Road Angel vs Snooper

[BDG]

(or any other similar system)

Does anyone use either of these systems or done a comparison?

I'd like to know which is the best.

Can they be used on bikes as well as in cars, although realistically with the mileage i do it will spend more time in the tinbox, but it would be usefull if its easily transfered fron vehicle to vehicle so i can use it in vans when required.

Thanks in anticipation.

[yeti]

No competition, the road angel is by far the better unit. Done lots of research into this and spoken to user's of both systems.

Unfortunately they are not easily transferrable to bikes. For that you want the Geodesy system which is pretty good but doesn't have any mobile detection capability.


No doubt someone will be along in a moment to totally contradict all of the above!
:burn::burn::burn::bouncy::bouncy::bouncy::bouncy:

[JPM]

Dunno about snooper, but the road angel only comes (as standard) with GPS kit etc, so it'll have a database of static/mobile camera sites which you update as and when, but in standard form doesn't detect lasers etc from the roadside plod. So on that score it would be easy to swap between cage and bike, just plug and go I guess. If you were after a laser detector etc you'd need to fit other stuff to the bike to obviously detect that, so would be more of a hassle to swap between the two I would think...

[BDG]

Ta Yeti & JP

Ok lets ignore the bike useage (unless Geodessy is absolutely brilliant) I certainly wouldn't hear any little beeping noises on the bike over the noise of the Termis and clutch etc. and my eyes spend more time looking at the road and whats up ahead rather than looking for flashing leds on the dash.

It would be nice to have some form of laser detection as well as picking up the known static/mobile sites.

Is it best to have a seperate detector as well as Road Angel.

[Twinfan]

The new Road Angel (Road Angel 2) is an all-in-one GPS and laser detector. Not sure where you'd mount it on a bike to get the best laser detection though. You'd also need to hardwire it into the bike, as you would with all of these systems.

I have a Road Angel 'classic' for the car(s) and it's superb. Very clear LCD screen that flashes red when it alerts you. A mate has a Road Angel 2 that he's very happy with also.

Check out http:\\www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk for comparisons and tests of what's available.

[JPM]

I think you can get a bolt on for the roadangel to detect lasers, there's a new version out now from when I looked a while ago, and the old one didn't have that functionality, but I'm pretty sure the new one does.

There's quite a few decent websites for the low down on detectors, can't for the life of me remember the URL's, but they're pretty good, just do a quick google and see what you can get

[JPM]

Twinfan..... there you go, a good link to start with!

[LesPaul]

Have a look at www.originb2.com. Very neat and well recomended :)

Darren



[Edited on 16-11-2004 by LesPaul]

[Twinfan]

Origin b2 was my second choice, but there are loads of wires to deal with. Road Angels are plug-and-play which got my vote as I swap the unit between cars. However, I think Origin do a new one now that's simpler? Check the link I posted above and make your own choice.

P.S. Road Angel 2 ;)

[JohnDa]

Sent my road agnel 2 back after 3 days, now have a snooper S4 which can be mounted on the bike as well, only thing the snooper seems to struggle with is the mobile van units, but having said that if you update it on aregular basis it will alert you when you approach of known locations. I know where you can get a snooper S4 for around £285 if price is a deciding factor.

[bolds]

John

What was the reason for returning the road angel 2 ?
I was thinking of getting one as the spec looks quite good

[red seb]

Sean
Had a Road Angel 1 fitted since Feb. Brilliant. Hard wired in the main car but can transfer into any vehicle and use the Extra cable supplied (ciggy lighter).

Havn't tried in on the bike but never had any need on the bike (touch cranium!). Always seems to be the car but then I do cover 35-45K a year so.

You can also program in your own black spots for regular plod sites to remind you when daydreaming.

Cheers Seb

The new model looks a bit neater I have no complaints

[JohnDa]

The spec and everything was fine, but the unit i got when you first power up the RA it should take up to an hour to Calibrate/locate the satellites or something like that, once it's has done that it shouldn't need to do it again.....not mine every time once it even took best part of 2 hours.

A few other things I think they need to work on, there is no dimmer for the display so at night the inside of the car ends up looking like a boy racer's corsa with neon under lights :cool:

The RA 2 unit it self is quiet big as well in Comparison to the snooper, I intended to use mine on the bike as well so the shape of the RA2 didn't fit the bike at all.

When the alarm goes off to warn you it carry’s on beeping at the set volume till the danger has passed, this can get quiet annoying at times. The snooper you can set so after about 5 seconds or so it drops down to a lower volume the goes completely off when the danger has passed

As with the road angel you can still programme in your own black spots & regular plod sites.

Just my opinion/experience not to say the RA 2 is a bad piece of kit, it still does the job (when it came on) just the snooper suited my needs better and had a few features that the RA 2 could do with.

Jon




[Edited on 17-11-2004 by JohnDa]

[Chaz]

I use road angel in both car & bike easy to swap over brilliant kit.

Chass

[ducatisps]

I just bought (this week) the Snooper S4 Neo with the SLD100 Radar/laser detector plug in - makes it a S4R. Fits easily in the car! not tried it on the bike yet - the suction cups are fairly strong and there is a velcro fastening, but also not sure i'd want a £329 piece of kit bumping round on the bike even though there is an ear piece socket - you would have to use the hard wire option on the bike - except if you have a gold wing with the cigarette lighter! (i take mine out every time I leave the car in case it gets nicked).

It has detected all the gatsos i've been near and it also warns of schools. I checked a whole load of sites before deciding on the S4R. I would have liked the Ori gin B2 ideally but it was a tad more expensive, but you get a real time GPS calculated speedo and an indication if the Gatsos are on the opposite carriageway (quite how they know when they are turned round as some are round here - mounted in middle of road I don't know) also when I checked companies house they had not sent returns in although they did respond to me and say they "please rest assured we intend to be around for a few years" Also they did not have an easy option of mounting the radar detector outside the car (near the number plate as you can with the S4R) So the S4R became my choice as a result.

Had to buy the seperate laser detector as this will pick up much more from mobile units - which is where I got a huge scare back in november on the A303 near Salisbury - over a hill - long stretch of downhill - layby at the bottom lovely white van with the rear tailgate showing a neat laser installation when you got near - I was probably doing over 90 when I came down the hill - but had my suspicions and slowed down - but at a range of a mile and a half - I am watching the post carefully!

[Bungi]

on the subject of such detector thingys:

being as i am looking at investing in somthing similar, while i sit out a 28 day speeding ban.

does any one know if strobe alert is somthing that is fitted to police vehicles in this country??

Strobe Alert™ A Cobra exclusive, works with tens of thousands of emergency vehicles currently equipped with traffic light controlling strobe emitters. Provides advanced alert of the presence and/or approach of these vehicles.