I read that "training is needed" before your voice can replace a horn. Why might this be? In a discussion about very-loud bicycle horns, alex wrote that he uses his voice.  He added that it works well and is always ready to use.

And then he added:

"And, yes, training is needed."

If I need to alert a car to my presence, I generally might yell "C'mon" so loud that my throat hurts for a few minutes afterwards.

This seems to work fine.  I don't think I ever needed any special training to learn how to do this.

What might Alex have meant when he wrote that training is needed?
The word "c'mon" is a bad choice for an alert word, because you close your mouth to form the M and the C is a back-of-mouth sound that you can't say loudly.  The N sound is a nasal sound, so the volume there is through your nose.

So the only loud part of this word is "---OOOOOnnn"  

If your alert phrase was "Come on!"  then it would be better than "c'mon", but the word of volume is some variation on HEY or HOI or OI


Punchier words with a more defined start - so its an imperative sound
Your windtube is simply pushing air without having to make limiting consonant sounds.
It doesn't really matter how your mouth is, you can make this sound with your tongue anywhere
Doesn't matter how dry your mouth is either - you're essentially just a straight horn pushing air.




More so in the road position than an upright, but that there is your lungs, windtube, and mouth while riding.  Not pictured is your diaphragm muscle, which is the hand squeezing the bulb.

If you ever get a chance to play with a sound meter, try it out and see if you find a better word/noise for pure volume.