Then you need to ring it sooner. I ring mine about 100 feet back and start coasting. Unless they have earphones in, they hear it, look back, and move over. I give a friendly "Hello" when I pass and get back up to speed.

Mine used to ring when going over bumps but I adjusted the position of the spring and now it never rings by itself.

+1

I do the same with my Airzound. From that distance, it isn't obnoxiously loud, but if they don't react, I can keep giving short honks until they notice. I have on more than one occasion used it full blast as I went past an iZombie. I still don't think most of them heard me, but they jumped a bit as I went by anyway.

my experience with bells is uniformly positive. Not sure how people experience such dud effects, i sense a reporting bias against bell use.


if people think ringing a bell, yelling, or using an airzound means you've got the expectation of clear sailing around pedestrians on the MUPs, you're doing something wrong. Bikes are not preferred users on MUPS, that resides in most places with the pedestrians.

if pedestrians on the MUP are that much of a problem you think you have to pack a marine horn to navigate, get off of the effin MUP and stop terrorizing your fellow citizens.

I'll also give the thumbs up to AirZound horns. Just today a woman to my right went straight through a right turn only lane in order to get in front of me. I was through the intersection, had already signaled and was moving right already and she knew that she was in the wrong. I honked at her, she totally flipped out and accelerated hard. She was dead set on not letting me catch her at stop signs cause she blew 4 of them without stopping (I actually slowed and checked for traffic at each one then sprinted hard afterwards). I finally lost her when she was going a direction I wasn't.

I would have loved to get her reason for almost killing my daughter and I by going straight through a marked right turn only lane.

Wait. so the use of the AirZound simply freaked out the driver and caused them to execute the dangerous pass, just in a more aggressive manner? Hardly sounds like it worked, more like the use of the airzound exacerbated the situation.

i suspect there's a fair bit of ill-will directed at people that use airzounds, both on the road and on the MUP.

I like how my little bell sounds, so I use it. Frequently. Some pedestrians and cyclists respond to it, others don't, but I ask you this: would you rather be ignored shouting every ten or fifteen seconds or be ignored ringing your cheerful bell?

No the driver was already along side me when I laid on the airzound. At that point they weren't any more dangerous by accelerating as they would have been by slowing. I suppose they could have swerved but that's rare.

Since there's limited space with which to change lanes and turn right (the lane ends at a T without any stop sign) I'd say it's safer to have them go forward or move backwards.

Having talked with a few people about getting honked at, I believe that cars provide bicycles more respect when they have the ability to honk at them. It's like suddenly you become a real vehicle.

This is a good point. A guy I ride with loves his bell, and rings it all the time for any reason. At other riders, pedestrians, while passing, opposing, etc. It always seems to get a smile, and I confess I quite enjoy the dinging as well. Why, I couldn't tell you.

Maybe the choice of bell is important. My choice was a dinosaur-shaped squeeze toy that didn't seem to get much love.

Ok, I will confess, I sometimes will ring my bell just because it’s there, no reason.

Not all bells are created equal. There are cheap O bells that sound like a toy and then there are nice bells with clear loud ring. If you are going to take up the space on your bike get a nice bell. You don’t have to use it but it will be there if you need it. Be forewarned; if you get a nice bell, you might just ring it sometime, when there is no one around.

In a related note, where do you place your bell?

I added the Crane bell this year and like it. MUP people seem to like hearing it. But I think dogs seem to think the sound is kind of nice and are curious about it. We have lots of dog walkers where I live. Sometimes really little guys and gals will have 2 or 3 dogs leashed, pulling them around and taking lots of room on the path.

I've never had what I would describe as a "negative" reaction to my bell ringing. But I have had a few "non-reaction" results. But who knows, maybe some of those folks were hearing impaired. I think most of the "non-reaction" folks hear the ringing and are aware I'm coming up on them, but just don't (for whatever reason) acknowledge the fact. There are no real "rules" to follow, insofar as bell ringing goes, that I'm aware of. Oh well, since I'm the one on the bike, I believe there is more of the responsibility on me to make a safe pass, the reason for the bell in the first place. Of course this is a shared responsibility (as I see it), but since I'm on the machine, and moving faster than the peds, I'll assume the lions share. YMMV.

