Make Your Own Vintage Bike Buzzer
It's prime bike trail weather right now! Have you ever been on a busy bike trail where a simple "On your left" or "Coming through" is not quite enough to alert headphone wearing, walkers, talkers, and "jazzercisers" of your presence?
Well a couple of weeks ago I was remembering bikes that had shiny, cool looking (and loud) electric buzzers on their handlebars. Next thing you know I noticed one at a swap sale (pictured above)...but they wanted $30 just for the buzzer!...the seller claimed that he's seen just the button go for $15....too rich for me, so I passed on the sale. When I got back to "the internets" I found that I may have missed out on a bargain...many similar vintage buzzers are being sold on ebay for upwards of $40!
This Instructable resulted because I decided now was a perfect time to try to "make one myself!" (and hopefully wake up some walkers!)
Video:
Make sure you click on the video on this page to hear what it sounds like!
(P.S. This Instructable submitted by the Rabbit-Hole Maker Space as part of the Instructables Sponsorship Program.)
Materials Needed to Make a Bike Buzzer:
- 1 12V DC buzzer $.75 cents from my favorite surplus store (they have buckets of these things)
- 1 momentary pushbutton $1.50 - easy to find
- 20" twisted pair wire - had some spare trailer wire laying around, worked perfectly for this (especially for Packer Fans :-()
- 9V battery (I tested the buzzer and it worked great at 9V)
- 9V battery holder
- Electrical Tape
Materials needed to make it a Vintage Bike Buzzer:
- 1 Chrome Ray-O-Vac flashlight - $2 - Found at a swap sale, the perfect look... some of these are still available new. Nicely fit the buzzer exactly!
- 1 top of a 2 liter pop/soda bottle
- 3 zip ties.
- 1 Universal Velcro flashlight handlebar holder - $4 (or more zip ties) - already had one of these
Tools needed:
x-acto knife
drill (for hole in the flashlight and bottle top)
soldering iron (optional)
Well a couple of weeks ago I was remembering bikes that had shiny, cool looking (and loud) electric buzzers on their handlebars. Next thing you know I noticed one at a swap sale (pictured above)...but they wanted $30 just for the buzzer!...the seller claimed that he's seen just the button go for $15....too rich for me, so I passed on the sale. When I got back to "the internets" I found that I may have missed out on a bargain...many similar vintage buzzers are being sold on ebay for upwards of $40!
This Instructable resulted because I decided now was a perfect time to try to "make one myself!" (and hopefully wake up some walkers!)
Video:
Make sure you click on the video on this page to hear what it sounds like!
(P.S. This Instructable submitted by the Rabbit-Hole Maker Space as part of the Instructables Sponsorship Program.)
Materials Needed to Make a Bike Buzzer:
- 1 12V DC buzzer $.75 cents from my favorite surplus store (they have buckets of these things)
- 1 momentary pushbutton $1.50 - easy to find
- 20" twisted pair wire - had some spare trailer wire laying around, worked perfectly for this (especially for Packer Fans :-()
- 9V battery (I tested the buzzer and it worked great at 9V)
- 9V battery holder
- Electrical Tape
Materials needed to make it a Vintage Bike Buzzer:
- 1 Chrome Ray-O-Vac flashlight - $2 - Found at a swap sale, the perfect look... some of these are still available new. Nicely fit the buzzer exactly!
- 1 top of a 2 liter pop/soda bottle
- 3 zip ties.
- 1 Universal Velcro flashlight handlebar holder - $4 (or more zip ties) - already had one of these
Tools needed:
x-acto knife
drill (for hole in the flashlight and bottle top)
soldering iron (optional)
Downloads
Let's Get Started
Test the Circuit - I started by testing the circuit...it's about as simple as a circuit can get, but since the buzzer was from a surplus store and marked as "12V DC buzzer", I wanted to see if I really needed 12V or not...I soldered the buzzer to some wire and tried a 9V power supply and yes it worked great!
Assemble the Button - You can see below that I already used an X-acto knife to chop the top off of a 2 liter bottle. I also drilled a hole in the bottle cap the correct size for the momentary button. The bottle top and cap seemed to replicate the look of the vintage button pretty well. Originally thought I would paint it silver but decided black was ok.
Assemble the Button - You can see below that I already used an X-acto knife to chop the top off of a 2 liter bottle. I also drilled a hole in the bottle cap the correct size for the momentary button. The bottle top and cap seemed to replicate the look of the vintage button pretty well. Originally thought I would paint it silver but decided black was ok.
Assemble and Then Let's Get Riding!
Assemble:
- drill a small hole in the bottom end of the flashlight and fish the green and yellow trailer wire through it.
- keep some spare wire in case you want to mount the buzzer on a different bike, I wrapped the extra around the 9V
- the buzzer fits perfectly in the flashlight, so just screw the top of the flashlight on after it.
- I decided to use zip ties instead of the velcro for mounting the buzzer
Sounds Great! Let's Ride!
- What a fun sounding horn/buzzer, just like I remember as a kid!,
- I'm going to watch how this setup works as I try it out this summer. I may go back to the velcro for the flashlight but I also may mount the zip ties underneath the flashlight so they are not visible...may even move to hose clamps. Alternatively I may go to a smaller but less vintage-look container if I find the Ray-O-Vac is too bulky
Thank you for checking out this instructable! - Good luck on all your projects!
- drill a small hole in the bottom end of the flashlight and fish the green and yellow trailer wire through it.
- keep some spare wire in case you want to mount the buzzer on a different bike, I wrapped the extra around the 9V
- the buzzer fits perfectly in the flashlight, so just screw the top of the flashlight on after it.
- I decided to use zip ties instead of the velcro for mounting the buzzer
Sounds Great! Let's Ride!
- What a fun sounding horn/buzzer, just like I remember as a kid!,
- I'm going to watch how this setup works as I try it out this summer. I may go back to the velcro for the flashlight but I also may mount the zip ties underneath the flashlight so they are not visible...may even move to hose clamps. Alternatively I may go to a smaller but less vintage-look container if I find the Ray-O-Vac is too bulky
Thank you for checking out this instructable! - Good luck on all your projects!