Radar Detector Valentine vs. Passport

Rich said:

I had a city cop friend of mine tell me that in order to accurately read the speed of something the size of a motorcycle, he needed to be within 100 yards of the bike. This was about 5 years ago, and I don't know if this holds true today, but in all my speeding, I have never been pulled over by a patrolman. 100 yds is pretty close. Has anyone else heard anything to the contrary?

Click to expand...

I have read this as well.

Spend the extra for a Valentine 1. Not cheap, but, IMHO the very best. Last year a friend with a Passport 8500 and I with the V1 rode 1400 plus miles on a long weekend. The Passport false signed 3 or 4 times for every 1 time the V1 falsed. Also, the directional arrow is very helpful...you know which direction the signal is coming from. Lastly, the bogey counter indicates how many signals you are receiving.

On this trip as we left one town, the V1 went off with a forward arrow. After passing the Trooper, the V1 was still going off but with a backward arrow (as it should), but then the forward arrow lit up. One mile ahead was another Trooper. The V1 indicated both front and rear arrows and the bogey counter indicated 2 bogies.


Riding Like the Wind...
CHASMAN
Black '02 K12RS

I hope everyone noted that Radar Roy sells Escorts.

Of course the only place you can by a V1 is direct from the manufacturer.

As Chasman points out there are some features of the V1 which make it far superior to anything else.

From Radar Roy's site under "how we test"

"As a certified radar detector instructor, I test all of the products that we sell on RadarBusters.

I also test many other radar detectors that we choose not to offer you."

Roy did not choose not to offer the V1, it is not an option. It would seem that most reviewer's beef with the V1 is the price. None seem to place any value on knowing the number and relative bearing of the signal which is great to have in real world conditions. Most of the magazine reviews he links to talk about the 8500 being an "acceptable choice" or "good value". Oh and Radar Roy only provides the magazine title and a brief snippet, sort of like a movie review, we don't get the entire story because the images are not links. If the reviews were so positive how come we can't read them?

There is a good reason why the vast majority of Iron Butt riders who use a radar detector use a V1. You get what you pay for which from Valentine also includes awsome customer service.

Having said this no detector will make you immune from a ticket. When combined with attentive driving proper use of a V1 can tip the scales in our favor.

I did a google for radar detector reviews and found this which seems unbiased however further investigation shows some paid links to.... Radar Roy and under the where to buy you get nowhere trying to buy the V1. This is a common theme to just about every on-line radar test I have seen, they rank what they sell or link to equal or superior to the V1. If you look at the Valentine 1 website and dig a little you will see that Valentine never participates in these games because they only sell and service direct.

One last little item. Go here for the Car and Driver test Radar Roy cited. To summarize out of a possible 100 points the V1 scored a 97 and the 8500 a 73.

Again the only area the 8500 beat the V1 was in city sensitivity where the 8500 got a 5/5 and the V1 was 4/5. All the other 23 points the 8500 gave up were in areas that will get you a ticket.

As always YMMV but for the original question my answer is the V1.

Best,

Rob Nye

Thanks A lOT that is exactly the type of information i was looking for. I was not aware the V1 has direction arrows and a bogie counter.

The V1 price is still cheap if I had to buy the Passport to fnd out the V1 is superior.