Top Gear is known the world over for its inimitable style of high-octane car worship, so it is heartening to read in its printed namesake, a magazine with over 1.7m readers in this country alone, a glowing review of the latest bicycles. Of even greater surprise was the special billing received by the Hornster – a bicycle customised to an outrageous extent by us at the Environmental Transport Association (ETA)
Other designs mentioned in the Top Gear review of bicycles include the Audi E-bike and the Prius X Parlee, a working concept bike by Toyota that changes gear by thought control
Train horn power
The Hornster bicycle was developed by the ETA to highlight the dangers that cyclists face on city roads. Trucks are involved in over half of cyclist fatalities that occur in London. The bike is fitted with the horn from a triple air horn of the type fitted to American trains.
The Hornster is so powerful that at a distance of 100ft it is far louder than a standard truck horn and more than noisy enough for a cyclist to make themselves heard above the din of the urban jungle.
A spokesperson for the ETA said: “The same quietness that makes bicycles such a civilised way of getting around makes them vulnerable to inattentive motorists – the Hornster is a wake-up call for drivers who don’t pay attention to bikes.”
0 Comments View now