Thanks for tuning in today we're going to be reviewing the Hornit db140 bike horn with Garmin
style mount. As cyclists you often have to yell at cars pedestrians or even other cyclists to make
your presence known. Whether you're cursing at the car that cut you off at the intersection or just
letting pedestrians know you're passing on the left, a bike horn can be a much safer alternative
to just your voice.
the Hornit dB140 is the loudest bike horn on the market with a ear piercing 140 db
electric horn that can make sure people and cars know you're there. We have the latest
version here this is the dB140 with the Garmin style mount which gets rid of the more antiquated
Cateye style mount and makes a much more general quarter turn garmin mount instead.
You can see packaging wise very simple you have a little illustration of the horn the world's bike
loudest bike horn printed right on there with
specs and what's in the box written right here and then
a little slide out design with just a little tape holding together. So lets go ahead and take
it out of the box and go over the specs. Retail price on this is only $34.95 so quite affordable.
It's electronic horn and the reason it's the world's loudest is that it has 140 db so it's
definitely very loud. It has two modes so you have the 140 mode for city and then a more
cycle path friendly 121 which is still quite loud.
Very compact design this is a version three so i'm upgrading internal electronics and
then you have this nice garmin quarter turn style mount directly integrated into the base.
It has two AAA batteries which a little bit odd to see these days everything's rechargeable
with either usb or micro usb. You have a remote trigger so that allows you to actually mount this
in the center of your bike and then place the actual trigger closer toward your brake so you
can brake and honk at the same time.
So in terms of what comes in the box you can see here we have the
instruction manual all the way at the bottom
so it helps you with the installation you get two Garmin mounts. These are actually pretty
nice mounts especially compared to a lot of the cheaper ones you get with lower end bike lights.
It has a hinged design and this nice rigid plastic construction
with a single bolt so that makes it a little less easy to steel compared to a quick release
mounts. So you have two of them one for a road bike and then one for
a mountain bike so different diameters.
You get the AAA batteries so you don't actually have to buy them separately.
You get the remote trigger and you can see this plugs directly in it has a nice little tactile
feel and a little rubber strap. It has some
spacers here as well to prevent it from scratching your bike
and then additional little spacers for the mounts.
Then finally you get the bolt and one for each so that's already on there and then this
bolt will go with this mount and of course the horn itself which looks a lot like a bike light.
Now let's take a look at the weight of the db140 so there
are basically three configurations. You can run
it by itself without the included mounts and the trigger which comes out to 82 grams that's with
the batteries installed or you can do a road bike setup which would use the road bike mount so we'll
do that with the one bolt hardware that you need for it. That mount is only 22 grams and then if
you were to look at the smaller diameter mountain biking version with say one of the smaller rubber
mounts that's about 18 so pretty light design even though they're a pretty robust plastic.
Now let's go over the fit and finish of the Hornit dB140 horn. It's actually the third iteration of
this horn and it's been around for a number of years they've actually improved the electronics
with this version and added that Garmin mount. Underneath you can see visually very similar to
the previous models.
Nice streamlined body with the horn facing forward to really propagate the sound.
As far as the body it's all plastic you have Hornit written on here a little rubber bumper
all the way around it and then underneath it. Of course you have the Garmin mount and that's
directly built in and the battery area is right under here with the little screwdriver so you
remove that put the battery in. Its a little weird that it doesn't have rechargeable batteries
as most devices these days do but at least with the AAA batteries
it will slowly get quieter before it dies instead of just suddenly dying.
Now on the back you also have a button so this is the button to change the mode i'll
switch between the piercing 140 db mode down to 120 for city path so you can pick the right one.
It's hard to tell which one you're in until you actually beep it so it would have been nice if
there was an indicator. As far as the control use a little remote mount so this has a rubber
rubber strap design you just attach it anywhere and you can see it's quite long
so you can put this in the middle of your handlebar and then mount this on your hood
next to your brake levers or on a mountain bike you can put it closer toward the edge.
So to use it you simply drop this into the actual bolt hole underneath it and then you can tap this
to activate the horn. Now in terms of the mounts you get two of them which are pretty nice usually
just get one with a bunch of rubber gaskets to compensate and these are actually pretty well
designed they're hinged so the larger one is for a 31.8 millimeter handlebar which is something here
for road bikes hinge design feels really nice with the Garmin mounts directly on there and one bolt.
They don't include any of the tools to install this but you just need a screwdriver
and a little allen key. The Garmin mount is also really nice so you don't even have to use this
you can mount this upside down on your existing out front mounts as Garmin mounts are very
common so you can see it locks into place and very secure. It doesn't really move around so
it's really nice that they've upgraded to this as it let's use a lot of third-party mounts.
Then when you're not using this there's actually a cool feature on the actual mount
you can take the trigger out of the horn so it doesn't accidentally get pressed slide it
in the little hole here to store it so you can simply leave it there so a nice little detail.
Now let's take a listen to what the horn sounds like there's basically two modes
you have a friendly mode and then the 140 db mode and even the friendly mode is 120 decibels so
still quite loud. The toggle switch is on the back and it's not very obvious which one you're in
just a button and it switches between the modes
it would have been nice to have some visual indicator.
So right now i'm not sure which one i'm on so i'll just press the button this is
the low pitched happy or more trail version sounds like a police car like their pa system.
It definitely gets people's attention but definitely not as friendly as a nice little bell
or a little ding from an electronic horn so it would have been nice if the 120 mode was
a little friendlier. If we go in the high 140 mode you can see it sounds like a fire alarm
and it's very confusing it's not a sound you're used to hearing on the road
and we don't really expect cars to know what you're doing but i'll definitely get
their attention and if anything they'll just be confused but at least know you're there
and it's definitely very loud so even as a rider you're going to want to close your ears
and definitely not use this mode too much. Now here to give you a little more real world sound
you can hear a drive-by with the horn the first one is the lower frequency
trail version. Like i said it sounds like more like a police car and then we'll come by again
with the higher pitched version which sounds a lot like a bird chirping from this angle.
Now if you're wondering how the horn compares to an automotive
horn. There's a big difference because it's electronic horn
so compared to the car horn you can see a lot deeper different tone so it's not quite
the same. You definitely need that diaphragm to get that sound that's something we saw with the
Loud Bicycle horn. Now as far as trail riding that 120 mode is pretty helpful even though it sounds
a little bit odd you can see people will turn and look and if you catch someone off guard they will
definitely hear you if you honk at them so it is effective but definitely not as nice as a bell
and can be a little obtrusive if you hold it down too hard so you definitely want to use it lightly.
Now let's go over the pros and cons for the horn. What we like about it is it has a Garmin mount
that means you can use this with a lot of third-party mounts right out of the box.
It also has our remote trigger which makes it really easy to brake and honk at the same time
since you can place them right next to each other. At 140 db and 120 db in the lower mode it's
more than loud enough to attract attention. Some of the negatives for the horn is the fact that
it still uses AAA batteries which is really strange. Most devices these days have rechargeable
batteries built in and the 140 db mode definitely sounds like a fire alarm and
not really a horn sound. It lacks a visual indicator of which mode you're in
so you have to remember which one you're in or test it first.
Taking everything into account would
give the Hornit dB140 an 8.3 out of a 10. It's an affordable and loud horn and now comes with the
very compatible Garmin mount. Thanks for watching this review don't forget to like and subscribe.
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