General Cycling Discussion - Alternative to the Ding Ding bell

Hello

I want to buy a bell for my bike, but not one of the pathetic round ding ding ones. Nor do I want an air horn.

Are there any alternatives out there. Im so fed up of having practically stop for walkers and the likes.


Thanks.

No alternatives.....if you don't want to spook the stupid SOB's

I want to buy a bell for my bike, but not one of the pathetic round ding ding ones.

hi John-Dunn
I have been toying with the idea of using one of those ISD recordable speech chips. (You get them in answerphones etc )With a suitable little battery amplifier you could record say the submarine dive sound ARRRUUUUgggggaa that would certainly shift a few butts.
maybe `Fire in the hole' that should get those lemmings diving for the ground. you can record 100 + sounds and up to 8 minutes on some chips ..mmmmmmmm......:rolleyes:

Why not mount a car stereo on your bike like this guy? Then play 'Crazy Train' REAL Loud and they will move out of your way! http://www.lisp.com.au/~michael/personal/RadioOnBicycle.html

and

Kona sells a small cow bell. It works great to warn others you are approching. The mtb and hiking crowd deal with it much better then the road crowd. The only prob you might find is there is no off. It constantly rings while you are riding and it is not a quiet ring either. It is also a good conversation piece.
Slainte :beer:

Take the time to learn how to whistle really well with your lips.

I can just about stop a train when I whistle.

Drivers can't hear a tinkle bell when their windows are rolled up, but the CAN hear a loud whistle.

I always admired how our elementary school principal Mr. Barret could command attention and respect with his loud authoritative whistle. Learning how to whistle like Mr. Barret has probably served me better than most of the other education I got at that school.

I've got a small "ding" bell, but generally if coming up to walkers flick my brake levers. the clicking makes them turn around.

I bought a bell yesterday! from H*lfords. its very small, and instead of havving the geaered/spinning weights mechanism, it has a little spring striker. a quick flick f the striker and you get a loud clear DING!

I've found that for some reason, peds find a bell unoffensive, but can get shirty at even a polite spoken "excuse me please"

Stew

At the moment, my brakes screach like all hell. I have a bell with which to warn slower moving traffic. I use that first.

If they don't move over, and I am forced to brake, they get a real scream. I can modulate it between loud and heart-stopping.

Not very pleasant, but effective.

Cheers,
Jamie

P.S. I am actually trying to get rid of this problem, since it also drives my riding buddies nuts.

Originally posted by chewa
...generally if coming up to walkers flick my brake levers. the clicking makes them turn around.

I use a combination of this and spinning backwards. The noise the freewheel (whoops, hub - I upgraded!) makes works pretty well around here.

Ellie

Originally posted by jmlee
If they don't move over, and I am forced to brake, they get a real scream. I can modulate it between loud and heart-stopping.


I used to have front brake like that. Like you said, it's effective: people run first and ask questions later. It seems it's exactly the opposite with a normal bell / brake lever clicking / whatever.

Adjusting the brake pad worked in my case. But I kinda miss it...

--J