Beware of loud bicycle – don’t mess with the Hornster

Alright, here’s something off the beaten track to wind down the Monday with, and it has all to do with a bicycle, one that can, quite literally, deafen you.

Over in the UK, a bike called the Hornster has been launched. This isn’t an everyday garden variety two-wheeler, even if it does look like one. Riding on the handlebars is the spectacular weapon, a triple air horn that’s good for 178 dB at full chirp.

If you don’t have a grasp of how decibels work and how loud 178 dB is, well, let’s just say that an F-14 Tomcat take off (with re-heat) measures in around 130 dB, and when Concorde used to be flying about, its landings used to tip the scales at a mere 119 dB.

The horn is an Airchime KH3A from an American locomotive, which has been adapted to run off a scuba diving cylinder, which is the other visual giveaway that the Hornster is no ordinary bike (a bit hard to hide that one, really!).

The darn horn is so powerful that at a distance of 30 metres it is far louder than a standard truck horn. The reason for the er, loud message is simple enough – over 50% of cyclists’ fatalities that happen in London are now due to collisions with lorries, and the Hornster aims to highlight the dangers cyclists face on city roads.

Developed by the Environmental Transport Association (ETA), the two-wheeler is the brainchild of Yannick Read, whose previous work includes the flamethrower-equipped BOND bike. Not cheap, mind you, at around RM24,600 when you convert it, but as a shock weapon for scaring the living daylights out of someone, it sounds spectacular.

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