Since I've finally been able to put a bar-end bell on my bike, it's been a lot easier to let people (peds and cyclists both) know that I'm approaching to pass. One, it's easy to ring, and two, it has a tendency to ding when I go over bumps (which can be annoying when I'm following another cyclist, but I try to let them know that it's ringing on its own, and I'm not trying to pass them.......

....well, today, I was coming in on the MUP, and getting ready to pass a slower cyclist (older woman, no helmet, headphones).

As I was approaching, I rang the bell several times (it's fairly loud). When I was a couple lengths behind, I moved to the opposite lane (dividing line down the middle), and called out "PASSING ON YOUR LEFT" as I rang a couple more times.

...When I pulled along side, the woman, visibly startled, said "WOOOO!" (really, not kidding), and started calling out all sorts of German-accented comments about how she was in the right lane, and shouldn't be passed. I slowed and tried to explain that I started signaling 50 yards before passing, moved into the other lane, called out, etc......but nothing seemed to help, so I just gave up.

I'm chalking it up to the headphones, but what can you do? Next time, I'm tempted to use the AirZound.