loud bell

[Ben]

I've noticed recently that pedestrians walking along the cycleway don't
hear my bell, even at close range, although they invariably hear the
(much quieter) sound of barely-gripping rubber as I brake hard to come
to a stop behind them. One of them even helpfully commented "where's
your bell?". It is, in point of fact, one of those small ones with a
little flicky rubber hammer thing that goes 'dink'. Can anyone recommend
a louder bell? I don't really like the huge old fashioned type that
spring back slowly, but if they're loud enough then I'll consider them.
Similarly, I'm a bit wary of horns as they may not say 'cyclist' to
pedestrians, but if its loud enough then I'll consider it!

 

[Tony Raven]

Ben wrote on 15/06/2007 19:29 +0100:
> I've noticed recently that pedestrians walking along the cycleway don't
> hear my bell, even at close range, although they invariably hear the
> (much quieter) sound of barely-gripping rubber as I brake hard to come
> to a stop behind them. One of them even helpfully commented "where's
> your bell?". It is, in point of fact, one of those small ones with a
> little flicky rubber hammer thing that goes 'dink'. Can anyone recommend
> a louder bell? I don't really like the huge old fashioned type that
> spring back slowly, but if they're loud enough then I'll consider them.
> Similarly, I'm a bit wary of horns as they may not say 'cyclist' to
> pedestrians, but if its loud enough then I'll consider it!

IME you could have Big Ben mounted on your handlebars and they still
wouldn't hear it. I find a human noise like a cough works much better.
The number of times I've rung a bell several times and then when I
was getting close give a cough only to see them jump and then apologise
that they wondered what that noise was......

--
Tony

"The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there
is no good evidence either way."
- Bertrand Russell

 

[Any Driver]

My Air Zound was a sound investment. Clears rabbits, pheasants, cats and dogs out the way.
Unfortunately no pedestrians one my normal rides around the countryside.

Regards

A Driver
www.elitetaxi.co.uk


On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 19:29:40 +0100, Ben <[email protected]> wrote:

>I've noticed recently that pedestrians walking along the cycleway don't
>hear my bell, even at close range, although they invariably hear the
>(much quieter) sound of barely-gripping rubber as I brake hard to come
>to a stop behind them. One of them even helpfully commented "where's
>your bell?". It is, in point of fact, one of those small ones with a
>little flicky rubber hammer thing that goes 'dink'. Can anyone recommend
>a louder bell? I don't really like the huge old fashioned type that
>spring back slowly, but if they're loud enough then I'll consider them.
>Similarly, I'm a bit wary of horns as they may not say 'cyclist' to
>pedestrians, but if its loud enough then I'll consider it!

 

[Niall Wallace]

"Any Driver" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> My Air Zound was a sound investment. Clears rabbits, pheasants, cats and
> dogs out the way.
> Unfortunately no pedestrians one my normal rides around the countryside.
>
> Regards
>
> A Driver
> www.elitetaxi.co.uk
>

Never heard what an Airzound sounds like, Automotive air horns are good for
sending inattentive pedestrians skywards.

As Tony has said a human noise works a lot better, I find that "Excuse me
please" works ~90% better than a bell, having never seen a bell make any
different to a pedestrians path, and only had about 4 pedestrians fail to
respond to "excuse me please". (Sample for bell is much lower than voice.)

Niall

 

[Phil Cook]

Niall Wallace wrote:

>"Any Driver" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> My Air Zound was a sound investment. Clears rabbits, pheasants, cats and
>> dogs out the way.
>> Unfortunately no pedestrians one my normal rides around the countryside.

>Never heard what an Airzound sounds like, Automotive air horns are good for
>sending inattentive pedestrians skywards.
>
>As Tony has said a human noise works a lot better, I find that "Excuse me
>please" works ~90% better than a bell, having never seen a bell make any
>different to a pedestrians path, and only had about 4 pedestrians fail to
>respond to "excuse me please". (Sample for bell is much lower than voice.)

I found a good loud shout of "WATCH!!!" worked this evening. A
pedestrian was wandering across the busy junction between Victoria
Strret and Vauxhall Bridge Road seemingly in a world of her own. I
was clattering along at a fair lick and couldn't take the risk of her
not hearing me. She jumped about a foot! Fortunately in a vertical
direction.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

 

[squeaker]

On Jun 15, 9:08 pm, "Niall Wallace" <[email protected]>
wrote:
>
> Never heard what an Airzound sounds like, Automotive air horns are good for
> sending inattentive pedestrians skywards.

