I had the pleasure of spending last Saturday with Shahram Shiva, a freelance writer for BMW ON, Backroads, and the man behind BMWSuperBikes.com. Shahram was given a 2008 BMW K1200S for evaluation from BMW and wanted to use the opportunity to evaluate the TPX at the same time. He had followed our progress since we introduced our products to the industry insiders last year, and being a radar detector user, he was eager to test out the TPX. My SV kicking it in Brooklyn.
We met up in Brooklyn to install the TPX onto the K1200S. The installation went fairly quickly. We first removed the top panel on the tank and connected the Wiring Harness to the battery terminals. We then removed the left side panel and stashed the wires in the space between the frame and the space underneath the left side panel.
Wiring Harness hooked up to the K1200S.
We also hooked up the Visual Alert and affixed it on top of the instrument cluster, and it looked great, like it was stock with the bike!
Visual Alert on the K1200S.
Since we don't have a mount specific for the K1200S (yet), we used our Universal Mount Adapter with a Techmount. The whole install took minutes and we probably spent most of the time adjusting the Techmount to get it to the right angle and threading the Wiring Harness underneath the fairing.
Tada!
After the installation, we grabbed a bite at Bar Tabac and then went on for some urban riding around Brooklyn. I think Shahram really wanted to test our mount's locking mechanism to see if the TPX would really stay on the bike going over cobble stone roads and crater sized pot holes!
Great food and bikes!
Shahram also shot a video on the overview of the TPX:
It was a fun day, despite the cold and light rain that I encountered on the way to Brooklyn, and I had a great time riding around town with Shahram. Thanks Shahram and we look forward to what you have to say about the TPX!
Notice how good our booth looked with the TPX on our bike?
We were at the Miami Motorcycle Salon last weekend down in beautiful (and warm) Miami Beach. Using the show as an excuse, I got my first long ride in for the season. I took the un-scenic route of I-95 from New York down to Miami and back, as I had time restrictions (after all, it was technically work). It was my first long ride on the east coast. It took me two and a half days on the way down and two days on the way back, totaling 2,836 miles, and no ticket.
On the way down I had beautiful weather. A bit chilly in New York and New Jersey, but warmed up after Delaware. As always, I had the TPX with me. The Jersey cops were out in force as I went through the state, seeing them all over the road pulling over people. I just went along with the flow of traffic and was on good behavior. Didn't really see that many cops in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, and traffic was relatively heavy, plus, I had my TPX off as I rode through Virginia because radar detectors are illegal to use there, so I was also on good behavior. It cracked me up a bit as I entered into Virginia because right after the "Welcome to Virginia" sign they had a "Radar Detectors are Illegal in Virginia" sign shortly after to remind you that you can't use them there. Once I got into the Carolinas though, a different story. I noticed that the flow of traffic was significantly faster and I could sense that I could open up my throttle a bit, so I did. I'll just say that my speedometer hit 3 digits quite often going through the Carolinas. I slowed down a bit in Georgia since I had a friend that lived there telling me of horror stories of how bad the cops are there, so I was pretty cautious. My cautiousness and the TPX saved me from a ticket there. I had my lunch break at B&J's Seafood in Darien, and as I was making my way back onto I-95 riding through Darien, my TPX went off. Since I was going at the speed limit of 35, there wasn't a need for me to let go of the throttle. Sure enough, about 2 blocks up the road there was a cop hiding behind a sign pointing his radar gun at my direction. The TPX didn't exactly save me from a ticket as I was going at the speed limit, but had I been going any faster, it probably would have. As for Florida, a lot of cops as I got closer to Miami. I noticed that not all cops would have their radar guns on. Seems like they would only turn their guns on if they have a vehicle targeted.
On the way back, I hit some rain and wind in North Carolina. The TPX held up fine as it is supposed to in the rain. I was pretty much doing the same thing on the way back, being cautious getting out of Miami, opening up the throttle a bit going through Florida, being cautious again in Georgia, then opening up again in the Carolinas, then from Virginia on just pretty much went with the flow of traffic. The TPX did its job again in New Jersey. I was definitely going faster than the posted speed limit and the general flow of traffic on the Turnpike. At around milepost 30, I was cruising along behind a pick up truck. We were both going pretty good, and I was about a good 3 seconds behind. We then approached 2 semi trucks on a slight-right bend on the road. Since the pickup was already in the left lane, it just kept on going, and I was in the right lane, I had to move over to the left lane to pass the semis. As I started to move over, the TPX went off with a weak Ka alert, and I instinctively let go of the throttle. The signal remained and I soon passed the semis and as soon as I got in front of them, I see a cop pulling out from the side of the road and the alert on the TPX stopped. I knew exactly what had happened. The cop was monitoring the traffic and he was either going after me or the pickup truck. I didn't see the cop because the semis blocked my view and I'm pretty sure the pickup truck didn't either. Surely enough, the cop sped by past me and the semis and pulled the pickup truck over. Phew!
It was a great first long ride of the season, and the TPX performed great on the ride. Yes, I'm biased, but I'm always happy to see the TPX work like it's supposed to when I ride with it.
Aaron Frank of Motorcyclist Magazine is currently on a ride at Deal's Gap with the TPX. Here's what he said about the TPX so far:
"The system installed just fine (including the visual alert), very fast and straight-forward with no complications at all, which was cool... So far so good - I subject it to 550 miles of heavy, heavy downpour yesterday and it was unfazed! Good signal sensitivity too, and not too many falseies. Good stuff. And no tickets yet!"
Here's the videoof our tech guru Adam explaining the features of the TPX System at the Dealer Expo last month as one of Kickstart Competition's winners.
I traveled to Arizona with our tech guru, Adam, earlier this week to meet with Radar Roy, one of the most reputable evaluators of radar detectors in the market today. Radar Roy is a retired cop and a certified radar instructor. He has over 20 years of experience with the radar detector industry and runs a blog dedicated to the evaluation of radar detectors at www.radarroy.com.
Before our arrival, we had sent Roy prototype and production units for him to play with. He provided us with feedbacks and suggestions on what he liked and didn't like. Roy liked our design and simple set up, and was particularly impressed with TPX's overall performance. In the end, Roy gave us Four Stars with his rating system.
While we were out there, Roy took us on a ride in his truck to show us the route where he conduct his tests and ran the TPX along side with his remote Escort SR7 unit that he uses for baseline comparison. His remote Escort SR7 unit has a remote radar antennae mounted to the front grill of his truck, thus he's able to run the two detectors at the same time without any cross-interference.
The TPX picked up all the radar signals at almost the exact same time as his SR7. There were a few instances where the TPX picked up signals before the SR7 and vice versa, but overall the detection ability was almost identical, including quite a few times where we were coming around blind curves on the road. The SR7 had a few false alerts, and so did we, and in two particular locations we picked up false alerts and the SR7 didn't: one around a stretch of the road filled with gas stations and auto shops where we picked up a false X, and at the local fire station where we picked up a false Ka. There was one location that the SR7 picked up a false K and we didn't, at an intersection with a gas station occupied at one of the corners.
In Roy's blog, he also mentioned about the reduced sensitivity in City mode. This is by design because there are more interfering signals in the city and chances are, you are not going that fast, so we designed the City mode with about half of the sensitivity as compared to Highway mode.
Overall, we were impressed with Roy's impartiality and brutal honesty, and we are definitely happy that he gave the TPX System a Four Star rating.
The TPX on Radar Roy's Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic.
