How big of a choice is there for motorcycles?
Written: Jul 18 '04
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Pros: Cordless with earphone
Cons: Not designed well for intended purpose
The Bottom Line: Even F-15s get shot down, its not a great ECM (electronic counter measure), but until something better comes along...
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| woxof's Full Review: Beltronics BEL 946 Radar Detector |
I bought the overpriced BEL 946 for use on my motorcycle alone. I had a radar mount that fits on the bars and has an aluminum adjustable height stalk that ends in an adjustable plastic mounting plate. These worked quite well with my GPS and Maxon radar detector on other bikes as well as my Suzuki Bandit 1200.
The two reasons for buying the BEL were cordless and earphone for helmet. At first it worked fine but later would give constant false returns. It would work fine in my car. The manual warns of vibration and it does include a metal "mirror" that bends the signal into the unit if it is in your shirt pocket. After determing that vibrtation was the problem. I used foam ruber about an inch thick mounted to the plastic plate and then mounted the BEL to it with velcro on the foam and detector (This foam has a "skin" on one side and is waste from regular foam ,like a crust but skin surface works to mount velcro). The detector now works without falsing at speeds over 10mph and after hitting bumps.
Since this detector is advertised for motorcycles it should be much more resistant to vibration issues. Not everyone has a pocket they want to carry a detector around in. My old tin box MAXXON never had this problem. It did need a power cord but also had an earphone jack. The other manufactures could surely include an earphone jack as a standard feature. Given the lack of thinking that went into this unit almost any unit would work on a bike with the effort I put into mounting the BEL.
The display is very hard to see in a car or bike and the signal is not nearly loud enough to hear over music in car or over earphones in helmet. The earphone provided is a weird, hard edged cylinder about the size of a stack of nickles .6 inches thick. It sort of gives me an earache after awhile and could stand to be rounder and/or flatter.
As mentioned in another review unless you are a music major you will have a real problem distingusing the various beeping sounds and what radar they are associated with. I can't speak to the quality of the detection other than it goes off sometimes before I see a cop car. Surely this one horse race (detector with earphone)could be helped out by the entry of another manufacturer. I will say that getting tech support was great. A live person answered the phone and transferred me to a technician. My brother had the same experience when requiring assistance with his BEL Accelerometer.
Sean Ahern
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
woxof
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Reviews written: 1
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