"Loud" (but can be middling, if desired).

 

[Roger Burton West]

Niall Wallace wrote:

>As Tony has said a human noise works a lot better, I find that "Excuse me
>please" works ~90% better than a bell,

Thirded. The only exception I've found is going under towpath bridges,
where you need something that'll carry as far as the cyclist coming
round the other side of the blind corner.

R

 

[Roger Merriman]

Tony Raven <[email protected]> wrote:

> Ben wrote on 15/06/2007 19:29 +0100:
> > I've noticed recently that pedestrians walking along the cycleway don't
> > hear my bell, even at close range, although they invariably hear the
> > (much quieter) sound of barely-gripping rubber as I brake hard to come
> > to a stop behind them. One of them even helpfully commented "where's
> > your bell?". It is, in point of fact, one of those small ones with a
> > little flicky rubber hammer thing that goes 'dink'. Can anyone recommend
> > a louder bell? I don't really like the huge old fashioned type that
> > spring back slowly, but if they're loud enough then I'll consider them.
> > Similarly, I'm a bit wary of horns as they may not say 'cyclist' to
> > pedestrians, but if its loud enough then I'll consider it!
>
> IME you could have Big Ben mounted on your handlebars and they still
> wouldn't hear it. I find a human noise like a cough works much better.
> The number of times I've rung a bell several times and then when I
> was getting close give a cough only to see them jump and then apologise
> that they wondered what that noise was......

the few times i've rolled around on the mountain bike which has mud
tires so not quiet at all, ie landie like. so mud tires will get you
though all sorts of stuff, though being heavy, and "intresting" on hard
stuff makes them less than ideal for urban riding.

roger

 

[LSMike]

On Jun 15, 8:36 pm, Any Driver <[email protected]> wrote:
> My Air Zound was a sound investment. Clears rabbits, pheasants, cats and dogs out the way.
> Unfortunately no pedestrians one my normal rides around the countryside.
>
> Regards
>
> A Driverwww.elitetaxi.co.uk
>

I would suggest an AirZound is serious overkill to use on pedestrians,
except in emergency. They are very loud so that IMO is rude and
unpleasant. A pleasant "Good morning" or whatever seems to work very
well for me, and doesn't come across all get-out-of-my-way like a bell
can.

OTOH, I have a pimped up airzound now mounted in my recumbent. I
lengthened the pipe, and mounted the bottle in the tailfairing. Oh,
and not the original bottle any more, but a 2L coke bottle.

 

[The other view point, there is one you know...]

On 15 Jun, 22:21, Phil Cook <[email protected]> wrote:
> Niall Wallace wrote:
> >"Any Driver" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> >news:[email protected]...
> >> My Air Zound was a sound investment. Clears rabbits, pheasants, cats and
> >> dogs out the way.
> >> Unfortunately no pedestrians one my normal rides around the countryside.
> >Never heard what an Airzound sounds like, Automotive air horns are good for
> >sending inattentive pedestrians skywards.
>
> >As Tony has said a human noise works a lot better, I find that "Excuse me
> >please" works ~90% better than a bell, having never seen a bell make any
> >different to a pedestrians path, and only had about 4 pedestrians fail to
> >respond to "excuse me please". (Sample for bell is much lower than voice.)
>
> I found a good loud shout of "WATCH!!!" worked this evening. A
> pedestrian was wandering across the busy junction between Victoria
> Strret and Vauxhall Bridge Road seemingly in a world of her own. I
> was clattering along at a fair lick and couldn't take the risk of her
> not hearing me. She jumped about a foot! Fortunately in a vertical
> direction.
> --
> Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

So you were riding faster than the situation allowed?

You have to make allowances for other users you know... ;-)

 

[Ekul Namsob]

Niall Wallace <[email protected]> wrote:

> "Any Driver" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > My Air Zound was a sound investment. Clears rabbits, pheasants, cats and
> > dogs out the way.
> > Unfortunately no pedestrians one my normal rides around the countryside.

