Airzound - best safety thing I ever bought

jibberish

I bought myself an airzound around a year ago. I kept meaning to post something to say that this thing is the best thing I've bought for my bike. I commute through central london to work every week day and the bell on my bike did nothing to warn lorries.

Anyhow - I don't work for these people - but I thought I'd share this

You can buy them in a number of places.

They're seriously, seriously loud and you can recharge them with a bike pump

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/del ... n-ec009169

Jib

suzyb

I got told off by a rambler a couple of weeks ago for not having a bell. I stupidly thought slowing down to snails pace and saying "excuse me" would be more polite.

Wonder what she would say to one of those :twisted:

jibberish

Hahah - yeah - they scare the sh*t out of pedestrians

lost_in_thought

I honestly think these are pretty ASBO-worthy.

What's more, a bell makes people think 'aha, a bicycle', and look for one, whereas one of these makes people think 'aha, a pillock'.

And scaring pedestrians rarely makes them behave rationally.

Zombie_donkey

Would be handy for Joggers with iPods though.

jibberish

@lost_in_thought

True - but some pedestrians honestly look straight through me or don't look at all. And when you're cycling along and a truck hasn't seen you a bell does nothing at all. I was only being flippant about scaring pedestrians ;-)

@Zombie_donkey

Very true...again a bell does nothing

barry_kellett99

They are fantastic
I have used one loads when commuting but only ever use it to bring my presence to the attention of people who are trying to kill me without realising it or just after a close call so the idiot who almost flattened will look in his mirror and see me "waving" at him

itsbruce

Oh, way too noisy. Fit one of these instead.

NGale

really must put my bell back on my commuting bike, may actually help with ferral pedestraians on the cycle paths around Exeter

_Brun_

Consider some cycle training, it's probably a better long term investment.

jibberish

??? training is better than having a bell or horn ???

I've been cycling through central london for the last 4 years.....what training do you suggest? Will it make crazy truck / taxi drivers who are looking the wrong way or texting whilst driving see me?

rich_e

I bought an Airzound last summer, used it about a couple of weeks before I took it off.

It is LOUD!

One afternoon, I was crossing over Oxford Street into Soho when there were about a million shoppers ambling across the street while I had a green light. I'm sure anyone who has crossed Oxford Street knows how busy it is and how few pedestrians actually look.

I was traveling at a fair pace and didn't want to have to stop; it's usual practice by motorists on the road to beep their horn to warn pedestrians as they come towards it,so I figured I would fire off the Airzound as I approached. Must have been about at least 100 people who all suddenly turned to look at me! The reaction was anything from petrified, to really confused as to why a loud noise like that had come from a bike, to at least a couple who said something like "Get a bell!".

I felt a bit embarrassed and as annoying as the pedestrians were, I wouldn't want to use it like that again, as even though its your right, you feel like a total knob for doing so.

Finally, I found that in an situation where I really needed to use the Airzound to alert somebody or in anger when somebody does something stupid, I found I was too busy trying to avoid getting knocked off and reacting for my brakes than reaching for the horn. If you bare in mind how this differs from a car where you control it with your feet so can still use the horn.

So in the end, it just became a way of honking in annoyance at somebody after they had already done something stupid and were driving away.

That's pretty much why I decided it was a waste carrying it on my bike in the end.

W1

_Brun_ wrote:

Consider some cycle training, it's probably a better long term investment.

Do you not have a bell on your bike? Nor a voice to shout at idiots doing stupid things?

I have one of these, it's a life saver in London. Many a potential left hook etc has been averted by a decent blast of 120db. Most people will ignore a bike bell (if they hear it at all), but not this!

dondare

After 30 years of cycling in London I honestly cannot see how a loud horn would be of any use to me at all.

I rather agree with LiT on this one.

asprilla

I'd like one because sounding it next to someone who has cut me up or beeped at me when I catch them up in traffic would be much more fun and surprising than sign language.

It's also exactly what I needed the other day; going up the cycle lane from Kingston to Hampton court past the usual slow moving traffic and I see a bloke on the phone. In a convertable. It's left hand drive. An air horn would have been so much fun.

marcusjb

_Brun_ wrote:

Consider some cycle training, it's probably a better long term investment.

