The Hornster is loud, really loud, its horn maxing out at 178 decibels. That’s roughly equivalent to a transport truck horn. Lodged between the rider’s knees on this custom frame is a scuba tank rigged to a Locomotive Airchime KH3A triple air horn. Designed by Yannick Read of the UK’s Environmental Transport Association, this bike promises to give volume to the dangers that cyclists face while riding. The Hornster is for sale now for £4,995 (roughly $8000) if it’s got your wallet screaming. Check it out at ETA’s website.

Click ‘more’ for images of the Hornster…

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How low can you go?

If you’re a fan of SlamThatStem.com, probably not low enough.

The brain child of Ian Schon, an engineering student, and Ryan Kelly of slamthatstem.com, the Slam That Stem headset bearing cover drops the top of your headset down to just 0.075″ (1.9mm) for that low, sporting look while saving a few grams, too.

” We had been talking about how to get that look,” said Schon. “We’d seen so many user submissions of top caps that had been grinded down or pros just running the stems directly on the bearings, which isn’t very good for longevity.

“We both race Cannondale CAAD 10′s and thought it would be fun to make something for ourselves and friends. It’s made for that bike and the SuperSix EVO and newer CAAD8 in particular, but it’ll fit any bike that has a 1.85″ top cap.

“I know they’ll work on some Specialized and Cervelo bikes with a few of FSA’s micro shims underneath the dust cap. We’re working on making them for a few other models of bikes, too.”

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When I took a first look at the first generation Optrix HD last month, I was stoked on the low cost alternative to the GoPro. Today, the product looks completely different from the product I reviewed. During the intervening models they’ve managed to address many small flaws and vastly improve an awesome niche product.

If you’re currently in the market for a point of view action camera, you should definitely give the Optrix HD a look.

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via There, I Fixed It:

*not* a good use of Vise Grips. or a trolley wheel. or a bicycle.

DM3 founder Dimitri Robin, who we’ve covered before with his carbon fiber and steel F69 26/29er single legged rigid fork, just sent word that he’s offering custom carbon fiber and metal creations and anodizations.

Above, a carbon bash guard for Rotor cranks. Below, a metal chainring guard for a handcycle and custom purple anodization of Hope’s disc brake caliper. Yep, purple…

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GloBars were conceived by Mitchell Silva, an industrial designer from Boston, MA. Stripping a section of metal from the front of a traditional drop bar, he installed plastic tubing containing approximately 40 high efficiency LED bulbs. A momentary actuator button on the back of the bars activates the system. The whole setup is powered with a watch battery. Though some structural integrity was sacrificed by removing a section of bar, Silva has some plans for the future to make these rigid and stable and perhaps even more awesome.

Click more for additional images and Silva’s plans for future prototypes…

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This bamboo and carbon fiber fat bike was built by Drew Diller as a hobby project inspired by the folks at Boo and Bamboo Bike Studio.

The frame uses the same type of bamboo as those companies, Dendrocalamus strictus” or “iron bamboo”, which Diller says is quite strong and surprisingly crash resistant. The carbon wrap is what he calls “garage quality” that comes on a spool of carbon fiber strands that’s wrapped around the joints. Diller says he’s looking for something stiffer and to learn to use more high-tech construction methods.

To get the Lefty fork to hold the fat tires, he ordered 17.5mm offset custom clamps from Mendon Cyclesmith and built the front wheel up with Large Marge rims and a standard Lefty hub. The rim offset is flip-flopped front to back to keep the tire from rubbing.

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Design Logic Bikes’ new Da Bomb motorized cargo bike was, in its original incarnation, raced in the Spooky Tooth Cycles Arizona Death Race 2010 by founder Lance Portnoff. He finished 9th.

Since then, he’s shorted the wheelbase and beefed up the frame to create Da Trail, doubling his catalog.

Da Bomb is the extended model designed around a Staton gear box and rear hub (shown) and can be pedaled or run via small 4-stroke engines from Subaru or Honda. Da Trail is built with e-bike conversions in mind, with space for battery packs and the appropriate motor.

The frames are TIG welded 4130 chromoly and, with the gas motor, can reach 30mph while getting a claimed 150mpg. They’re designed and built in Philadelphia, PA. Frames are $995 and fit a rider from about 5’5″ to 6’4″ tall. A complete Da Bomb with bits from Thomson, Chris King, Hayes, DT Swiss and Shimano comes in at $3,500 including the Subaru EHO 35cc engine and Staton gearbox.

Tucked away in Insjön, Sweden, is a little company called Experimental Prototype that’s making the kind of things that we love to geek out about. Things like a 63g custom ratio 11-23 road bike cassette with eight of ten cogs made from carbon fiber!

For just €300 and about 6-8 weeks of breathless anticipation you can get one of your very own in any gear range and combo you want. Need more? They specialize in making pretty much anything you want. By hand. Usually from carbon fiber or titanium from the looks of things. Thinks like replacement Lefty steerer tubes, ti chainrings and cassette cogs and sooooo much more. Take a quick spin through their website for a gallery of lust-worthy hacks and one-off upgrades. And by quick spin, we mean 20+ minutes of your life, gone.

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What started off with a ti Yeti 575 customization has become a full blown titanium upgrade option from French framebuilder Ronnie Calvet and his company, Skyde.

Shown here is the latest version mated to an Engine Labs 120mm rear end, which is an updated version of the NRS design used on older Giant mountain bikes. The new front end replaces the alloy triangle with cold worked, double butted 3/2.5 titanium. All machined parts are 6/4 ti, and it’s made to exactly imitate the geometry and even the look of the original in this case.

Skip though for more pics and all the trick details…

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A German modder working with carbon fiber created these amazing ultra-light XO trigger clamps and derailleur. Compared to this custom carbon fiber X0 rear derailleur, the standard 10-speed SRAM model looks downright porky at 203g. Even XX pales in comparison at 181g.

The derailleur weighs 112 grams currently, but creator Alex claims sub 110 grams would not be problematic. He shaves grams by swapping the original spring with titanium, using a custom made carbon fiber upper arm, and a “prototype” lower jockey wheel created out of one-piece laminated/wound fiber. The lower jockey wheel will (obviously) wear faster than a normal milled one, but he claims that because the fibers weren’t severed, this will take a long time.

UPDATE: Here’s the link, hope you Sprechen Sie Deutsch.

A future sale is planned in a limited release with more details to follow once the jockey wheel designs are finalized. Sign us up.

Make the jump for lots of photos…

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Yes, please! Found on Black Cat Bones’ blog, this little project looks sick. We’ve contacted them for more info but just couldn’t wait to post this.

UPDATE: Just talked to Gerard Piedra, one of the owners of BCB. Here’s what he had to say:

“This was an exercise for us. We wanted to explore the Shimano Di2 system, but the original thesis goes way deeper. This is just the tip of the iceberg. We have developed a complete electronic mountain bike system, including the shifters and derailleurs.

“We are now working on producing more prototypes. Black Cat Bone is a small company. All of us work in other things to fund what we’re doing, and the situation right now is we are trying to find a partner to help get the machines necessary to make more prototypes.”

While we’re waiting on this to become real, check out their single legged carbon fiber fork, used on the Crumpton 29er prototype in Fair Wheel Bikes’ Interbike booth.