I'm looking at the Cobra Rad 480I Just for goofs and giggles! It's abouy$150, which is less than my speeding ticket was, and another degree of warning can't hurt. The rad has great ratings. Years ago, my radar kept beeping. Well, I caught up to a trooper!
What is neat also, is that it's bluetooth, so the alarm should head into my earbuds.
Do keep in mind that an officer seeing a radar detector is
much more likely to write you up then let you off. Back in the day, I had a valentine-1 attached to my upper left corner of my Dodge pickup's window. Not visible by an officer standing at the driver side window.
The last time I was pulled over in my truck, I did my standard talk, the officer went back and checked my record was clean, came back with a warning written up.
He came back to the passenger side (safer side away from traffic) and handed the warning in through the passenger window. Once he saw the valentine-1 radar detector, he gave me a wry smile and said that would have cost me a ticket had he noticed it earlier.
So, if you do install a detector, assure it is
not visible. They make ones you can hide under your seat with a remote detection line that can be run up to the front or back or both. Of course, they cost much more than $150. My valentine-1 had a remote face-plate that would flash and beep down below the dash out of sight from anyone outside the truck. The expensive detectors will have remote lights and noises you can install into your helmet. Again, usually expensive (or was back when I wanted to run detectors back in the 1990s) but maybe the bluetooth on your Cobra will work well.
I contend, an opinion I will vigorously defend, that radar detectors are
not worth the money and, even if free, are
not worth running.
- Assure you have and maintain a clean record. Take every ticket to court. It is easy to reduce them to a no-record offence. It is more difficult but somewhat easy to get them tossed completely. "Lack of foundation" is a helpful fraise to know to get "evidence" against you dismissed.
- Speed intelligently.
- Be polite, respectful and have a good rap for when you are pulled over. 90% of my stops over 40 years of driving/riding resulted in warnings instead of tickets. Couldn't talk my way out of the 100+ mph run through yellow posted "warning 45 mph" curves, for some reason. Said he had me at 125 mph (I wasn't going nearly that fast) but couldn't prove it in court.
- DON'T RUN A RADAR DETECTOR
Later,
Kent Larson in Minnesota.