People can't or don't hear bells on the MUPs I ride on. I've tried several types, including some of the above that people claim are loud enough. Then again, most of the MUPs I ride on are alongside 45-55 mph roads, so road noise sometimes even drowns out my shouting. I've given up warning about passing for the most part, and just do it safely. It works for cars, why not for bikes?

I agree 100%; the pedestrian has the right of way as far as I am concern.

Bike riding has been an on again and off again hobby for me for the past 45 years. I rode all those years without a bell and I felt as though I didn’t need one. I only put bells on my bikes a couple of months ago because I discovered that my state of South Carolina requires a bell (or sounding device on all bicycles). If they were to rescind the law, I would keep my bell on the bike because I have gotten to where I like the thing.

I have actually only used the bell to warn a pedestrian once. That was last week. I was coming up behind this lady and I rung the bell once. I know she heard me because she moved to the right but she did not look back. When I got closer I said, “Coming by”. She turned around and I thought to myself, “God almighty, it ought to be against the law to be that beautiful”. I am telling you that was one fine looking woman. That was the only time I have used my bell for what it was made for. I have rung it a lot just because I like to hear it.

By the way, I am going to kill that little bug you have running around on the screen, just as soon as I figure out how.

I've actually had a tough time with this. All my bikes have drop bars--and I hate having the bell on the stem. For commuter bikes I've been attaching the bell to the right drop, a bit below the brake lever. If I have thick bar tape, I wrap over the bell's clamp. With thin tape, I attach the bell over the tape. When I am on the hoods (95% of the time, probably) this allows me to easily flick the bell with my thumb. I pretty much never go into the drops on these bikes, so it's not in the way. It looks like this:

That looks cool, but I ride in the drops a fair bit. (I'm wrapping new bars soon, so trying to decide). Currently, I have a lot of crap on my bars and have the bell out near the right hood, but not on the bars. My next setup will be much cleaner. I'd thought about going just above but as close to the lever as possible (like clamp going under the hood, but I'm going to use campagnolo shifters so I'll need to get at the button from both the hoods and drops. I like not having to move my hand to hit the bell, but it might be going on the stem after all.

Interesting. I've found exactly the opposite, and I ride the same trails. Generally, I ping once when I'm a pretty good ways off. If I see any reaction, it's good. No reaction after a couple seconds, ping twice. Still no reaction, ping ping ping ping ping until the person reacts.... Reaction is anything purposeful- a look, a wave, stepping to the right a bit and continuing there, etc.

Quite odd, indeed. Perhaps my expectations are too high. But a "passing on yer left" gets attention most of the time. Maybe the sound of the bell makes a difference in getting someone's attention.

You're plainly doing it wrong.







Somehow.

We'll just need to ride through Trinity park together sometime so I can see how you ring your bell differently!

Ah, that's your problem. Parks are different than trails. The bell works but not nearly as effectively and yeah, calling out may be better.

I have an Incredibell Brass Duet, which naturally does two dings with one push of the thumbie, once on the press and once on the release. I find that it works really well if I press while a ways back, then release when reasonably close. People's brains are very good at inferring speed and distance when given a couple of reference points for the sound, so two dings separated by a half a second or so actually provides much more information to the ped than a single ding does.

Ironically enough, I was on the MUP this morning towing a Weehoo trailer, which makes my rig about twelve feet long in total, and rang my bell while passing a cyclist, who then proceeded to swerve right into me and almost take me out. She then started yelling at me about how I "need to say something" before I pass. Believe she was wearing earbuds.

No matter how polite you are, some dimwit is going to decide you're a jerk.

I think you nailed it. In a busy location it is just part of the background that people tune out.

I might get one of those brass duet bells, I have an incredibell on one bike now, but not that kind. Thanks for the link, Corvuscorvax.