The $30 Ecoblaster is a rechargeable Air Horn. It is also something I need, and I need right now. But first, let me explain why.
One of the banes of living in a city which attracts as many tourists into such a compact center as sunny Barcelona, Spain, is that the place is often crawling with clueless wanderers who stray not only into the path of pedestrians but also regularly back out in front of cyclists as they stare into their cameras’ LCD screens. Worse, the constant looking up at the beautiful architecture means they never look down and to see the bike-lane markings.
This has led me to develop the anti-social but satisfying sport of guiri-scaring (guiri means foreigner). First, speed toward the sap who has wandered into your path and, at the last minute, hit the bell. The goal is to get them to leap, terrified, out of your way. Bonus points for catching the English, as they always shout out “Sorry!” even though it’s all my fault.
I tried it with a Groucho Marx-style honk-honking horn, but nobody associated the sound with oncoming two-wheeled doom. A bell is a little wussy, though, and this is why the EcoBlast may save me this summer.
The air-horn puts out a teeth-rattling 115dB of honk, and is good for 70 blasts before a recharge is needed. The package includes a pump but any bike-pump or gas-station air-machine will do the trick (careful filling the plastic bottle with this last one, though: I have managed to burst race-bike tires by over-filling due to faulty pressure gauges).
Right now I have no way of knowing how long it will last (the two comments on the product page tell us that “it sucks” and that “my dad […] said that he loves it”), but it’s going to look awesome on my handlebars and scare me some pedestrians real good.
Product page [Things You Never Knew Existed via Oh Gizmo!]
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