Radar Detector Side by Side Test: Valentine One – v- Bell Sti-R

[Deej]

I don’t quite know what is worse... prolific multinovas located on every 3rd street you drive down which are spruked as being there for our own safety, or, Keyra Augustina’s retirement from web-camming.... but anyhoo...I have seen quite a few posts up on PSB about which radar detector to get and I know we all have an opinion on radar detectors. I am no different so here is my opinion for what its worth.

I don’t consider myself an expert by any means. I don’t really want to know HOW they work (for all I know they are filled with fart gas and somehow gets agitated when hit with radar frequencies), nah I just want to know how much warning do I get to shift my foot to a different pedal.

In the last 20 odd years I have owned close to 15 odd detectors (3 of them liberated from me), always trying to find the edge against the enemy. Iv had everything from the very 1st gen Cincinnati Microwave, Escorts, Whistlers, Cobras, Bells, all have been good until the advent of the dreaded Multinovas and their low power transmission and the way they point across the street instead of down it. It has been very hard to find a good detector that will work efficiently on these suckers. Most of them go ‘beep’ but it seems they are designed to be FLASH detectors not radar detectors.

Enter the Valentine One. It just so happens to be, for whatever reason, the very best detector for WA Multis. When set up correctly (as recommended by Delonix the WA distributor) the fart gas works perfectly and gives you hundreds of metres warning on Multis, kilometres on K band hits in the country (if turned on) and zero false alarms. If it goes off you don’t second guess it, you just swap pedals. I have recommended them to all my mates for a few years and I wouldn’t recommend anything to a mate that might come back and bite me.

So, what is wrong with them? Not much really just aesthetic stuff because basically they are butt ugly as they haven’t changed the agricultural design in over a decade. The digital readout is basic and it is angled to suit the North American market (left hand drive cars), but these aesthetic tings aside they are the benchmark for any radar detector used in WA. If you can beat the V1 on a multinova, then you have an instant #1 detector.

The biggest issue I have is the inconvenience of parking up in high risk areas (AKA – the whole of Perth metro area). You see, the V1 is only a dash mounted unit (u can get crappy aftermarket kinda remote mount thingys) which means to say that every time you park up you have to whip it off its mount and hide it just in case someone else decides they really want a V1 too. A cheep one. I have lost 2 WRX windows, and a S2000 roof this way.

I also know that I get lazy and Im a slow learner so I am often on the look out for a good remote mount unit. I think I have found it.

Enter the Bel Sti-R. Detector mounts in your front grill, horn in your kick panel, separate button panel and display module placed in two separate easy to reach and see locations, a bit of wire through your firewall plumbing all the gastric gases together and blamo. No more broken windows.

Now, I don’t rate Bels (apart from some early ones when multis first came out). I had a few recently like the ‘Sti’ that were just plain crap performance on newer Miltinovas (it triggered at the “you have passed a muiltinova” sign), so I was very reluctant to throw down a couple of grand to get one installed, but I read some good things when it came out a couple of years ago, got one, but didn’t have the confidence to run it solo. So I have ran both detectors (the V1 and Sti-R) side by side for about 12 months and I am now ready to retire the V1 into the boot only to be used on country runs where it performs slightly better (we are talking just a couple of seconds earlier warning on moving traffic cars running the dash mounted K band guns). In the city the Sti-R triggers simultaneously with the V1 on multi’s. It has less urgency than the V1 but it still goes off and provided X&K are off you will have zero false alarms in the city.

Only sucky thing about the Sti-R is it is a little bit of fucking around to turn K band on once you hit the country because you have to move through the menu (unlike the V1 where you just press and hold the on off button for a second), but after a few goes at it, it becomes second nature.

I had the opportunity when driving West down Ried Hwy to record a multinova hit on the iPhone on both detectors. There was no traffic, straight road, clear conditions, so a pretty easy test.

So that you know what is going on (cos the two sets of beeps which will be a little confusing)...the dash mounted unit is the V1. You can see it is mounted very low on the dash. Not the best place for it but at least I can never get done for obstructing my vision by the coppas if I get pulled becuase the only thing I can see behind it is bonnet.

On the steering column directly under the tacho (the bottom set of red lights) is the display for the Sti-R. If you watch the displays and listen to the different sounding beeps you can see/hear they both trigger simultaneously. The more urgent beeping unit is the V1, the more casual beeping and the “KA Band” voice is the Sti-R.

I was travelling at the posted speed limit (90kph) so was travelling at 25 metres per second. I had 12 seconds warning before I arrived in the hit box for the camera so that’s equivalent to 300metres warning and the camera was hidden behind the flyover and a rail so that would have made it harder to detect I would think.

For the record the car was being driven by a trained stunt driver in a controlled environment, and it was filmed by someone in the back seat shooting over the drivers shoulder. Any other way would have been very irresponsible. No animals were injured during the making of this video. The only thing that was injured was Dorrington’s budget.

Higher rez vid HERE

Crappyer utube vid here:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rJ2J11mhRc"]YouTube - Bel STi-R vrs Valentine One, Multinova Comparison Western Australia[/ame]


Hope this is some help.

Deej


PS:
To Buy Valentine One: Definatly used Delonix Radar at http://www.delonixradar.com.au and make sure you set it up as per his setup video (v important).
To Buy Sti-R: Dont know anyone I would recommend, but you can try Beltronics at https://www.beltronics.com/. They are the distributor so are prob the best bet.