> Never heard what an Airzound sounds like, Automotive air horns are good for
> sending inattentive pedestrians skywards.
>
> As Tony has said a human noise works a lot better, I find that "Excuse me
> please" works ~90% better than a bell, having never seen a bell make any
> different to a pedestrians path, and only had about 4 pedestrians fail to
> respond to "excuse me please". (Sample for bell is much lower than voice.)

I find a hearty 'Morning!' does the trick.

At certain times of day, 'Evening!' is quite effective too.

And when going up the wrong sort of hill, 'Help!'.

Then again, most of the roads I use are quite pedestrian free.

Cheers,
Luke


--
Red Rose Ramblings, the diary of an Essex boy in
exile in Lancashire <http://www.shrimper.org.uk>

 

[Phil Cook]

The other view point, there is one you know... wrote:

>On 15 Jun, 22:21, Phil Cook <[email protected]> wrote:

>> I found a good loud shout of "WATCH!!!" worked this evening. A
>> pedestrian was wandering across the busy junction between Victoria
>> Strret and Vauxhall Bridge Road seemingly in a world of her own.

>So you were riding faster than the situation allowed?
>
>You have to make allowances for other users you know... ;-)

The hard part is balancing the possibility of a pedestrian wandering
into the road and a car zooming up behind you. :-\
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

 

[Danny Colyer]

Tony Raven wrote:
> IME you could have Big Ben mounted on your handlebars and they still
> wouldn't hear it. I find a human noise like a cough works much better.
> The number of times I've rung a bell several times and then when I
> was getting close give a cough only to see them jump and then apologise
> that they wondered what that noise was......

I occasionally used to have that problem when I used a traditional bell.
I would never dream of using a ping bell, they're just a waste of
handlebar space. For the last 6 years I've been using a nice loud bell
that looks much like this one:
<http://www.bonthronebikes.co.uk/391-16416-11>

Since I've been using this bell, it's been very rare for peds to fail to
hear it. The only peds who don't hear it tend to be groups of teenagers
oblivious to the outside world, and after multiple rings I feel no guilt
about using my AirZound on them. In fact, groups of teenagers seem to
quite enjoy being AirZounded.

I'd still prefer a dring dring bell to a ding dong bell, and I do have a
nice loud dring dring bell, but I haven't worked out a way to mount it
on the Street Machine where it would be as easy to ring as the ding dong
bell.

--
Danny Colyer <URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/>
Reply address is valid, but that on my website is checked more often
"Daddy, put that down. Daddy, put that down. Daddy, put that down.
Daddy, why did you put that down?" - Charlie Colyer, age 2

 

[Tom Cumming]

On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 12:03:09 +0100, Danny Colyer wrote:

> Tony Raven wrote:
>> IME you could have Big Ben mounted on your handlebars and they still
>> wouldn't hear it. I find a human noise like a cough works much better.
>> The number of times I've rung a bell several times and then when I
>> was getting close give a cough only to see them jump and then apologise
>> that they wondered what that noise was......
>
> I occasionally used to have that problem when I used a traditional bell.
> I would never dream of using a ping bell, they're just a waste of
> handlebar space. For the last 6 years I've been using a nice loud bell
> that looks much like this one:
> <http://www.bonthronebikes.co.uk/391-16416-11>

I've got a Halfords cheapo squeezy horn that makes a loud but quite
comical noise that works quite well without being too rude. (Fans of "I'm
sorry I haven't a clue" are referred to the quote "and when you hear this
sound <honk>, this means either a sentence has been reached, or one of
the teams has been run over by a vintage car.)

However, IMX noise most associated as "bike" by pedestrians is that of
the squeaky brake, so sometimes I will deliberately pull the brake
suddenly to induce a squeak, knowing I'll probably have to brake anyway,
even if not as sharply.

 

[Tony Raven]

Danny Colyer wrote on 16/06/2007 12:03 +0100:
>
> Since I've been using this bell, it's been very rare for peds to fail to
> hear it. The only peds who don't hear it tend to be groups of teenagers
> oblivious to the outside world, and after multiple rings I feel no guilt
> about using my AirZound on them. In fact, groups of teenagers seem to
> quite enjoy being AirZounded.
>

Perhaps we need a Mosquito AirZound so us old fogeys can blast teenagers
out of the way in blissful silence.