Training and experience make a huge difference. I've been riding in London for three years now (after about fifteen years of not riding anywhere) and I still cringe at some of the near-misses and scrapes I got myself into when I first started.

I have found I have developed a sixth sense for knowing what driver X or Y is about to do and don't think that an Airzound would really help - not with cars and certainly not with pedestrians. It's weird - you just seem to learn what to look out for (be it the mobile phone, looking around lots for the road/shop they are looking for, the person in a parked car about to open the door, buses being predictably bad etc.)

Pedestrians are, of course, very hard to predict, but I have found the best tool in alerting them to my presence is my voice. I'll use my bell most of the time, but if the situation demands it, I'll just shout "watch out" or whatever and that usually stops them in their tracks (I can shout pretty loud if needed!). There's usually no misunderstanding about where the noise is coming from, which I would expect that the Airzound does have a problem with - people just don't expect that sort of noise to come from a bike.

With cars, again I am not sure it would help - if someone is pulling in on you and you blow the Airzound, a driver is not going to be looking for a bike as the source of that sound and will probably not deviate from their path - far better to take avoiding action (move across or slow down) - best to live to ride another day.

The only other road user that the Airzound might help with is possibly the worst, least predictable of the lot - a cyclist - but even then, experience has taught me who give a wide berth (the wobbly chap who nevers looks over their shoulder before pulling out etc.).

I'm not saying that experience counts for everything, but in most cases you do just learn how to predict people's actions. Sure, there will be the time when it all happens so fast, so unpredictable, but no amount of noise is going to help you out there.

lost_in_thought

W1 wrote:

_Brun_ wrote:

Consider some cycle training, it's probably a better long term investment.

Do you not have a bell on your bike? Nor a voice to shout at idiots doing stupid things?

I have one of these, it's a life saver in London. Many a potential left hook etc has been averted by a decent blast of 120db. Most people will ignore a bike bell (if they hear it at all), but not this!

I don't have a bell, mostly because I ride on the hoods all the time and haven't worked out how to mount one within easy reach yet. I like the old-school ringy ones, rather than the ting-ting ones.

I am equipped with a voice, fortunately, but I very rarely find myself needing to shout, and when I do it's usually just 'excuse me please'.

I can't think of a single situation where I've thought 'I wish I had a 120db horn', and the one accident I've had in London wouldn't have been prevented by same. Also, people don't expect that noise from a bicycle, so they're still not looking for you.

What's more, most car horns are between 70 and 110db. I don't know why you'd ever need something louder than that.

marcusjb

lost_in_thought wrote:

I don't have a bell, mostly because I ride on the hoods all the time and haven't worked out how to mount one within easy reach yet. I like the old-school ringy ones, rather than the ting-ting ones

Not a ringy one - but my girlfriend has one of these on her brake hoods - works pretty well.

Mirrcycle

lost_in_thought

marcusjb wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

I don't have a bell, mostly because I ride on the hoods all the time and haven't worked out how to mount one within easy reach yet. I like the old-school ringy ones, rather than the ting-ting ones

Not a ringy one - but my girlfriend has one of these on her brake hoods - works pretty well.

Mirrcycle[/url]

Will it work on cheapo tektro brake-only hoods? Or do they have to be STIs? It wasn't very clear from the instructions which bit it attaches to... :oops:

marcusjb

lost_in_thought wrote:

Will it work on cheapo tektro brake-only hoods? Or do they have to be STIs? It wasn't very clear from the instructions which bit it attaches to... :oops:

I think STI only - it's quite a specific mount under the hoods of STI levers (it's the bit that the rubber hooks onto) - don't know if it would work on Shimano brake only levers though (still doesn't help you sorry!).

Pretty cool little thing though.

Sewinman

I saw a bloke with a whistle in his mouth the other day. Any remote incovenience to him and he would be whistling away.

Air horns are the kind of things that make people dislike cyclists IMHO. Anti-social in London.

londonbairn

you want one of these

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gSsMYjQVnY

rich_e

I bought a GoPro HD Hero a few weeks back.
Maybe I should put the AirZound back on and fire it off near Oxford Street again just to show you how bad it is!

jibberish

Voice and Airzound aren't mutually exclusive - you can still speak to pedestrians / joggers etc. The thing has properly saved me a couple of times when I've had drivers pulling into the cycle lane without looking....

