I occasionally talk a big game in the various social media sites, but I’m generally a pussycat on the road and big believer in cooperating with other traffic when I’m on my bike. I’m assertive about my road rights, but I won’t be a complete jackass just to make a point.
Hence, I’m not a fan of loud horns on bikes. You can reach for your brakes and come to a stop faster than you can punch a horn button, and I really dislike noise pollution.
I realize, however, that horns are popular for numerous reasons. I can recommend the Delta Cycle Airzound Horn
Jonathan Lansey in Boston, however, wanted something more like a car horn with its discordant two tone *honk*, so he recruited some engineering help to create a small, lightweight electric horn for his bicycle.
There are some admirable design elements in this horn: the button is designed so you can brake while honking, for example. A single charge of the lithium battery should last for a month or two. And it sounds like a car horn.
You can buy this horn by supporting the Kickstarter project, which only has three days to go and has already met its $43,000 funding goal.
More info at LoudBicycle.com.
The air zound is not a bad product but it doesn’t sound like a car, it sounds like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhafZy1sccM&feature=youtu.be&t=18s
The single pitched high tone is hard to localize and can leave drivers confused. It is great for convenience but you wouldn’t want to rely on it in an emergency.
I hate noise pollution, but I’d rather pollute the air with some sound than pollute the gutter with my blood.
I guess the localization isn’t as big a factor on the roads I bike on (I’m usually interacting with one or two moving things at a time, max)… the airzounds has served me very well in what could have been emergencies, perhaps *because* the driver had to stop to figure out where the heck that blare was coming from.
However, how in the world does one fix the thing?
Repair tips are on the Airzounds FAQ: http://deltacycle.com/pdfs/AirZoundFAQs.pdf
i always forget to pump up my airzound…
Alas, my failures tend to be because the plastic stops flexing. I’m thinknig of ways to protect it from the mad temperature fluctuations we get here (perhaps water gets in places and then freezes and forces things apart).