Radar Detector Valentine vs. Passport

[dzimbric]

Can anyone make a recomedation which is better?

[Ironhorsecowboy]

Both are good, but the valentine is reported to be the best with front and rear detection. If you have $400 plus extra for mounts go with the Valentine.

[kbasa]

I'm a Valentine 1 guy.

[lorazepam]

Escort is in my back yard, I buy local when I can.

[knary]

It's a religious debate with the valentine fans speaking with reverance about a gadget that was once the clear king of the mountain. Think of how some talk of the R90s. Times have changed, somewhat, but it will always be the king of the mountain in the eyes of some.

All of the reviews that I've found that include both the passport 8500 and the valentine either split down the middle as to which is the better radar detector or call it a draw. Ready for audio on a motorcycle, the Valentine is $450, the Passport 8500 is $250(or less).

[Emoto]

Really? Got a link? I have yet to see a test where the V-1 didn't come out on top. I had an escort a few years back and was riding with a buddy. Suddenly he was hard on the brakes and I went by him wondering what the hell he was doing. Shortly thereafter my escort went off as I rode into a radar trap. I went out and bought a V-1 and never looked back. Gave my escort away.

As far as I know, Valentine is the only maker who will upgrade the detector for you (for a price) as they make improvements.

[knary]

Originally posted by Emoto
Really? Got a link? I have yet to see a test where the V-1 didn't come out on top. I had an escort a few years back and was riding with a buddy. Suddenly he was hard on the brakes and I went by him wondering what the hell he was doing. Shortly thereafter my escort went off as I rode into a radar trap. I went out and bought a V-1 and never looked back. Gave my escort away.

As far as I know, Valentine is the only maker who will upgrade the detector for you (for a price) as they make improvements.

No, I'm lying. :brow

I'll see what I can find. Most of the reviews I've read have been off-line.

[ian408]

Originally posted by knary
No, I'm lying. :brow

I'll see what I can find. Most of the reviews I've read have been off-line.

I think it's clear that the two at the top of the heap are the
V1 and the 8500.

Just depends how much you want to know and when. I went
the V1 route.

Ian

[knary]

here's one quickly found review...

(brief and republished by escort)

BackRoads USA Product Review (http://www.escortstore.com/backroads.htm)

[Emoto]

Originally posted by knary
No, I'm lying. :brow

Uh... didn't mean that to sound like a challenge; I had simply not seen any reviews that didn't put the V-1 at the top of the heap, so was interested. Hey, if there's something better out there, I want to know about it...

Emoto

[kbasa]

Originally posted by Emoto
Uh... didn't mean that to sound like a challenge; I had simply not seen any reviews that didn't put the V-1 at the top of the heap, so was interested. Hey, if there's something better out there, I want to know about it...

Emoto

What he said. I've been happy with my V1, but if there's something else, I need to know.

I've got enough pictures of cops talking with me.

[subvet]

If you have not seen it yet, check out Radar Roy's site....good thorough evaluation/comparisons of a number of different models
Good luck
http://www.radar-detectors.com

[Gizmo]

The only thing better than the V-1 is to ride with a federal judge.

[lorazepam]

I think staying at the posted limit is the best way to stay ticket free. Since I don't and I do not see that happening in the near future, I mainly take my chances without a detector. I have an escort that I have used mainly for work. On the bike, I guess I am lucky, (knock on wood) since I speed more on it than in a cage, and I have never gotten a ticket while riding. Maybe the fact that I ride as much as possible on the back roads where there isn't much traffic, and very little coverage by Johnny Law. The ones that have pulled me over usually talk about the bike and give me a warning. I imagine I have ruined that by even talking about it now. NO radar detector will prevent a ticket when the officer is using aircraft, or VASCAR, a timing device that uses a computer and stopwatches to computer speeds over a measured distance. Ever wonder what the big white stripes that are painted on the road were for? That is their purpose, to bive the LEO a measured distance to compute speed. Laser and instant on radar will get you every time if the officer wants to really bust you. Just my .02

[BradfordBenn]

Originally posted by Gizmo
The only thing better than the V-1 is to ride with a federal judge.

Actually yesterday, I had an exaperience where riding without a detector was better than having a federal judge. I was headed out of South Bend with a fair amount of speed going...

I just pulled over for being above the limit. The office walked up to the RT and asked me if I knew how fast I was going. I said no.

He then looked and asked if the GPS V was a radar detector. I showed him the GPS V and that is was a GPS.

I got a warning with the following quote "If it had been a radar detector you would have gotten a ticket, cause that means you were planning on speeding."

Of course YMMV but I am going to stick with my approach of ride appropriattely and not give the appearance of speeding on purpose.

[Gizmo]

Originally posted by BradfordBenn
Actually yesterday, I had an exaperience where riding without a detector was better than having a federal judge. I was headed out of South Bend with a fair amount of speed going...

I just pulled over for being above the limit. The office walked up to the RT and asked me if I knew how fast I was going. I said no.

He then looked and asked if the GPS V was a radar detector. I showed him the GPS V and that is was a GPS.

I got a warning with the following quote "If it had been a radar detector you would have gotten a ticket, cause that means you were planning on speeding."

Of course YMMV but I am going to stick with my approach of ride appropriattely and not give the appearance of speeding on purpose.

That is precisely why my V-1 lives in my tank bag, out of sight.

[Rich]

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?

[dzimbric]

Originally posted by BradfordBenn
Actually yesterday, I had an experience where riding without a detector was better than having a federal judge. I was headed out of South Bend with a fair amount of speed going...



That was one of two for the day for Bradford, I noticed he seemed to let me get a bit ahead while coming back from Indy on saturday. The second of the day was the big wave of Howdy from the Cass County Sherriff going the other direction while I was grabbing a big handful of brakes.

I looked at Radar Roys site and he seems to push the Passport and his test results for the new POP3 support his endorsement.

Where can you find the 8500 for $250.00. I haven't seen anyone come off the list price of $299.

[lorazepam]

My tickets have gone way down since I quit using a detector. I am usually 8-10 over, and unless he signals me over, I keep going. I have a rare warning ticket from the State patrol. He had me step back to the car and ran my license. I told him about my driving history. When I was accurate and honest, he asked me where I was going. When I told him my plans, he said it was really twisty and there were better ways to go. I reminded him I was on the bike and he said ok, and wrote a warning. I had my leathers on, and my helmet. Having bags on the bike, and wearing gear seems to get you some slack.

[knary]

Originally posted by dzimbric
That was one of two for the day for Bradford, I noticed he seemed to let me get a bit ahead while coming back from Indy on saturday. The second of the day was the big wave of Howdy from the Cass County Sherriff going the other direction while I was grabbing a big handful of brakes.

I looked at Radar Roys site and he seems to push the Passport and his test results for the new POP3 support his endorsement.

Where can you find the 8500 for $250.00. I haven't seen anyone come off the list price of $299.

It was showing up at some places for $240 to $270 depending on rebates. It's currently $270 at cartoys.com.

[Gizmo]

Originally posted by Rich
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?

I have read this as well.

[chasman]

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

[Rob Nye]

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 (http://www.consumersearch.com/www/automotive/radar_detectors/) 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 (http://www.valentine1.com/) 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 (http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=1993&page_number=1) 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

[dzimbric]

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.:bliss