Hmm, lately using the bell is causing a lot of problems for me but it wasn't always like this but lately I see more and more like this:
Me JRA.. Oh look a hiker.
50 ft behind: ring-ding
20 ft: ring ding ding ding "on your left"
10 ft: ding ding ding! "Coming up behind you on your left!"
5 ft: dingding dingdingdingding!! "Right behind you!"
1 ft: I'm either passing off trail or stopping until they move out of the way. The hiker with the earbuds is giving me a perplexed look.
I swear this happens like every fifth time out on the trail. Just happened again yesterday riding with a buddy of mine. That time we both were yelling on your left and I had the bell going.
At the same time, the bell sometimes garners a rude response that "I'm gonna need to tell them where I'm going if I want them to move over" (yes, actual response after I rang my bell when a dad and son were two abreast, far enough apart on a section of trail almost wide enough for a car to where you couldn't pass them, when they could have just single filed up... I swear it's like every day I'm more flabbergasted than the last of how not in tune with their surroundings trail users have become. Just put these people in virtual reality full time already!
This whole thing is why I'm getting into gravel riding. No hikers or walkers on those lonely dirt roads.