A mate of mine (who shall remain nameless) was booked in his car in a country town coming back from Adelaide one night. The officer's actual words to him were:
"Gee, you were unlucky pal, we were on our way to pick up a pizza and thought we'd activate the mobile radar on the way." How unlucky can you be.
Now, whilst I don't speed all the time on my Busa, I'm no saint all the time either. In a country area like where I am, my greatest fear (apart from falling off) is mobile radar. You can be on a real quiet country road where the plod would not ever bother to sit with a radar or a speed camera, but then you get an officer on his way back from a near by town or from visiting some farmer who has had a chain saw stolen from his shed, sees the light of an oncoming motorcycle, decides to flick on his mobile radar and before you even get close enough to see it's a police car you've been recorded at 131 per hour (kms or miles it doesn't matter, your license is history).
Questions for anyone who knows/cares to speculate/has no bloody idea at all but has a good yarn to tell about mobile radars:
1. What are their limitations.
2. Somebody told me that they can work backwards, ie., if you speed up behind a police car with a mobile radar you can get nicked that way too. Is that true?
Disclaimer: If the authorities are viewing this website, these questions are not intended to be a workshop on how to break the law and get away with it. No, not at all.
I'm also interested in this Scott - and I'm surprised that we don't have any riders out there that know about this stuff. I think info re police technology where it affects our licences should be public knowledge anyway. Any sympathetic Busa riding law enforcers on the bulletin board that could enlighten us? David
I will use my freedom of speech and say that-In the country with no-one for miles around and a mobile radar officer decides to book you.What scumbags some police are.Even thought they are to enforce the law with NSW police it seems to depend what mood they are in. Also "SPEED DOESNOT KILL,STUPIDITY DOES" GREG.
After just completing a radar course here in NSW as a service police member (ADF) I can tell you (and I was even surprised) that with the new laser guns you are screwed, they have a range of 1000 meters and take around .4 of a second to record a speed between 0- 350 KPH. yep 350 is the top recorded speed on one of these guns.
To answer another question no they can't record a speed when you come up behind them, the radar has to be fixed on the target either comming towards the operator or away from the operator, so passing the radar and trying to run is out of the question. the radar will record a + if comming towards and a - speed when going away.
The laser can detect a speeding vehicle in a line of traffic and to top it all off it can be fitted with a camera, so now they don't even have to stop you
The laser has a beam of approx 4cm at 1000m where the older style/ falcon radar has a range of approx 600m and puts out a beam of approx 4m it can not pick out a single vehicle, there must be no other vehicles near it or the reading is not accurate. However after a case before the Supreme Court NSW, it was said that a police officer is seen in the eyes of the court to be judged as an expert in speed, and their word carries a massive amount of weight. So either way we can't win
The laser has been in use in many states now for several months and not one case has been lost against the laser radar unit either fixed or mobile. AND where as the falcon radar had to be tuned every time and callibrated every month, the laser is callibrated/tuned at the factory and only requires servicing every 3 years????
approx.
I hope this helps
this information is only from what I have seen and been instructed on it may now not be current as technology is advancing everyday.
MAX
So, the moral is, don't ride slower than 350...
On a serious note, though, with the narrow beam (4cm at 1000m), on a mobile unit, how does the operator aim it? And, for the same reason, I presume that as a mobile unit, it cannot be used to pick out a single vehicle from a line of traffic.
Does the rule of at least 3 second tracking still need to be met?
Can the mobile units have the mentioned camera, or are mobile units still required to pull you over?
Ultimately, I think we all fear those mobile units more than the fixed ones...
Oh, and one other question that came to me as I was riding home last night, when you say it can read up to 350, is that the maximum relative speed it can detect? i.e. a fixed radar could detect up to 350, but a mobile radar travelling at 100km/h may only be able to detect 250 km/h on-coming (i.e. relative speed of 350) or a massive 450 km/h heading away...
G'day,
Seems to me it is better to adopt my strategy on group rides. I let the little dicks on the big R1's take the lead.
They feel good about leading the 'Bus and I've got a wood duck running decoy out in front.
Seems to work pretty well so far.
Poh.
G'day guys,
We are pretty safe on the bikes with the mobile radar, even if there is a camera mounter, they take your happy snap from the front, I''d like to see them pick my bus out of 100's of red ones just by going off the color
JEs
Interesting point Jes raises - has anyone been booked by an oncoming mobile car? Obviously they cant have clocked your plate, they would have to do a u turn and pursue. What if you have gone around a corner after they first saw you - how can they prove its you they saw when they catch up with you and not some other guy on a red (or whatever) bike?
In this case I think a good lawyer would get you off any speeding charges. David
I have only seen the mobile radar used in country areas (not saying that they are exclusively used there), but here they have two advantages - 1 is that there are no corners for you to subsequently turn, and 2 is that they see you early, and can slow and prepare their u-turn before you pass them. I have been done with mobile radar quite a long time ago, but I had 4 wheels at that time.
But yes, interesting point, and makes me realise that asking the question of cameras on mobile radars is a redundant question for us
Yep been booked by mobile radar head on on a suburban street,and yes he turned around and followed me.he also had the audacity to complain about the difficulty catching up,just wish I had seen him. Can't complain too much though as he dropped the penalty to the next lower value.Not to be expected these days.
Well, you really have to pay attention then Bone .
as the lights go on, the wheel should go up...
Jes
Ta for that Jes but the bike was still new and I was seeing stars!
Graeme!
I forgot to mention a few of the finer details on my last post, and I see that there are alot of questions.
the new radar unit when mounted to a vehicle projects a beam to the ground and relays the information back to the onboard computer this allows the computer to recallabrate the unit giving the device an accurate speed of the offending vehicle, so if the mobile is doing 100 KPH and the speeding vehicle is doing 285 KPH then that is what speed the unit will display (+ 285) ( keep in mind if you dispute the speed the officer should show you the recorded speed that way there is little chance of a disputed speed recording and an appearance in court)
the unit is mounted on the vehicle at an angle that will target on coming traffic. remember the device only takes .4 of a second to aquire an accurate speed recording so as you pass through this beam it records your speed that is how it is able to pick out a single car in a line of vehicles.
I hope this helps
MAX.
Well I got one of them, almost a year ago. Coming back from Woodend close to Tullamarine theres this long stretch suitable for a 300 at least, but I decided to behave myself. An oncoming WRX with no visible signs flashed me and turned on his dashboard cop siren lights. Decisions decisions, run for it? straight stretch? turnoffs where are they? .... rear mirror showing car making u turn .... maturity prevailed and pulled over. Was informed of doing speed of 120 (100 zone) jeez now wasnt that well behaved, to no avail, wouldnt drop 5 for points, so got booked for the whole hog. Could never answer myself to satisfaction since, should have run for it or not.
I was very suprised as I had never encountered a booking from head on in Victoria, thought they didnt exist here. But it seems, I found out the hard way.
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