Cycling in Melbourne Australia
Horns/warning devices
I purchased one of the Air Zound horns about 12 months ago and thought it was about time I added a review.
As a regular commuter in traffic, I've had to use it 3 times so far and there's no doubt that it will advise motorists of your presence. On two of those occasions, it actually helped drivers reconsider their intentions while they were merging into a bike lane without doing a head check.
I've also found that giving it a gentle tap is enough to give a pedestrian a non threatening warning at a reasonable distance ie. 20+ metres, which gives them plenty of time to look around without making them jump (shared paths of course!).
The downsides...
- They are pretty expensive... I think I ended up paying about 60 bucks for it.
- Being made of plastic, they are a little flimsy and I can't imagine the mounting bracket lasting too long
- I have already punctured the plastic bottle once and I didn't realise until I needed the horn... so give the horn a little bleep before you ride. (It's a simple matter of substituting virtually any generic water bottle as they have the same sized lid).
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John E. on -
Horns are great; before these bicycle specific ones came out I used to ride with a boating warning device, essentially an aerosol can with a horn on top & a tyre valve built into the bottom for reinflation. Sounded like a Mack truck on steroids! It was too clumsy having where I could get to it quickly so I put it away after a few months, but it certainly got their attention as they thought something bigger was going to get them! Thanks for the review, David, I won't be rushing out and getting one as my bike has too much stuff on it already, but I'll bear it mind for my wifes bike; as chief maintenance officer I have to keep it up to date.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Jay on -
I had one of the original AirZZound horns, and while I loved the warnings it gave (unlike the useless ting of a bell), the fact the airbottle took up a bidon cage, and the fact that peds on bike paths got cranky at me, I gave up on warning devices. I politely call my presence when approaching peds from behind. Motorists don't care, so I let them go with a finger extended vertically ;-)
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Permalink Reply by AlexZ on -
I could have written that wor for word Steve (excpet perhaps for your patented car communication system...)!; AirZound is great for cars, but scares the beegeezuz outta other bikes, pedestrians and pets. Verbal warnings are my prefernce nowdays on bike paths, and knocking on car panels when they infringe my lane...
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Permalink Reply by stib on -
I have a hobby of collecting underused terms of abuse, for loudly hurling at the assorted drongos, lollygaggers, dunces, geese, blockheads, trucktards, etc. out there. You lose points for swearing, you get extra points for loudness and obscurity.
A more wordy version is reserved for people who walk their dogs off the lead on shared paths. You get extra points if there is a moment before the insult registers, like: "nah, you're right, leads are just for people who aren't selfish".
The bell is just for telling people I'm passing them on a bike path (at which point they will invariably do the dance where those on the left side of the path move to the right, and those on the right move to the left).
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Permalink Reply by David Gregory on -
I like the Mack truck idea. The thing with having a loud horn is that motorists tend to look around expecting to see another motor vehicle. I guess I'm just tired of motorists using the old "I didn't see you" excuse... so I'm damn sure they're going to hear me.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Russell on -
I would have thought with a CO2 cylinder these days, a horn could be made fairly small in size with one hell of a blast. Perhaps that is food for thought for a designer out there. It could be based on the CO2 injector for tyres.
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Permalink Reply by Jamesa on -
I had one of those tune playing horns - would play sounds like skidding, cars crashing and the like - amusing and made pedestrians laugh - not sure about cars though. I end up treating all cars as if they are driven by sociopaths waiting for an opportunity to "get me". Probably safer to be that way.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Jay on
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Sort of good for keeping one alert but the reality is...
a) Sociopaths with the sort of dysfunctional upbringing to make them murderous are thankfully very, very, very rare and,
b) A sociopath with the inclination to kill cyclists will get the target, not on the road, but on quiet cycleways, where nobody will see them at work.
They know right from wrong, they just place satisfaction of their base urge higher than empathy for their victim. A sociopath probably wouldn't like using their car as a weapon because of paint damage issues.
It's simple human ignorance that turns a driver into a menace. Be visible and vigilant, but be positive. What keeps 99.99% of us safe is the paint on their cars, even if they're driving old bombs.
Also, can't stress enough, ride a straight line, people. So many Melbournians weave in and out of parked cars. It's so now-you-see-me-now-you-don't and more deadly than any car dooring or lack of a horn.
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Permalink Reply by Jamesa on
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Great summary - a bit worrying though. At least I now know who to avoid on quiet cycleways: "where nobody will see YOU at work". Steve.
I like the idea of paint keeping us alive - though there are a lot of white vans and old volvos that make me pause for thought - those car owners are probably not so concerned about their paint jobs...
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