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TO BE HEARD… ESPECIALLY FROM CARS AND TRUCKS
All bikes are equipped with a bell as standard (legal minimum), experience shows that it is hardly audible to pedestrians. As for motorists, they do not perceive a decibel.
It is therefore totally useless.
However, making oneself heard is necessary for everyone's safety.
In order to be heard by pedestrians and cyclists, we opted for a real bell with a clear, high-pitched timbre… unfortunately found only by chance during a hike to a shop in Germany.
And to be heard from motor vehicles we opted for the only real horn and even VERY loud (115dB !!!) : AIRZOUND 3 (Canadian product)
This device consists of:
- a very compact mini-trompe which integrates the compressed air filling valve and the control lever.
- a compressed air tank (the size of a water canister) connected to the horn by a thin, long hose.
To enforce your rights of way, without risking your life, especially in roundabouts, this buzzer is absolutely irreplaceable.
HORNIT 140 dB
At the end of 2010 the "HORNIT 140 dB" became ubiquitous on the market for bicycle horns.
In 2019, when we bought our 2 EABs, our bike shop gave them to us as a gift. So we were able to test them for several weeks.
The advertising videos are very well made, and praise a great product that makes cars, buses, trucks stop in case of danger.
The real use in the field is quite different. We have noticed :
- The frequency emitted is in very high treble which is not really audible enough.
- There are two modes, one with uniform sound, the other with variable sound:
- The uniform mode is not effective at all.
- The variable mode sounds like a small burglar alarm, so people don't pay any attention at all to this alarm, they probably think it comes from a car broken into by a thief in the vicinity and so they don't care about this sound call which (they think) doesn't concern them.
- In short, the 140 decibels announced are totally overrated and are not effective.
The technical reality is that, for the human hearing, a sound at 115 dB in the low frequencies (AIRZOUND) is infinitely more powerful and perceptible than a sound at 140 dB in the high frequencies.
With the HORNIT no one has ever been startled or crushed in our use. It was rather indolent indifference. Whereas with our AIRZOUNDs, cars and even lorries pound instantly. Not to mention the pedestrians who are almost in cardiac arrest under the assaults of these 115 dB.
CONCLUSION :
We used these HORNITs for a month… then we made this gift to our bike shop useless!