I have just had the Hornit db 140 land on my desk. As the name might suggest, the Hornit db 140 emits 140 decibels. I have to be honest; I haven’t tested it for fear of going deaf!
I just want to put 140db into perspective:
A normal conversation is around 60db, while your average car horn is something like 110db. The strange thing about decibels (db) is the higher up the scale you go, the more intense a sound gets – so a sound 10 times more powerful than near 0db is 10db. However, 20db is actually 100 times more intense than 10db.
If you could stand near a jet engine at take-off, you would be experiencing 120db. To hear 140db you are going to have to hear a gunshot at close range. Any sound over 85db can cause hearing damage.
The Hornit is safe due to its directional sound emitter… just don’t hit the button while you’re on the wrong end of it.
Cautions aside, I can’t think of any better way of making cars aware of your presence. As you can see in the following video, people don’t always see you, but with a Hornit strapped to your bars, they certainly will hear you. It’s even rumoured the mayor of London, Boris Johnson uses the Hornit for cycling around the city; and we can’t blame him.
