I'd been wanting a radar detector for my bike for a while, but the key for me was that it had to be stealthy. I absolutely did not want a standard radar detector sitting out on a RAM mount (or some such) on the chance that I would get pulled over- an officer would see it and mentally add a few MPH to my ticket...
Anyhow, BMW-K tipped me off to this unit, now on blowout at Amazon (even cheaper now than when I bought it two weeks ago):
http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-IRADS120R-Waterproof-Remote-Smartphones/dp/B00HJG8KRS/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1450327085&sr=8-10&keywords=cobra+iradarThe detector unit is reasonably compact, a little bulkier than a pack of smokes, but unobtrusive in design.
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loginI fit it up under the high beam on my bike, and it definitely doesn't draw attention under there.
It connects via bluetooth to your smart phone. More info here:
http://cobrairadar.comNow, on to the review.
Mounting the device was easy enough, and pairing to my iPhone was painless. All in all, the install took maybe 20 minutes and a couple of glasses of wine. Easy peasy.
The app is easy and intuitive to use, and among other info it gives a real-time reading of the bike's voltage. This turned out to be a useful tool for both BMW-K (he bought one as well) and myself. We fired up everything electrical on the bike to see how loaded our charging systems were. With all his electric gear and grips on high and high beams on BMW-K was running at 12.1 volts. Clearly he can't really add much more draw to his power consumption. On the other hand, with all my stuff on high I was still running a solid 13.8, so that means I have some room for more lights or whatever. Good to know, and eliminates the need to install the digital voltmeter I'd bought but not yet installed.
Anyhow, back to the radar detector. The app is clear and simple, and both the visual alerts and the audio alerts are very noticeable. I'm running a SENA headset, and the Cobra app interrupted music with the audio alerts. The visual alerts also interrupted other apps, but not quite as obviously. A little drop-down on the top edge of the screen was all there was. When BMW-K and I were chatting on intercom the audio alerts didn't impinge on the comm, so the app must use the music channel and not the phone channel. A minor quibble, but there it is.
The detector has one noteworthy flaw, in that it only detects from in front. I guess you could install a second one facing back if you wanted, but the simple reality is virtually all spend radars get as you're oncoming, so in the real world I'm not sure it's a drawback at all.
The unit's sensitivity seems good, and it can be set to "City" or "Highway" mode. It's also crowd-sourced, so it alerts you to known speed traps.
Like most radar detectors, it can be annoying, but better annoyed by too many false alerts than to get busted because the detector simply didn't detect, right?
On our recent Monterey run the device worked well enough to convince me it would have been a good insurance policy at the original $260. For the $60 I paid it was a fantastic deal. They are even cheaper now, so all I can say is you should go ahead and buy one. It's good enough I'd seriously consider one for every vehicle.
