Sarah found this in the J&B catalog and made me order one. For the record, I was dubious. 115 decibels out of a little air horn that you pump up with a floor pump? Well, it totally kicks ass - I'm getting one for my townie (hell, it could be cool for a race bike!) You get 20-30 solid, car-volume blasts before you run out of air, and it only weighs about 4 ounces. Pretty awesome for commuting - you can scare the living crap out of that dude in the SUV who's about to cut you off. Might also be good for getting past someone in a race if you're willing to take the chance that you'll give them a heart attack.
Oh, and for the folks who wonder why I'm not at NAHBS - here's the brief synopsis. If you look online at the photos you see from the show, you'll see a lot of shiny, sparkly, fancy bikes that look like they've never been ridden, and probably haven't. And you'll see a lot of bike geeks walking around looking at bikes and talking about bikes. Both of these things are high on my list of stuff to avoid (believe me, I spend *plenty* of time talking about bikes already, thanks), and given that I have frames to build, and that it costs big money to travel to California, I'd rather save my money and time for something more fun, like, uh, riding. Flashy, fancy and bling are not my thing, in case you haven't noticed, so don't expect to probably *ever* see me at a trade show, whether it's NAHBS, Interbike, or what have you.
I mean, come on - integrated seat masts, on steel bikes? Eccentric rear axles (hey, it sucks even more than an EBB!)? 8 pound carbon fixies? These aren't bikes you ride, these are bikes you build if you have too much time on your hands and want to impress your framebuilder friends. I'm not into that.
I *will*, however, have some of my tools, frames, and maybe a complete bike or two at the CU Bike Bash on March 14th. 10am-3pm, fine arts lawn (between the music building and the student center, just to the north of the big parking structure). Hope to see y'all there!
7 comments:
Walt- Oh, come on.. don't you REALLY wish you built bikes like this:
http://tinyurl.com/2vbbnq
:-)
Walt- Oh, come on.. don't you REALLY wish you built bikes like this:
http://tinyurl.com/2vbbnq
:-)
Whoa. Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm talking about. No offense to Bilenky, it's gorgeous, but I wouldn't want to ride the darn thing for fear of scratching it. And I shudder to think how much time went into doing all the lug work and oddly bent stays and seat tube. Jeez.
Ahhh you coulda at least had some Whiskey with Don at Anvil ;)
Some crazy pictures from that place...
What do you have against eccentric axles?
Like the ENO hub?
Thanks,
Josh
Hey Guttmjo -
Well, the ENO solves a problem that actually exists - how to tension the chain on a bike with vertical dropouts. It's a band-aid, but a useful one. Eccentric axles are a solution in search of a problem. Horizontal dropouts and sliding dropouts (and EBBs, though I hate them) solve the same problem, but allow easy wheel removal, chain tensioning with minimal fuss and minimal extra complication. And they work well with existing components. Eccentric rear dropouts, it seems to me, would have none of these positive attributes.
Order me an air horn. Please? Seriously.
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