Airzound bike horn

Fian · 11-09-2014 5:07pm #1

Airzound Bike horn.

http://www.airzound.co.uk/

Loud horn that sounds like a car, operates on pressurised air that you fill into a plastic bottlle with your bike pump. I generally fill it every weekend but it could well last for two weeks if i didn't, depending on number of incidents. I have one on my commuter bike.

Imo they are probably the single best safety feature i have on it in rush hour traffic. If I am inside a bus when it indicates to pull into a bus stop I sound the horn. If someone is about to pull out in front of me or looks like they might, I sound the horn. If someone is squeezing me in the cycle lane I hit the horn. Yesterday when 3/4 dogs started to fight in front of my bike I hit the horn.

It generates an instant reaction, mostly I think because people assume that there is a motorbike/car close to them or to their left.

To be avoided around pedestrians for exactly that reason, they presumably think they are about to be hit by a car/motorbike so it can give a big fright. I stopped using it to alert pedestrians after I saw the way it made them jump. But it definitely has potential to be abused.

One of the best things is that if someone puts me in danger hitting the horn vents my fear/anger easily enough, without my resorting to shouting/roaring which I had resorted to in the past. I am probably less stressed out these days so I would probably not roar/shout even without it, but it is nice to vent the frustration. And if some impatient driver beeps at me because i have the cheek to be using "his road" I can beep them right back which generally brings a smile to my face.

Biggest downside is that once or twice when I was sleepy in the morning I have leaned forward over my handlebars to press the button that opens our electric gates, pressing the horn button with my chest when my ear is positioned about a foot away from it. Though at least that makes me pretty alert by the time I exit the house, albeit at the cost of potential permanent hearing loss.

Anyway anyone else use it? Anyone think they are great / are awful and offensive?

petethedrummer · 11-09-2014 5:21pm

Save your money. Use your mouth.

Chips Lovell · 11-09-2014 5:24pm

They're actually illegal. The only audible warning device you may fit to a bike is a bell.

Fian · 11-09-2014 5:36pm

Oscar Gateaux wrote: »

They're actually illegal. The only audible warning device you may fit to a bike is a bell.

This is true.

little or no prospect of prosecution though.

Wishbone Ash · 11-09-2014 5:54pm

Fian wrote: »

.. they are probably the single best safety feature i have on it in rush hour traffic...

A much better safety feature is the ability to read the road ahead and avoid sticky situations in the first instance or when unavoidable, physically extract yourself from danger as soon as possible. You air horn won't do that nor will it be much use if the driver of the vehicle that closing in on you is deaf.

BoardsMember · 11-09-2014 6:34pm

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

A much better safety feature is the ability to read the road ahead and avoid sticky situations in the first instance or when unavoidable, physically extract yourself from danger as soon as possible. You air horn won't do that nor will it be much use if the driver of the vehicle that closing in on you is deaf.

You might not like the idea of one, it doesn't sit well with me to be honest, but not everything is readable in advance, or avoidable without the other object taking evasive action. Where that is the case this could indeed be useful, as in, it might ensure the big heavy metal thing does not blind side you when you can't get out of the way.

As for the deaf scenario, seriously?

Zen0 · 11-09-2014 6:42pm

Defensive cycling and vocal chords for me.

CatFromHue · 11-09-2014 7:25pm

Reminds me of the horn on the LUAS.

That's give you a heart attack it's so loud, It's actually offensively loud! Doesn't stop the LUAS being in accidents though.

Chips Lovell · 11-09-2014 7:29pm

Fian wrote: »

This is true.

little or no prospect of prosecution though.

No, few if any Gardai are going to issue a summons for having one.

The main risk you expose yourself up to is you are involved in a collision. The other party or their insurer's solicitor may use it to have it ruled that you were partly or wholly liable.

RainyDay · 11-09-2014 8:14pm

Oscar Gateaux wrote: »

The other party or their insurer's solicitor may use it to have it ruled that you were partly or wholly liable.

How could the presence of a horn create liability?

Iranoutofideas · 11-09-2014 8:59pm

RainyDay wrote: »

How could the presence of a horn create liability?

