https://www.nashbar.com/profile_morei...ku=4897&brand=

No, but thanks... I'm ordering it right friggin' now!

Koffee

Same here!!!

I have sold them. They are some loud and cannot be ignored. The one bit of negative feedback I have gotten besides their cobbiness is use them carefully. They can startle the driver into attention mode and cause possible swerving. Don't lay on them, short blast is all that is needed.

It's too bad I'm not rich. If I were, I'd get a custom framed bike, have the top tube welded shut at each end, and made air tight. I'd tap it with a valve and fill it with liquid CO2 to run a horn like this.

I'm thinkin of one, if only the horn didn't look so freakin goofy.

Thanks for the tip. I wouldn't lay on it anyway, since you have to continually add air. I would hate to run out during a ride because I felt the need to be overly aggressive, then when I really needed it, I would be out of air!

The only caution I do have is that I think in Illinois, we are not allowed to have air horns on our bikes- bells are fine, but not air horns. I'm still going for it, but I'll avoid using it if the cops are around.

Koffee

I have one, don't use it very often. Too loud to use on a MUT. But sometimes I'm so tempted... it is useful in trafic.

I've seen these at the local bike shop. It's got a clear bottle pocket that u pump air into.
Let it rip and think "truck horn". BERRRRRRRR!!
Cars will notice you, people on the bike trail will hate you. In fact, it'll probably make pedestrians jump..

I'm all for equalizers. I use a whistle. It's very useful to have a loud sound device (whistles are illegal, though) to grab the attention of that motorist who doesn't see you.

One drawback is that the time you use to reach for the horn might be the time you need to avoid a collision, especially if you have to remove a hand from the bars.

Cheaper alternative would be to use the CO2 cartridges that are readily available. You could possible fashion a tire inflator into a lighter alternative
than the water bottle air tank. However, the 600-800 psi of liquid CO2 would be a safety concern.

I used to use an Air Zound. I mounted it at the end of my handlebar so that I could hit it with the heel of my hand. I liked it very much, and think it probably saved my life a time or two, but they don't last very long. Sometimes just putting a new coke bottle on them would fix the problem, but they die after a year or so. They also don't work well in the winter. Currently I use a hand held marine foghorn from REI, just as loud, and works in cold weather. I fasten it on my handlebars with a strip of old inner tube. Maybe $5 total.

Just for clarification... For those of you who ave used the Air Zounds, was your experience with the original or the Air Zounds 2? And if it's the latter, do you know if the AZ2 fixed the shortcomings of the original?

My only forseeable issue with these types of horns is that one of my most dangerous riding incidents involve people cutting in front of me at an intersection at the bottom of a hill when I have a green light or any intersection where I'm really moving through at a fair clip for that matter. We have plenty of those types of intersections here in the Seattle area and I usually try and mitigate the risks by braking to near 15MPH (from 40+ MPH) so I can safely panic-stop when some idiot decides to pull out right in front of me. This present many drawbacks as one can imagine not the least of which includes possible brake fade on long hills. As such, I'm covering my brakes and in the drops and either way, I'd rather not have to remove my hands from the brake levers to operate the horn. What would be nice would be some sort of remote trigger mechanism you could mount to the brake levers to activate the horn.

Mine is the early Air Zounds horn, I don't have it mounted on a bike right now, it's a paint to move from one bike to another, so for the most part I've stoped using it.

The type of horn that Jean is using is better then the Air Zounds horn. It works in the cold better then the Air Zounds.

Yup.

However, not on single, fighter-type bicycles, only on our tandem, and driven by stoker use. Basically, one blast from this will stop dogs in their tracks, get Grandma's attention, and will let cars know that you are there.

I've been tempted to use it on some doggies who are insanely interested in my riding by them at a dangerous curve on my commute, but I've managed to restrain myself so far.

Air Zounds works great.

Enjoy,
Tom

P.S. as I can achieve 100 db with voice activated built-in alarm (HEY!!!) I usually settle for a little ding ding bell to alert elderly people that I am about to kill them by running them (and their little doggy, Toto) over. Worked this morning....

All we need now is some flashing lights and a box of flares....

I have found that, along with one of the parents of 3 stubborn human-type beings, that my bike riding has improved my lung capacity enough that I can holler quite loud enought to get just about ANYONE's attention. In a closed motor vehicle or not.

Except for my husband.

His "selective perception" is really quite good; better than mine!

I like the idea of the air horn, but if I were driving my car and heard that I would probably jump. That is probably a reaction a cyclist wouldn't want from a motorist.

Someone mentioned using a whistle, but they are illegal. Why? If it's just where they live then that really sucks. Whistles issue a high pitch that is easier for the human ear to detect than the lower pitch of an air horn. Because of this a whistle requires less energy to be detected. I like the idea of using a whistle, but I don't think I have the reflexes to put a whistle to my lips and blow it in a split second life or death situation. I also don't think I can keep a whistle between my lips for the entire duration of a bike ride. Here's a cool alternative. Attach a compressed air tank (like that air horn's) to a Storm Whistle (tm) (one of the loudest whistles in the world) with a button valve to activate it. High pitched warning alert at your fingertips.

I returned back to the bell from the horn. I noticed that when people hear the bicycle bell they realize that the bicycle is behind and behave properly.

But when they hear the horn blast they think that it is the sort of a truck behind and jump sideways, maiking it risky to pass them.

I also noticed that my horn does not work in frosty weather. Though my bell also does not work but in rain.

The whistle seems to be the good idea, because the police uses whistles. Maybe only for emergency situatiions, since it is illegal. Once I cycled in the dark in the yellow reflective vest, which resembled the one, which the traffice police uses. I noticed that the cars were slowing down everywhere, as soon as they saw the familiar yellow outline in the dark. Probably they thought that it was the policemen on the motorbike. But it felt good.

Since I wrote the above post around Christmas, I've rigged a 12V car horn to the homebuilt light set I put together. The horn cost about $12 and the activator button an additional $6 from a local auto parts store. It's plenty loud.

Since I already had the 12V power source, it seemed just as cheap as an air horn to add to my bike, and possibly more reliable. I've tested it in real traffic situations, and motorists pay attention to it.

I don't usually ride around pedestrians, but I will mount a small bell to alert them. I think the bell is appropriate for them, but for cars, a horn is necessary.
(I carry the whistle in my pocket as a back-up.)

Next, I'm replacing my rear LED's with a red 12V light.