For all the people who think that cars "aren't looking out for a bike with a horn" - get one and use it and you'll see that's simply not true.

I'm surprised this has turned into such a contentious issue....thought I'd just mention the thing coz it genuinely has saved me a couple of times.

It's a very polarised spectrum of people on this forum.

Ho hum....I'm glad I've got one of these and you can give me an asbo for it if you want - but I only use it when I have to....and there are times I believe it's saved my life.

BSRU

My lights are the best safety thing I have ever bought.

I have an Airzound, for motor vehicles and a bell for non music player
wearing pedestrians.

W1

jibberish wrote:

Voice and Airzound aren't mutually exclusive - you can still speak to pedestrians / joggers etc. The thing has properly saved me a couple of times when I've had drivers pulling into the cycle lane without looking....

For all the people who think that cars "aren't looking out for a bike with a horn" - get one and use it and you'll see that's simply not true.

I'm surprised this has turned into such a contentious issue....thought I'd just mention the thing coz it genuinely has saved me a couple of times.

It's a very polarised spectrum of people on this forum.

Ho hum....I'm glad I've got one of these and you can give me an asbo for it if you want - but I only use it when I have to....and there are times I believe it's saved my life.

Precisely. But apparently that's a "bad thing" that it makes us safer.

I think it's better that a driver doesn't think the noise is coming from a bike - rather a lorry! It certainly makes them move back over a lot quicker than a bell (inaudible in a car, so useless) or a voice (could be anything). An air horn is very truck-like and cars act accordingly.

I use mine regularly not to avoid accidents but to avoid the potential for an accident, when my spidey sense tells me someone is about to do something stupid.

Do you all have the same objections to cars having horns? It's to warn other road users of your presense, which (on a bike) can be life-saving.

As for saying it makes people hate cyclists - rubbish. Running red lights and pavement hopping are the main issues for the Daily Mail brigade. I've never heard anyone complain about an air horn on a bit, that's absurd. In fact, if it saves a driver from having their car damaged or a ped from being knocked over, I'm sure they'd rather they were used than not.

cee

W1 wrote:

I use mine regularly not to avoid accidents but to avoid the potential for an accident, when my spidey sense tells me someone is about to do something stupid.

I used to have spidey senses....like yours they told me when someone was about to do something stupid...

I had to turn them off in the end...the constant tingling made me need to wee.

SamWise1972

I don't have a bell on most of my bikes, and it seems like every time I'm going round the gyratory thing at Aldwych, and want to turn onto Drury Lane, there are a whole bunch of idiot peds who either look and interpret my hand signal as "hello, bally nice day", or just don't look at all. If I didn't shout at them, it'd be like skittles. They all seem so astonished to see me!

Anyway, an AirZound I can imagine being a lifesaver maybe once ever 2 years (not a literal life saver, I've cycled a lot longer than that), but after a week of not using it, I'd forget to charge it, and it's just one more piece of hassley eqpt which I don't want to deal with at 5 am.

Sewinman

SamWise1972 wrote:

I don't have a bell on most of my bikes, and it seems like every time I'm going round the gyratory thing at Aldwych, and want to turn onto Drury Lane, there are a whole bunch of idiot peds who either look and interpret my hand signal as "hello, bally nice day", or just don't look at all. If I didn't shout at them, it'd be like skittles. They all seem so astonished to see me!

Anyway, an AirZound I can imagine being a lifesaver maybe once ever 2 years (not a literal life saver, I've cycled a lot longer than that), but after a week of not using it, I'd forget to charge it, and it's just one more piece of hassley eqpt which I don't want to deal with at 5 am.

That is kind of unsuprising though as the cycle path goes over a very busy pavement.

Edit - sorry, I thought you meant the path into Wellington Street.

SamWise1972

Yeah, if I went straight on from the bridge, it would be totally understandable.

gabriel959

I suppose the thing could have its uses in certain places. I agree with others that is a bit ASBO like, in fact there is a guy where I work who had one and he was nicknamed "Mr ASBO" by colleagues!!!!