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Wednesday 22 October 2003

Is your angel a.....Road Angel? [houmous]

Having had more points than most sensible people have had games of tenpin bowling over the years (?) and having just finished about 12 months on 11 points (deffo not funny - apart from fact I am on the road for work about 60% of the time I also live about 8 miles from the nearest town with no bus service to speak of i.e. ban + my life = a toilet) I have always been interested in speed detectors. Note Logic (or Comedy Dave by his EED monicker) that I am inserting a paragraph here :).
I bought my first one years ago when they were still thought of as illegal. Its inability to detect speed cameras was only matched by its ability to pick up taxi's, microwaves and CB radio. I binned it.
Roll on a few years and along comes one of my clients telling me about a company he has set up selling a new type of speed detector - the Road Angel. I succumb.
The first thing to understand here is that it doesnt detect things in some kind of radar way (well except for that thing sticking on my windscreen - more on that in a min hehe). Its a GPS device - you connect it up to your PC (serial port only - I'll have a word with him about that) and download all the co-ordinates of all GATSOs in the UK ). As you drive along it gives you your speed as per GPS, and in superb time via GPS positioning it starts flashing red and bleeping for every GATSO (and it only does it in the right direction - how does it do that?). *cough* another para coming up Mike :)
It will also flash at every offical blackspot location if you want (I dont want).So whats that thing on my windscreen? Thats for laser guns and mobile speed cameras and it does work, obviously, on some kind of radar detection. Havent had a chance to test that yet - I'll post when I do.
Conclusion: a well put together bit of kit which works superbly - but at a price! (£400 retail) and £50 per year after first year for the updates. They reccommend updating every 2 weeks. Web site is here.They are selling extremely well.
If any of you want one I've got dinner with the guy on Sat Oct 12 (night after EED dickens madness hopefully I'll be able to string a sentence or two together hehe) let me know and I'll see if I can get you one cheaper - realistically this will probably be a £100 off if I'm lucky!

6 comments:

  1. Hmm. I was just thinking about getting one for the bike recently. Daily, I drive through quite probably our nations most prolific gatso home, London, and it scares the hell out of me to know that as a new rider, I can only get two flashes and I'm out!
    I personally can't put a monetry value on my lisence and so don't mind spending some wonga to help protect against fixed speed cameras and mobile speed traps.
    One questions about that one you have Houmous.. A hell of a lot of gatso's round here are in the central reservation of dual-carraigeways and so get spun-round 180 degrees ever few weeks, does it know which way round they are? (Doesn't bother me atm, I'm an observant rider :)
    Bike ones cost more as they have to be compact, waterproof and detachable. Still, I've been flashed once and luckily that was empty, I don't want to chance it again.
    I've been reading up on these lately, the good reviews agreeing that the gps systems are spot on and don't fail, but the detector mode of them is still subject to false alarms and complete failure to detect at times. My biggest risk is speed traps, guess I'll have to keep on looking.

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  2. My dads got one of these. Might not be the exact model but he swears by it. It even detects the new type of camera which has a bigger range and doesnt need road markings.
    So far he tells me that he hasn't seen a camera which he hasn't been warned about.
    Oh and did you know they are illegal in France? Friend of the family was in france and had left the radar at home since he knew this. During the trip he gets stopped by the police and they notice the wires. They ask him if he has a radar. He replies 'Yes, but I know they're illegal here so I left it in the UK'. They fined him anyway ;)

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  3. Onion eating faggots!

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  4. Errr....isnt it garlic eating faggots?

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  5. Is sticking to the speed limit so bad then?

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  6. Or better still, move to the countryside, where they can't be arsed to put speed cameras on little tiny country lanes, and then drive along them at 70mph anyway :)
    Just have to remember to slow down as I come back into town.

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