When we were kids, you may have had a honky-horn with a bulb on the end, perhaps you had bells with gears that strike multiple times as they unwind like one of those self-propelled matchbox cars. Maybe you unscrew your bell halfway so the cracks on the trail ring it as you weave through a crowd of other trail users. Or maybe you ride a folding bike through the airport with a little electric horn. Perhaps you’re the best kind of DIY redneck and have fitted a literal tugboat horn to a bike trailor so you can scare the bejeezus out of a coalroller after they dump a load of black smoke on you.
Whatever it is, I want to know about it and why you chose it.
With everyone using those god damn earpods now, I think you could literally have an air horn attached to your bike, and they still wouldn’t hear it. I just have a little plastic bell attached to my bike, and I have about a 20% success rate with it. It always gives me pause when someone acts startled, and shocked, yet I’ve rang my bell 4 times, and my 108 tooth hub freewheeling is literally roaring like a swarm of bees. Yet it’s naturally my fault I’ve startled them.
Once I heard a kind verbal “toot toot!” from some toddlers riding past their teeny tiny bikes
I just use my lungs. I’m loud from my time in the army so shouting has always worked.
ON YOUR LEFT, MAGGOTS!
When I was a kid, it was playing card rubberbanded to my chainstay so I could pretend I was riding a motorcycle from the noise
Nowadays, I prefer to just let out wolf whistle. Pierces even the best noise cancelling headphones and busiest traffic noise.
Air horn because it works against cars.
Air 'zounds is great. https://citruscycles.ca/airzound-cycle-bike-horn
That’s nice and it’s cheap but how about A 150db impact horn that can be heard over 1.5 miles away
Yes please, this one for the cars and the twinkly sounding glockenspiel bells for the peds.
Crane Suzu. Looks and sounds nice, reasonably loud, affordable.
I’ve got a little Knog bike bell. You press it once and it lets out a “ding” once. I’ll press it two or three times if I see someone wearing headphones who won’t hear the “On your LEFT” as I come up on them.
Bonus, I can put my thumb on the bell real easy and it shuts up.
It was cheap, does the job, and is really small.
I never thought I would be able to like a damn bike bell as much as I like the Knog Oi.
Airzound - lighter than a metal bell, 120dB of pure terror. Works against cars. Crane E-Ne for everything else.
I use a small and simple bell, mainly because of the size.
Very reasonably sized. This looks like the exact bell that came on one of my two bikes. It works, the sound is okay, though I find the bell binds with the mounting sometimes and muffles the ring.
I like the horns that go “awoooga.”
playing music publicly works and probably the only time it’s not annoying.
I’m not going to step to the side of the trail because I think I hear music nearby.
What if Ludacris is very politely asking you to Move?
Well, my ringtone is the 90’s x-men cartoon theme, and it’s by far my favorite one ever. Does that count?
