I live in Mass but ride in NH CT and VT.
THe 2 top brands right now are the escort passport 8500
and the valentine v1
they have been tested by several consumer groups and are pretty much the same. Valentine offers upgrades for a fee so in the future you won't have an obsolete detector. But escort offers a trade in program toward new technology as well.
The passport 8500 is roughly $300 and comes with a jack for a head phone to use in your helmet, I think the V1 you have to get that as an option and the V1 is closer to $400
Neither one works with an instant on or direct laser attack. the best you can hope for is a vehicle in front of you to be hit and you pick up a bit of the radar from it .
Most small town cops use K and KA band but a few run it with the instant on. You still have to ride with some level of caution but a radar detector will atleast help you out and possibley reduce your tickets either my letting you know ahead of time so you can slow down or hopefully you can atleast grab some brake and lower your speed a bit before you get pulled over so your ticket will be lower.
I bought my 8500 a few years ago and it has paid for itself MANY times over. The initial investment is shoking to the wallet but when you concider that in mass a ticket for 10mph over is $100 and $50 a year surcharge for 6 years on your insurance thats $400 you would have saved just on the first instance alone. I bought a cigarett lighter extention cord from radio shack, snipped off the plug end and hard wired it to the battery on my bike with an inline fuse, and ran the outlet end up near the dash so I can plug the detector in using the regular power cord I use in the truck. Besides now I have a place to plug in a phone if I had to charge it on a trip.
