epgs1

Thinking of investing in a speed camera detector and was wondering whether folks had found them as useful as they had hoped. The good ones clearly dtect the cameras, but is the detection process simply too late to safely help?

Does anyone know if they work for cameras in France?

Cheers
Graham

Fieldl

The B2 went off whilst I was being followed by a unmarked volvo on the way back from Wales on Saturday. First time the laser detector has worked in anger. Gave the driver a knowing glare. Plus he probably heard the racket from the car

AquilaEagle

Police using a laser from inside a moving car? sounds odd to me tbh Lee.

The B2 has saved me a few times, I am sure of it. Well worth the investment, to help me drive safer

AquilaEagle

OH and DON'T use them in France, they are illegal, and will be destroyed by the police if found in your vehicle.

You wont get points anyway i dont think, just a fine if caught speeding.

jimpom23

I have a GPS one which has a log of all the fixed cameras (gatsos, truvelo, specs etc) in the land.

You can configure how far ahead you want the warning, mine is set to 1km which is plenty of time, plus it is speed sensitive so will only become audible if I am breaking the limit, otherwise the nice red lights count up slowly.

I find as soon as I hear one beep I lift off and stabilise, then coast past the camera just as I should

Spanners

My Roadpilot GPS based device gives plenty of warning - sometimes it seems too much. Of course the GPS units only warn you if you are over the posted limit and travelling in the right direction for the camera. My unit starts warning at about 3/4 mile, and the lady gets more insistent as you get down to 100 metres.



At least so I have heard.

The main problem I have is hearing her over the roof down noise.

I do not have a 'detector' though. I understand that the laser detectors are more of a problem as the laser is only 'on' when the gun is being pointed at you with the trigger pulled, and it only needs a second to grab your speed. The radar units spray more radiation about in more directions for longer, so there is more to detect, giving greater warning, but I have no hands on experience of either.

I understood GPS based were illegal in France - but I have just found out Roadpilot now includes France in its database, and they say GPS warning devices are OK. If true, this is a bummer as the convoy got flashed on FC2. I deliberately left my Roadpilot at home.

Fieldl

I did wonder about this..... but I clocked them pulling in behind me. My speed was well under the limit. When I left the 30 zone I speed up to 40 and pretty much the instant I accelerated (with airbox off noise) the B2 started screeching with a laser alert

Shiskine

I have an Origin b2 Solo. The laser detector's never gone off (equally, I've never been done, so I don't think it's missed anything) but the GPS camera warning has been very useful.

I was disqualified for doing over a ton on the M6 last year, so figured any more offences might get me into more trouble. In my experience, you need to be doing a fair bit of travelling in unfamiliar areas for these things to pay off. Let's face it, most people know the locations of all the cameras in their local areas, so the b2 only helps when you're in parts of the world you don't know.

I can definitely say it's saved me once when I was going a Sunday blast down in the borders. There's an evil camera out in the sticks (partially concealed behind a tree) in a 60 zone and I was doing nearly 3 figures when the b2 went off. Definitely saved me that day.

Remember that "detectors" are likely to be made illegal if/when the new Road Safety Act comes into force, so GPS devices are definitely the way to go.

fluffyninja

Wouldn't exactly say saved me but the B2 I've got has come in useful a couple of times since i've had it now.

Once on the way to Rob's wedding. Some slow moving traffic was ahead and I'd been stuck for a while. Got a clear spot and hoofed it past. Just as I cleared them the warning starts going off giving me plenty of time to get back down to sub-overtake speeds if you catch my drift. It was fairly clearly marked and I liked to think I would have seen it before it got me but had a much more relaxed slow down than just throwing an anchor out the window.

On the way down to London a couple of weeks ago as I was travelling along the M4 the Laser detector started going mental. Couldn't even see any police about and since I was doing the speed limit no problems. Seemed like whoever was doing it was trying pretty hard though. Kicked off 4 times in about 20 seconds. Fortunately was in the 3 bar roulette of fuel with no idea where the next station was so was taking it seriously easy.

GPS is definately useful. Was speaking to the guy who installed mine and he was saying the laser bit usn't much use unless you're on something like a motorway where it's at a hell of a range. Apparently the laser will be about the size of a Hummer at 1000 yards

mikey k

AE is spot on.
There are two types - radar & laser detector and laser detectors with camera databases.
I prefer the former as they work on most guns and cameras. Down side is they don't have the data bases for Specs and Truvulo cameras, these are the ones that were illegal and they are trying to ban again. I run a PDA Sat nav system with the camera databases on.
The later like B2's are laser detectors with databases of know scamera sites. they don't detect anything other than lasers and by the time they have detected it the plod has already caught you Though they are not up for the ban!

I do 45k miles a year and can honestly say my Bel990i has saved me points &