Looking for a horn

ebent

10 kW
Joined
Jan 19, 2010
Messages
557
Location
Stuart, Florida
12v because I have a lot of it. Not super loud. Needed to alert car traffic. Anybody have one they like?

Thanks.
 
I like mine :)

http://www.loudbicycle.com/
 
I like it but I'm into 12v. Do not want an additional battery. No need. I have the ah. I have a 12v converter.
 
Compressed air from a bike pump, and loud! "Airzound"

ah10002014-600x600.jpg
 
Good choice of rear tire with well tuned PSI
To make it SCREAM like hell when you lock it

Scares the sh*t of everyone around
For they feel like a car is coming 100 MPH to hit them :twisted:
 
^this^...this is genius. Have a series of loud sounds available. Screetching tire sound, maybe a "bleep" sound like a policeman is sending short warning blast, a V8 revving, etc...
 
ebent said:
12v because I have a lot of it. Not super loud. Needed to alert car traffic. Anybody have one they like?
1985 Ford LTD car horn, dual. Works great.

Slightly on the large side for a bicycle but if you have the space, and your DC-DC or battery can supply the amps for it, it is exactly what drivers of cars and trucks are already listening for and trained to respond to.

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I have been using a back up alarm. It works on 12 volts to 60 volt with low current draw. It is small and easy to mount with a push button for turning it on. With most walkers on shared paths ues headphones I found that a LOUD horn is needed most times. I bought from Princess Auto in Canada for about 20 bucks
 

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Thanks for the ideas. The eBay link gives me what I want. Thanks again.
 
I've had three horns over the years: air horn with shrill sound, 9v battery horn with shrill sound, and a LoudBicycle horn with a car horn sound.

A key aspect is how much the horn sounds like a car horn -- the more it is, the quicker drivers react.
I've had drivers not react at all to the 9v shrill horn.
The LoudHorn is my current horn and it is the most car-like (112 dB high-low tone).
I've not had to use it in an attempt to stop a raging automobile.

Another key aspect is how close the horn button is to your thumb in your most common hand positions.
If the button is not under your thumb when you are in a true panic stop, that horn might as well be on the moon.
I'm setting up two buttons on my road bike. One button for hands on the hoods, another button for on the drops.
 
Hey everyone - I'm Jonathan the guy who founded Loud Bicycle still a very new product, just got horns in stock in spring. There is a bit of science behind the car-horn sound which I discuss a bit on the blog here:
http://loudbicycle.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-car-horn-on-your-bike-will-make-your.html.
Those extra seconds of reaction time you get can make a huge difference.

Someone mentioned screeching tires - that is right up there with car horns for quick reaction times -but unfortunately it is a bit more difficult to produce a screeching tire sound without actually screeching real tires.

I'm setting up two buttons on my road bike
SubRider: very cool you plan to set it up with two buttons - would you like me to send you an extra one you can splice in or do you already have a button in mind.

Though on my road bike I have it set up with one button that I can access from both positions:
horn_button_drop_bars.jpg

horn_button_road_bars.jpg


Very glad to take any questions here - and I'm new here on endless-sphere so kindly tell me if I'm doing OK with my post here.
 
I have experience with the AirZound horn, having used one for commuting on my ebike over a year or two.

I removed it from the bike some time ago.

It is impressively loud, but it is not accessible enough to use early enough to help with accident avoidance. There is no easy way to remote the control and put it where you need it. The button is on top of the clumsy plastic horn. It is a great tool to express how you feel after a near miss, but that's not really what we need.

If you have 12V available, get a Fiamm Freeway Blaster and use that. They have low and high tone, if you really want to get both notes, even one will sound car-like and is quite loud.
 
Alan B said:
I have used a skidding rear tire as an alarm, perhaps we need to make an electronic version and build MP3 horns.

I've thought about this myself. Anything that is an actual horn itself, tends to be large and bulky. Some of the little shrill alarms are very small and very loud. One of the obvious variations would be to record the sound of the horns and play it back from a small amplified speaker @ 100db. Since I can't find anything as simple as that, I can only assume that there is a flaw in my logic. So what would a portable device have to look like that could play back the sound of a dual-tone horn very loud?
 
The difficulty is finding a small transducer that can handle the power level without too much distortion, and then the next problem is an amplifier at that power level, which can be done with FETs. But we need high power midrange speaker. Those don't tend to be small or light. There are ways to generate sound in air with ultrasonics, perhaps there is a solution there.
 
Hello again Jonathan,

You and I positioned the LoudBicycle horn button in the same place on our road bikes.
(Great minds think alike -- so do idiots.)

Of course, the rear brake hood has two advantages over the front brake hood: for the right hand, and leaves unimpeded operation of the primary, front brake.

A single button mounted there is good for hitting the horn and the brake when your hand is on the hood,
but hitting both is more difficult when your hand is on the drop.

Mounting the horn button will be much easier on my current project: an electric SWB 'bent.

I'll contact you directly about the second button.
 
Alan B said:
The difficulty is finding a small transducer that can handle the power level without too much distortion, and then the next problem is an amplifier at that power level, which can be done with FETs. But we need high power midrange speaker. Those don't tend to be small or light. There are ways to generate sound in air with ultrasonics, perhaps there is a solution there.

Thanks...I figured both of those might be a problem otherwise it was too simple of a solution and someone would produced it by now.
 
One thing that can be done is reducing the weight significantly by using new materials. So - rare earth magnets and aluminum/carbon fiber instead of heavy cobalt magnets and stell/iron. There hasn't been much innovation in the horn space. Right now I'm just trying to get a few products out with existing car-horn components but once things are rolling then next logical step is to try and innovate there.

As an FYI - our next product is going to be a smaller and lighter horn (1/2 pound) that sound more like a compact car and costs $199. What do you folks think about that price?
 
Great to see innovation.

Always will be some customers willing and able to pay a higher price point. The question becomes how many.

If it is small, light, and will run on 12-100 VDC at $199? Maybe. Pretty stiff price. This is an ebike forum, and I don't need another battery to manage, I've already got a huge 30-75V battery on my bikes. Ebikes are a fast growing market, and one that appreciates a good horn more than the average cyclist. Also a market that is a bit less crazy about weight.
 
jonathanl said:
As an FYI - our next product is going to be a smaller and lighter horn (1/2 pound) that sound more like a compact car and costs $199. What do you folks think about that price?
I think I'll stick with a pair of car horns. ;)
 
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