I just bought a BEL STI Driver from amazon, I bought it because I borrowed my friends detector on a trip and I liked it. I was doing a lot of reading on Valentine 1 vs STI Driver recently and I see that V1 is better at detecting Laser and equal or better at detecting RADAR.

I live in Foster City, CA where the cops use Laser for the most part and both my tickets have been issued in the area, I planned on getting saved on my trips on the highway. I would rather get the V1 if it really work with Laser.

My question is anyone own these Detectors ?? What your take on the situation ?? Should I return my Driver and get a V1 ?? Did anyone get saved from Laser with a V1 ??


I have been using the BEL STI Driver for a week now, I have not detected LAser yet !! , I want to return the equipment before 30 days and get V1 if it detects LAser..


Please comment

 

I have the STI driver and I think it's the best. It does radar and laser both very well. It has saved me multiple times. If you are using auto mode then it doesn't work as week I found. Use City mode and everything is a lot better. Even city mode on the highway works great. Try city mode for a while and see what you think.

 

If you bought your detector for Laser, you wasted your money. All they are good for is to notify you that you are about to get pulled over. The ONLY protection against Laser is a Jammer of some sort. Blinder or Laser Interceptor are two brands.

 

^or if the cop is zapping somebody next to you lol

Laser is FTL when it comes to early responce.


I love my V1 though

 

Laser detection is pretty hard to do unless your lucky enough to catch some scatter, usually once your hit your gonna get a ticket. Laser jammers help however they are illegal in california. You can use some laser veil though, that helps reduce the range of the laser and its passive and undetectable by the gun, that in conjunction with the radar might help

As a side note I have a V1 and I love it to death

 

@Texasscout

I know laser detection does not work well with the detectors, but I saw these videos on youtube http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...tion+test&aq=f and they are pretty awesome.

Looks like laser detection is easier from a long distance than a shorter distance for all the detectors. Out of the bunch tested STI and Valentine are the most responsive to laser and V1 looks like it does a better job when the cop is close by.

Yeah, with laser it takes on 2 seconds to detect the speed but as "Wannabe6MT" said if it is bouncing off other cars probably you can get lucky.


@ Infinus

Yeah, I think laser jammers are illegal everywhere. Where are you in Cali? Does your V1 detect laser in your area ?. Im in Foster City, San mateo & SFO area and cops here have laser, radar is almost extinct except for the "speed indicator boards". I didnt see any laser detection on my STI yet !!, Do you have Veil on ?

I'll

 

Remember they (the cops) are shooting a beam that is no more than a meter wide at 100 meters. Unless he happens to wiggle the gun and shine it directly at your detector, your toast.

There is a cop that sits in the same place every moring (off and on) for the last year. I pass him at least 2-3 times a week for the last year. Out of ALL those passes, my detector has gone off twice. If he keeps it low, there is now way you are going to get a warning. I just don't want you to spend $300+ dollars and think you are going to get some protection.

 

I used to live in cali but I had my az registration still and now I've moved back to az. They are legal here, they are only illegal in a handful of states: http://www.guysoflidar.com/usa-laser-jammer-laws.html

I've had a couple laser warnings with my V1 so far and no tickets yet, most cops here still use radar, especially sheriff and hwy patrol, they usually keep it always on so I can pick em up from miles away, mostly bikes use laser. I don't have veil but I'm planning on getting it along with a Laser Interceptor jammer

Veil has been tested by motortrend and other places and is shown to work great it might give you the extra time you need to slow down a bit! http://www.laserveil.com/reviews/

 

Man! Radar Roy sure spanked the V-1, it finished near the bottom of the list.

http://www.radarbusters.com/badgeratingsarticle.cfm

 

Do not rely on radar detectors to pick up laser, and dont think a detector will help alert you to laser. If you get hit with laser you are pretty much done for, with the exception of scatter. If laser is that big of a threat there get a blinder or a laser interceptor if you have deep pockets. A laser jammer while illegal in California (not every state though) will give you time to slow down then you can turn it off and carry on about your way while giving a signal to the officer. A laser jammer will give you much better laser detection over a radar detector. Also the sti is a great detector but the main advantage the STI has over a V1 is that it is not detectable by spectre or other radar detector detectors (say that 5 times fast) which doesn't matter if detectors are legal there. That said if you are happy with the STI just keep it dont worry about giving up laser detection because the difference between detectors is small compared to having a jammer or not.

 

I have a Bel STI and love it although I'm bias. Never had a speeding ticket with. I don't rely on it saving me from the laser. I usually get a 1/2 mile warning before I approach the radar

 

Down here in the "flatlands" of South Texas (the tallest elevation here, not including buildings is the city dump), I get anywhere from 2 to 10 mile notice of K and 1-6 miles on Ka.

 

i got las'd twice today, i could see the cop about 5 miles away and i have a V1, it didnt go off until I was about 1 mile from him and was directly in the line of the laser beam.

Luckily he was sitting in a well known "cop spot" and I could see his Crown Vic in the open, but I was very odd to have it not pickup the signal ~5mi away.

The V1 was singing as soon as it was within the laser beam though!

 

Do you have the V1?

 

i originally came from a sti and then escort and now am on v1..and by far v1 blows them out the ****...IMO..check out www.guysoflidar.com for real tests...i wouldnt listen to radarbusters...in my opinion the only reason they dont rate v1 as the hiughest is because they dont sell them and they cant make any money...i wouldnt listen to a site that sells radars..."oh sti is the best....(NOW BUY IT FROM US).."...get it?.i would listen to guysoflidar before anyone else..

oh and may i add id buy the escort before the sti also...

as far as radars in general..it depends on the area your in..if yoru area has laser..as i see it does..dont bother with wasting money on radar..UNLESS you have laser jammer...but if your like me and live in area where x and k band is then v1 is good..ive been saved quite a few times..except once where it was I/O..nothing can prevent that..obviously

but trust me..you wont go wrong with a V1...and get mikes mount with invisicord..thats how my setup is....

http://www.radardetector.net/forums/ is a great forum for radar detectors..in fact the only i believe..go to V1 forums and its hilarious how many "just caem from a STI or escort and i love this v1" threads...

heres one of the charts..many more on that guysoflidar site: