AirZound Horn

The table has turned!, get your revenge now! Horn those nasty car drivers instead of being horned!!!! How does the AirZound work? The AirZound uses compressed air which you can pump in via your bike pump (Schrader valve – the big one). You pump it up to a recommended 80-100 psi. This is done best via a track pump, though with a bit of effort you should be able to get it fully pumped up with a hand pump. When fully pumped it can emit a very loud warning honk and should you decide to hold it down (or use it a lot) you should get about half a minute before it runs out of air. Unless you misuse it (or have an unfortunate ride) you should have enough pressure to last a reasonable amount of time between charges. A couple short sharp bursts normally does the trick and a few light taps can work well as a warning at junctions.

How does it compare to similar bike horns? The main advantage of using compressed air like this is that you can reuse it. Traditional air horns can only be used once, where as this can be pumped up again and again. The electric ones we have seen weren’t very good and they always run out of battery power when you need them most ( damn Murphy's law! ) . Some people do use electric ones, but these are wired to dynamos. Again, the connections can become loose and dynamos will slow you down a bit and are a little old fashioned.

The other main advantage over a bicycle bell or yelling is that the sound that the AirZound makes is much louder and more comparable to a car or Lorry. This means that when you use it people won’t instantly tune it out as someone in a bicycle, which would happen with a bicycle bell. The disadvantage of yelling is that not only will it start to hurt your voice, but it could come across as aggressive. This may cause other problems if you were to meet a ‘Nutter’ on the road. As well as that drawback, we find that yelling has the habit of making one loose his/her cool and therefore could result in not being entirely focused on cycling safely.

How does the AirZound attach to my bike? Now you’ve seen the AirZound in use, and got an idea of just how loud and useful it can be. The AirZound comes with a quick release clip which you can put on your bike’s handle bars. You can take the AirZound on and off really easily with this attachment. You can then either put the AirZound in a spare drinks bottle holder, or use the Velcro attachment you get and attach it to your bike’s cross bar. This means you can remove it really easily and take it off when you get where ever you are going.

The only problem with the quick release is that it will only fit thinner handlebars. This is fine for most mountain bike, but not so good for road bike. However, a couple of cable ties and you can securely attach it to your handlebars. If you’re attaching it to dropped handlebars you may find you’d prefer it on the drop bar, and the handlebar attachment wouldn’t work there. You can see how to attach the AirZound onto my road bike on our Facebook. Not being able to use the handlebar attachment on all bikes is a slight disadvantage, however, you can easily fit it to any type of bike and this con is out weighed with all of the safety advantages the AirZound has.









Conclusion The AirZound is a great piece of kit and anyone who cycles in busy traffic or during week day commutes really should invest in one! The AirZound helps to keep your cool and can help warn people not do anything dangerous. Also a blast of it after a close overtake makes people aware that they were too close, along with calming your mood so you don’t fume over it for the rest of the ride. It is easy to pump up and you get a decent amount of use from a full pump. You can always refill the air if you have a pump with you or at any petrol station. Though the attachment for your handlebars could be better, it isn’t a major disadvantage.