everything else in our quiver of detectors. Not just by a little bit, but by over half a mile on X or K-band. When these were built they were supposedly *state-of-the-art*, and back then (early 1980's) they were $300. The story goes that each one Cincinnati Microwave built lost them money even at that price, and they only built 'em for two years. It wasn't too long after this that Mike Valentine left Cincinnati Microwave and formed his own outfit, Valentine One. Supposedly Cincinnati Microwave had to dump the DSP because it was too expensive to produce and they weren't selling enough of them at the high price for its day.

I'm glad I still have my "Escort DSP", though. It not works great but is also a really well built piece, almost a work of art on its own, with a magnesium case and feel of being carved out of a single piece of billet...

Of course, the old "Escort DSP's" had one serious drawback for use today - they don't have Ka-Band capability, and there are lots and lots of Ka-band radars out there, and the number grows each day. So, essentially the amazing "Escort DSP" is useless.

We found virtually no difference in the performance of the "Valentine One" and the "Escort 8500". It was always a toss-up as ot which one would go off first, and they both always went off within feet of each other. Which one you decide on if you buy one is largely a matter of personal preference for the varied features each one has. I had the "Valentine One" we tested, but I gave it to my stepson (who still has it and uses it daily) and bought an "Escort 8500" after seeing our results. The "Escort 8500" is smaller, lighter, and easier to deal with when you are switching from car to car to motorcycle and back again, IMHO. That's why I have it.

Mine is nearly a decade old and still works wonderfully.

BTW, how did the ancient, old, original Analog "Escort" do?

Pretty damn well, lighting up only about 1/10 of mile after the "Valentine" and "Escort 8500" on X-band, and about 3/10's after them on K-band. No too band, really, but again, no Ka-capability.

Here's a good site to go to if you want to see how various detectors compare to each other:

http://www.radartest.com/

Hope this helps!

Allan (Dallara - NAABSCD)

[Acacia]

I have been using the corded Escort 8500 X50 for several months after discussing various units with Allan.

At first I had the Parnes LED light visual signal plugged into the speaker jack. Found that not to be good enough. Certain sunlight angles during the day cancelled visibility. It also did not distinguish between the various bands being registered.

I went to placing a speaker in the helmet. I thieved an old headphone set of my daughters, took out the speaker and hot glued it into my helmet. Soldered up a patch cord - and it works great! I am convinced it has saved my butt on almost every ride since installation.


Lewis Jordan on this site uses a cordless - pm him for his take.