If you were waving it in their face and they got startled.

:pac:

Keep_Her_Lit · 11-09-2014 9:23pm

OP, if you're ever considering an upgrade ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnr6uGIV8no

Puggy · 11-09-2014 9:27pm

Fian wrote: »

Airzound Bike horn.

Imo they are probably the single best safety feature i have on it in rush hour traffic.

I find my brakes and pedals the best safety features on my bike. Even though I do sometimes get annoyed with people pulling in on me etc, its better to be a few seconds late than never reaching your destination.

I've learned its better to educate the other party in a polite manner, in the hope it might alter their perception of cyclists. Mind you I was not always like that :mad:

John_Rambo · 11-09-2014 10:22pm

Useless for me.

The speed I cycle at is 343 metres per second (1,125 ft/s). This is 1,234 kilometres per hour (666 kn; 767 mph), or about a kilometer in three seconds or a mile in five seconds.

Puggy · 12-09-2014 12:48am

John_Rambo wrote: »

Useless for me.

The speed I cycle at is 343 metres per second (1,125 ft/s). This is 1,234 kilometres per hour (666 kn; 767 mph), or about a kilometer in three seconds or a mile in five seconds.

What altitude do you cycle at? It may be useful if you cycle in the Dead Sea (-400m)during Jun/July when temperatures can reach 47C speed

fillup · 12-09-2014 1:02am

I had one years ago and I had to abandon it. It turned me into a horn nazi (now there's a porn movie title if ever there was one)

I'd be willing people to step into the bike path just so I could give them a quick blast of the horn and frighten the bejaysus out of them

I gave up the horn after I nearly gave an old dear a heart attack when I exposed her to the full ferocity of the horn one winters morn when she stumbled into my path

As Puggy says above, the polite road is the one best travelled

Fian · 12-09-2014 9:19am

fillup wrote: »

I had one years ago and I had to abandon it. It turned me into a horn nazi (now there's a porn movie title if ever there was one)

I'd be willing people to step into the bike path just so I could give them a quick blast of the horn and frighten the bejaysus out of them

I gave up the horn after I nearly gave an old dear a heart attack when I exposed her to the full ferocity of the horn one winters morn when she stumbled into my path

As Puggy says above, the polite road is the one best travelled

I don't use it to warn pedestrians for exactly this reason, but I do think it is a great tool to warn off cars from squeezing me or pulling out in front of me.

A car pulled out in front of me in Ranelagh a few years ago and my right arm will never fully straighten again as a consequence. The guy made eye contact with me but didn't actually register i was there I guess and pulled out in front of me. If I had had the horn on teh bike at the time i would probably still be able to straighten my arm.

I did probably sound it more often than i needed to in the first few weeks, but now I hit it to warn someone rather than to register annoyance, well almost never to register annoyance anyway.

Cakewheels · 12-09-2014 10:10am

Oscar Gateaux wrote: »

They're actually illegal. The only audible warning device you may fit to a bike is a bell.

Does that seem a bit unfair to anyone?

RainyDay · 12-09-2014 10:50am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2_wnQBKnj4

The Hornit is another option - 140db, battery powered and still many drivers don't hear it when it is just inches from their window;

petethedrummer · 12-09-2014 10:56am

John_Rambo wrote: »

Useless for me.

The speed I cycle at is 343 metres per second (1,125 ft/s). This is 1,234 kilometres per hour (666 kn; 767 mph), or about a kilometer in three seconds or a mile in five seconds.

Don't come round my house. My car insurance policy specifically states I am not covered against sonic booms.

rflynnr · 12-09-2014 11:12am

I had an Airzound more than a decade ago when my commute involved going through the city centre but I eventually stopped using it because the amount of time it took to fit it on and off every time I locked the bike wasn't justified by its utility: I doubt I had cause to use it in anger on more than three occasions over the course of a year. And expressing anger is primarily what a horn - be it an Airzound or a car horn - does. Its use rarely constitutes a protective manoeuvre, which is my primary concern.

Instead I now rely on a Spiderman-like sense of awareness, honed by an acute sense of my vulnerability on a bike.

Airzound bike horn

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