I am a firm believer that a radar detector would only increase my chances of getting a ticket. A radar detector generates a false sense of invulnerabitity to radar and to getting speeding tickets. This knowledge comes from many hours of sitting on the trigger end of a radar gun, not to mention my own independant tests with radar detectors.
It has been my experience that most people who use radar detectors are less aware of their surroundings, i.e. watching out for cops because they are depending on the radar detector to do that for them.
Radar Strategy
Let me tell you how it works. Most any good cop working radar is going to find a good spot along the road to observe traffic. A spot where he has a good field of view and will not be readily noticable. Every cop has their own opinion of how fast is "too fast." Some officers will stop someone for only 5 mph over, some 8 over, 10, and so on. The cop is going to wait until he sees someone driving "too fast," and he will determine this speed through visual estimation, not by activating the radar.
SIDE NOTE: All officers certified on radar are trained to visually estimate speed (without the aid of electronic devices). In order to become radar certified I had to estimate, both from a stationary and a moving position, the speed of an oncoming vehicle. I had to do this numerous times in various conditions. If I was more than three mph off, I failed certification. That is a pretty difficult skill to acquire and takes lots of practice. Needless to say, radar certified officers are generally very good at visually estimating speed.
Anyway, they are NOT going to activate their radar until they see someone going "too fast." Once they activate their radar they usually get an instant (at the most a one second lag) speed readout on their radar display. At that point it is too late and you are done for.
Some officers do drive around with their radar on all the time. This isn't done so much as to catch speeders, but to generate "radar noise", which generally causes those speeders with radar detectors, to slow down.
Radar Technology
Todays radar units, such as Stalkers, Eagles, etc, are very high tech, very accurate, and show an instant readout. I know that many radar detector companies tout prospective patrons with a lot of claims that their radar detectors are the best, etc. This is where my personal experience comes into play. I can tell you that a majority of the speeders that I have stopped, using the above described techniques, were using radar detectors. Again refer back to my comment that it creates a false sense of invulnernability. I can't tell you how many times (a lot) where people have told me there was no way I got them on radar because their $350 detector didn't go off.
On numerous occassions, for demonstration purposes, I have actually removed the radar gun (battery operated Stalker) from my patrol car, walked up to the offending driver's car and aimed it directly at the radar detector. I then activated the radar and, on the average, it took the radar detector (from 5 feet away) 3 to 5 seconds before it alerted. I never had one alert faster than 3 seconds. These detectors were not the cheap detectors either. I won't mention brand names, but they were the "top-of-the-line" detectors. A 3 to 5 second alert is not good considering the radar gun will lock your speed in less than second. The only reason I ever did this demonstration was because I wanted these people to know how truly ineffective a radar detector is, even if they paid $500 for it. When they saw the results, at first they would be mad because of how much they paid for the detector, but then they would thank me for showing them how it worked.
I don't want you guys to think I was one of those officers out there that stopped people for speeding only a few miles over the speed limit, and that I wrote everyone I stopped a ticket. As a matter of fact, I rarely wrote a speeding ticket, especially to fellow motorcyclists. But I can tell you that the tickets I did write were usually to peope with really bad attitudes who had radar detectors. Most traffic cops I know will write EVERYONE a ticket that they stop for speeding who is using a radar detector. The common believe amongst LEO is, if you have a radar detector then you have received many warnings (from the radar detector), and you deserve a ticket. If, when you get stopped, are polite to the officer and admit your mistake, MOST officers (not all) are going to cut you a break. But it doesn't matter how nice and apologetic you are, if you have a radar detector mounted to your windshield they are probably going to give you a ticket.
I speed like everyone else, especially on my FJR (how can you not?), but instead of relying on a radar detector to save my butt, I use my observation skills, and my knowledge about how radar works.
