Hi ,
Does anyone have an opinion on how well this works ?
Does anyone have an opinion on how well this works ?
Passport 8500 radar detector
- Thread starter buckturgidson
- Start date
Blue One
Vendor
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2008
- Messages
- 1,080
- Age
- 69
- Location
- Canada (Edmonton Alberta) - Texas
- Bike
- 04 ABS ST1300
They work very well, they were rated among the best when they were made. Since then ,the company has come out with the 9500i which I have and the 9500ix which is their latest model.
http://www.escortradar.com/
http://www.escortradar.com/
I had one on my last bike... never got a ticket. I think you do need a system to get the alert sound into your helmet though. I used an FM transmitter to a small radio I carried inside my jacket with earphones. The radio static could be annoying but I sure heard the alerts when they bleeped !
If I had had it in my cage yesterday I wouldn't have got that $150 ticket even though they were shooting laser !
If I had had it in my cage yesterday I wouldn't have got that $150 ticket even though they were shooting laser !
I've used my 8500 for several years with good results. To make alerts more alerting, I mounted a "Visual Alert" (from Aerostich) right on the top of the Escort with Velcro, and that Velcros on top of the ST's dash. Hard to miss except in bright sunlight from behind.
The "Visual Alert" is a row of red LEDs mounted in a small block of plastic with a lead that plugs into the Escort (or Valentine). It flashes every time the Escort beeps. You could probably make your own with a trip to Radio Shack.
Not to hijack the thread, but I just read an article in the paper that speeding tickets are way up as towns and states try to cope with dropping funding. Denied, of course, by police and government officials. Time to radar-up.
:cop2:
The "Visual Alert" is a row of red LEDs mounted in a small block of plastic with a lead that plugs into the Escort (or Valentine). It flashes every time the Escort beeps. You could probably make your own with a trip to Radio Shack.
Not to hijack the thread, but I just read an article in the paper that speeding tickets are way up as towns and states try to cope with dropping funding. Denied, of course, by police and government officials. Time to radar-up.
:cop2:
I also have the 8500 with the visual alert, it is a great unit and has never let me down.
I have one with the visual alert. While good I would prefer to hear the different band sounds. That is next.
Works great.
John Anthony
Moderator
Another satisfied user. Saved my skin at least a couple of times.
John
John
I was running my Passport 8500 -- probably 8 years old -- in Highway mode yesterday, and it never made a peep as I approached a SCHP trooper. He asked me if my detector picked his radar up, and I asked him if he was running one.
He said he has a pretty new, hi-tech unit that has a "mute" button until he sees a suspicious vehicle (me) then he can take a reading. He said he normally never gives a break to anyone running a detector, but that I was honest and didn't try to BS him, so he wrote me up for "only" 9 over, saving me more than $100 and 2 points. Maybe it was my gray hair or handsome face.
I returned the favor by thanking him and giving a short seminar on Secant Error for moving radar units. Actually, I never got off the bike, so could not confirm that he was running his radar, but he gave me a pretty accurate number that my McCruise was set on.
Maybe someone can wire up a screamer or some such detector accessory so that it kills the McCruise just like when the brake-light switch circuit is closed? Nah -- too many false alarms from supermarket doors,
He said he has a pretty new, hi-tech unit that has a "mute" button until he sees a suspicious vehicle (me) then he can take a reading. He said he normally never gives a break to anyone running a detector, but that I was honest and didn't try to BS him, so he wrote me up for "only" 9 over, saving me more than $100 and 2 points. Maybe it was my gray hair or handsome face.
I returned the favor by thanking him and giving a short seminar on Secant Error for moving radar units. Actually, I never got off the bike, so could not confirm that he was running his radar, but he gave me a pretty accurate number that my McCruise was set on.
