Originally Posted by
StarDust4Ever
Can't remember the brand but I had an air horn at one time. You pump it up to 80psi. Unfortunately, once the adrenaline gets pumping, with my adult ADHD, I tend to get obnoxious. I kept tooting the horn whilst genrally being a nuisance on the walking paths on my college campus. People jumping up 4 feet in the air, sometimes spilling their books!
The air horn did not last long before whimping out. Also the cable eventually got severed and stopped holding air. I still have it somewhere and could easily patch it up again.
Bottom line, if you're the kind of person to get some cool bling like a super loud horn andl want to show it off every chance you get, with ten seconds of air time, it won't last very long.
Also, the bottles were basically made like an 8 ounces or so plastic soda bottle, probably to appease the 'weenies who would likely have no use for such a frivolous device. If the cable could be lengthened and retrofitted onto a larger bottle, like say a longer cable to a 2-liter coke bottle on the back rack, it would last a lot longer. I wonder if a 2 liter bottle could withstand 80psi though.
I wouldn't use a loud horn in a quiet setting. I'm doing battle on the mean streets of Noo Yawk Ciddy. Ya gotta be loud to be hoyd, knowamean? I'd use a bell in situations that aren't super urgent. I already have a bell on every one of my (too many) bikes. The horn is for when someone is cutting me off and will soon kill me if he doesn't stop right now.
I will occasionally use it for pedestrians who blithely saunter in the bike lane, possibly with headphones on. They need to be told off, and this is the best way to do that. I've already yelled at them and had a screaming, roaring tantrum. I wrote of that story some time ago.