Attaching Your Squeeze Horn

Attaching your squeeze horn to your bike can be problematic. The attaching brackets I include in your order work well for the 7″ and CAN be used to mount the larger horns, but honestly, the design isn’t right for all horns. The problem is that the horn part of the attaching bracket is designed to go around your horn’s smaller tube, and that joint is probably the weakest link in the horn’s construction. I am working with the manufacturers to design a more elegant bracket, but in the meantime I’ll be posting some of my own experiments.

The setup I have pictured here, while not the nicest to look at, has proven to be very sturdy. It’s a plastic bicycle handle bar clamp from a Dollar store bike light wrapped around the main squeeze horn tube. And a #0 Conduit Hanger (with speed thread, meaning you don’t even need the extra nut shown) from Home Depot, which I painted black.

On another bike I’m using a butterfly nut to attach the clamp to the conduit hanger, which makes it easier to remove as well.

Probably some of you are much handier in the garage than I am. So I look forward to hearing and seeing how you attach your horn to your bike, car, boat or what have you.

 

attaching your squeeze horn
Attaching Your Squeeze Horn

Cleaning Your Squeeze Horn

Partly as an experiment I’ve left one of my squeeze horns on my bike for over a year. We don’t get snow here, but some rain,  lots of fog, and salt air have taken their toll. You’ll also notice numerous dings and a massive dent from an accident that bent the horn in half. Fortunately it bent right back without breaking.

Cleaning my squeeze horn - before.
Before
Cleaning my squeeze horn - before 2.
Before. This is the 16" Covered Bell horn.

 

Cleaning my squeeze horn.
Shake well. Apply a small quantity of Brasso with a clean soft cloth rubbing lightly to loosen badly discolored areas. Let dry and then polish with a dry cloth.
Cleaning my squeeze horn.
Here the Brasso is drying on the horn.

 

Cleaning my squeeze horn.
Starting to polish.

 

Cleaning my squeeze horn.
Polishing.
Cleaning my squeeze horn.
Comparing polished horn to new.
Cleaning my squeeze horn.
Old and new.

 

The lesson here is simple. If you want to keep your squeeze horn shiny, you’ll have to keep it indoors. On the other hand, a year of outdoor use, a little polish, and my squeeze horn looks like an antique and is working just fine.