Maybe someone can wire up a screamer or some such detector accessory so that it kills the McCruise just like when the brake-light switch circuit is closed? Nah -- too many false alarms from supermarket doors,
wjbertrand
Ventura Highway
I've got the 8500 X50 with the earphone feeding into my StarCom1 unit. It really works great. Depending on who's Internet report you read, the 8500 or the V1 end up 1 & 2 or 2 & 1 in comparisons. The 8500 though is cheaper and has an integral earphone jack, something you'll have to pay an additional $50 for an adapter using the V1. The biggest advantage to the V1 are those directional arrows.
Hal Rumenapp and I ride together regularly and he runs a V1. It's really a toss up which detector will pick up a signal first.
Recently my 46 mile commute to work has gotten so contaminated with stray/false K-band radiation that I've gone into the 8500's programming and turned off the K-band. There was hardly a moment's silence. I don't think it's my detector because Hal reported the same falsing with his V1. I also sent my 8500 in to Escort to have it checked out and it proved to be fine. I know the local CHP and city police departments around here all use only Ka band so I'm safe around home. I have to remember to turn it back on when leaving the area though.
The other day I picked up a like new used 9500i with the ability to lock out fixed sources of falsing based on GPS location and frequency. This morning was my first run through and again I encountered all those of false K-bands. I selected to lock out each one so we'll see how well that works on the way home. According to Escort the 9500i has the same detection capability as the 8500.
Hal Rumenapp and I ride together regularly and he runs a V1. It's really a toss up which detector will pick up a signal first.
Recently my 46 mile commute to work has gotten so contaminated with stray/false K-band radiation that I've gone into the 8500's programming and turned off the K-band. There was hardly a moment's silence. I don't think it's my detector because Hal reported the same falsing with his V1. I also sent my 8500 in to Escort to have it checked out and it proved to be fine. I know the local CHP and city police departments around here all use only Ka band so I'm safe around home. I have to remember to turn it back on when leaving the area though.
The other day I picked up a like new used 9500i with the ability to lock out fixed sources of falsing based on GPS location and frequency. This morning was my first run through and again I encountered all those of false K-bands. I selected to lock out each one so we'll see how well that works on the way home. According to Escort the 9500i has the same detection capability as the 8500.
kieth
Autocom
WJ, I have used a 8500 for about 8 years, my experiences were very simalar to yours, buddy of mine has a V1 and we compared them on the dash while trailering to colorado, they both go off at the same time. I use mine in the auto mode while in town, that way it goes off but does not keep screaming at you with the false alerts, this way I start looking around for the source and slow down just in case. On the road in rural areas it is great and I run it in highway mode if it beeps I slow down. Has saved my tail a lot of times. I use mine with a autocom system and listen to it in the helmet for alerts. visual alerts just do not work for me, I want to hear the audio...............Kieth
wjbertrand
Ventura Highway
Forgot to mention a couple of other neat features the 9500i has over the 8500. Since it has a GPS you can set the display to show your vehicle speed. You can manually mark known speed traps and traffic camera locations. It also uses GPS to turn down the radar sensitivity at speeds below about 20-25 MPH. This virtually eliminates all the X-band falsing due to ATMs and automatic grocery store doors. I also like the auto volume and auto dimming functions, this is really a pretty fiddle-free detector once you have your preferences set up and falses all locked out.
The latest model is the 9500ix and it has the capability of automatically locking out fixed sources of false alerts after three times. Besides the ability to mark traffic cameras and speed traps manually, it also lets you download traffic camera POI data bases via subscription, kind of like you can do with some GPS navigation devices. Hmmm, I hear there's a way to upgrade the 9500i to 9500ix specs..........
The latest model is the 9500ix and it has the capability of automatically locking out fixed sources of false alerts after three times. Besides the ability to mark traffic cameras and speed traps manually, it also lets you download traffic camera POI data bases via subscription, kind of like you can do with some GPS navigation devices. Hmmm, I hear there's a way to upgrade the 9500i to 9500ix specs..........