[Bendito]

Great post Deej, thanks

[Yagadan]

^^ Ditto cheers.

Have always heard the V1 is the best on offer, if rear facers get more common i'll be investing in a good detector for the bike. But ATM my car doesn't get enough use to justify one for all the front facers.

[Cbr1k]

If only a bike manufacturer could integrate one into the Dash

[duffman]

Great write up.

Could you explain what the go is with the K band though?
ie why is it something you only use in the country?

cheers

[Dubs]

wheres the choons?

All I hear is weird techno shirpy stuff....HEY DJ, WHERE'S THA BASS?

dubs

[St Ives]

Great write up.

Could you explain what the go is with the K band though?
ie why is it something you only use in the country?

cheers

K band will alert you to patrol cars with radar and automatic doors such as at service stations and corporate buildings. In the city there aren't that many patrol cars using radar as the high number of vehicles makes them difficult to pinpoint a particular driver's speed against the next guy. Most of your detector hits in the metro area on K band therefore turn out to be false alarms.

On country roads the most likely law enforcement you are going to encounter is a highway patrol car or unmarked car, both using on board radar that will set off your K band from a considerable distance (except for their flick-on technique).

Multanovas: In metro areas they tend to be hidden really well and point somewhat across the road, my STi doesn't really give much warning in this situation because I suspect the radar beam is very narrow. In country areas they tend to be pointed more down the road rather than across so I usually get adequate warning, K-A band.

Personally, I leave K band on in metro areas, learn where the false alarms occur and sometimes even use the mute button if the alerts are particularly thick.

[Hostilemonk]

Hmm err Deej - you have just put up a video of you using a mobile phone whilst driving - just thought I'd mention that - good write up though -

Edit: This comment is purely meant as a Public Service announcement -
PS. Fortunately the Stunt Driver has left the country.

[Dubs]

Hmm err Deej - you have just put up a video of you using a mobile phone whilst driving - just thought I'd mention that - good write up though -

For the record the car was being driven by a trained stunt driver in a controlled environment, and it was filmed by someone in the back seat shooting over the drivers shoulder.

Any other way would have been very irresponsible. No animals were injured during the making of this video.

The only thing that was injured was Dorrington’s budget.

[Deej]

Heh. The power of PSB. Do a search for 'valenine 1' in Google Aus and we are on the first page.

I love this place.

[chee]

yay?

[polony]

Great write up.

Could you explain what the go is with the K band though?
ie why is it something you only use in the country?

cheers

Ka = Multanova

K = Police dash mounted radar(so they can tell how fast you are going as you approach them on a straight road. must be no cars near you etc etc) & very old radar guns(not a whole lot left in wa)

Police tend not to use K in the city as it is near-on impossible to get a valid reading with other cars about, hence why you switch it off. Automatic door openers work on similar frequencies and like to trigger false alarms.

X = Not used in WA

Laser = You are fucked, buy a laser jammer next time. Very rarely a good detector may let you know when a car ahead is being pinged, giving you a chance to slow down.

[roag]

There are a few Pol cars in WA that still have the mounted radar. I still would like to know the radiation hazard distance for one of those, you probably shouldn't have a high powered microwave emitter too close to your face for too long.

[Crimson]

Has anyone set up the Valentine One on their bike with the helmet module?

[Semi]

how does it go for detecting rear facers deej?

[OSP1340]

Ka = Multanova

K = Police dash mounted radar(so they can tell how fast you are going as you approach them on a straight road. must be no cars near you etc etc) & very old radar guns(not a whole lot left in wa)

Thats not really true.
You can still run a RADAR on another vehicle in the other lane and still get a good tracking history on him even if there is a vehicle close to him.

The RADAR not only give a visual reading (speed) but also an audio feed back. You can hear the audio pitch from the signal being sent back to the RADAR unit. That is how you can tell which vehicle you are tracking.
Once the signal changes = different car.
Once the signal drops off = target vehicle just passed you.

Like I posted a while ago. I know alot about RADARs

[Melkor]

I just wanted to add to this thread.

I was with Deej on a trip down South when he first picked up the Valentine 1. I was so impressed at it's bacon detection I bought my own.

Having been worded up by Deej about these detectors often growing legs and walking off to the detriment of a side window and one less detector I decided to high mount my detector.

I've mounted mine in the dark tint strip on the font windscreen near the rear view mirror. It's detected both Multanovas both ways and laser, and as recently as a week ago I was driving down the Freeway and it started chirping. I looked around for the Multi and realised I had been easily given a 10 second warning about a nova on the other side of the freeway facing away from me (towards the oncoming traffic). So that's like 4 lanes and two railway tracks, the wrong way, and 10 seconds of warning.

However the detector is impossible to see from the exterior mainly due to the dark coloured interior, tints and the barely visible location. The noise does sometimes irritate my wife when she's in the passenger seat however

The Valentine comes with RJ45 jack for power and a v12 car jack to RJ45 adaptor so all you need is a length of telephone cable which i threaded up through the centre console, up the A pillar and into the ceiling for an invisible installation.

Crappy night-time pics for your delectation.

[Hornet]

Nice additional info, Max.
If I had anything other than my grandpa car, I'd get one.

[mirkin]

i think deej posted just to show off that he drives an M series bimmer

noice choice

[Dubs]

i think deej posted just to show off that he drives an M series bimmer

noice choice

yehhh naaaaaah

Showing off would be if it was on his Ariel Atom.

Dubs