The last time I used a bell like yours on a ped stepping into the road,
they tried to answer their phone!


--
Tony

"The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there
is no good evidence either way."
- Bertrand Russell

 

[Ben]

LSMike wrote:
> I would suggest an AirZound is serious overkill to use on pedestrians,
> except in emergency. They are very loud so that IMO is rude and
> unpleasant. A pleasant "Good morning" or whatever seems to work very
> well for me, and doesn't come across all get-out-of-my-way like a bell
> can.

The problem with shouting at them is that by the time they've heard,
turned round and stepped out of the way, I've reached them and had to
come to a near-stop anyway. My aim is to be heard (and identified as a
cyclist) in plenty of time so I don't have to slow down.

I used to think bells were a bit 'get out of my way' and never used (or
even owned) one, but when I used to commute to work (about a 10 mile
round trip almost exclusively along off-road cycle routes - lovely)
local dog owners made it clear to me in no uncertain terms that a bell
would be very much appreciated, so I got one and always gave them a
courtesy ring as I approached, which they did indeed appreciate. A
couple of people have made the same sorts of comments recently, despite
me sitting behind them dinging the thing like crazy, so clearly they
just can't hear it. I'm a bit wary that a horn might be taken as being a
bit pushy (or not identified as a cyclist) but if audible warning is
what they want...

 

[the.Mark]

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> OTOH, I have a pimped up airzound now mounted in my recumbent. I
> lengthened the pipe, and mounted the bottle in the tailfairing. Oh,
> and not the original bottle any more, but a 2L coke bottle.
>
>
I need to change my airzound bottle as it has a hole in it. Does
the air last longer using the 2L bottle?
--
Cheers
the.Mark

 

[Tony Raven]

Ben wrote on 16/06/2007 13:49 +0100:
>
> The problem with shouting at them is that by the time they've heard,
> turned round and stepped out of the way, I've reached them and had to
> come to a near-stop anyway. My aim is to be heard (and identified as a
> cyclist) in plenty of time so I don't have to slow down.
>

Well prepare to slow down then. You would not appreciate a car driver
bearing down on you, horn blaring and expecting you to get out of their
way so why should you expect it from pedestrians?

--
Tony

"The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there
is no good evidence either way."
- Bertrand Russell

 

[Graeme Dods]

Like others have said, your voice is one of the best warnings. I
normally call out "excuse me" followed by an "on your left/right" if
they seem particularly dopey. At the moment though I'm suffering from
a bit of laryngitis and on my brief ride to the DIY store this
afternoon I tried to call out "excuse me" and failed, so resorted to a
gentle cough. Said gentle cough turned into a real lung busting, eye
popping unstoppable explosion. It certainly got the dog walkers'
attention, but I think I might fit a bell until my throat's
better*.

Graeme

* they're a legal requirement over here but mine keeps getting knocked
off in the shed, honest officer.

 

[fred2]

"Ben" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I've noticed recently that pedestrians walking along the cycleway don't
> hear my bell, even at close range, although they invariably hear the (much
> quieter) sound of barely-gripping rubber as I brake hard to come to a stop
> behind them. One of them even helpfully commented "where's your bell?". It
> is, in point of fact, one of those small ones with a little flicky rubber
> hammer thing that goes 'dink'. Can anyone recommend a louder bell? I don't
> really like the huge old fashioned type that spring back slowly, but if
> they're loud enough then I'll consider them. Similarly, I'm a bit wary of
> horns as they may not say 'cyclist' to pedestrians, but if its loud enough
> then I'll consider it!

A bell of any description is a no win situation!
1.) You ring it gently - you get ignored
2.) You don't ring it - and make some noise ( changing gear or cough or
polite remark, you will be asked why you haven't got a bell!)
3.) You slow down and ring your bell and they jump out of their skin and
you end up apologising .
4.) You end up gently following someone lost in their thoughts, until they
notice you and you will be accused of nearly having giving them a heart
attack
5.) you ring your bell and it is ignored, you wait for a suitable
opportunity to pass and then you overhear "They really shouldn't be allowed
on the path without a bell!"
6.) If you use a loud bell, you are told to "slow down!"

Personally, I found just saying "ring-ring" or "Ding Dong" followed by a
gentle "dink" on the bell after passing, quite effective.
Fred