I was 10 the last time I had a bell on my bike. Just put this one on my Trek roadie-commuter this weekend and ringing it makes me smile every time. Good times...

yeah bells are great
i still need to get one for my fixed bike...maybe one of those little incredibells or something

Bells make riding on a multi-use path much easier. I ride on the road most of the time, and a bell doesn't help a lot there... but when I do ride on a MUP I've found that it's much more effective than yelling. Pedestrians strolling along a MUP have no idea what "ON YOUR LEFT!" means, but they know a bicycle bell when they hear one. There is also something just more polite and charming about dinging a bell instead of yelling at people to get out of your way

Does it go ding dong?

My new Trek came with a cheesey little thing where you pull the little clapper back and let go for a single !ding!!.

What I really want is one of those aerosol can boat horns !!!!BLATTTT!!!

Mine has one of those as well, me and the wife mostly use them to jokingly let each other know where we are when riding.

I put two bells on one of my bikes...a brrrrriiiiinnngggg and a ding-dong.

It's funny on group rides...

I never thought I would say a bell is bling, but that is one sweet looking bell.

I have one of those really loud airhorns on my commuter. Its ugly but it serves a purpose. I'll probably put a bell on my singlespeed pleasant weather commuter.

I also thought it was a pretty sharp-looking bell given the selection I had to choose from. It has a nice "bbbrrriiinnngggg" to it. They had Incredibell's as well but I didn't like how they worked nor how they sounded... "ding." I didn't see anything "incredible" about it...

Ped's really do have no idea about "on your left." I ride a MUP to the pool where I go swimming 2-3 times/week and I always have to announce my approach by yelling. Can't wait to ring the bell instead!

I prefer jingly bells over single dingers... Cateye's Microbell is my favourite and it seems to engender warmer feelings from pedestrians and other cyclists than does an Incredibell.

I think a jingling bicycle bell is something we all associate with childhood.

The incredible thing about the Incredibell is that they are amazingly tough and rather unobtrusive... I have used the same one on my mtb for ages and it has been beaten, crashed, and is missing a lot of paint.

It still works like it is new.

I commute on some rather busy streets. Old bike had a squeeze bulb oogah horn. Was louder than a bell, but there were times I wish I had the air horn.

Don't bike come standard with a bell there ? They do here (Netherlands).

It's a legal requirement to be allowed on the road, along with reflectors (red rear, yellow on the pedals, white rim reflectors on the tyres).

BTW, I noticed yesterday my bell doesn't bell anymore. Having to ask/yell to fellow cyclists to make way isn't very nice, hard thing to make yourself understood without sounding like a b@st@rd. Thanks for the reminder, I'm going to fix it rightaway.

Edited for language: b@st@rd is on the list of no-no words ?!

And 2 minutes later the problem is solved. That's why I love bicycles. Needed to slightly re-bend the arm that hits the bell. With a car it takes more time to just open the hood.

Yep. I like my bell.
Ernest

I'd rather have a fog horn. Now that would get attention.

Ding dong the wicked witch is dead!

Netherlands is different. Most bikes sold there are sold as actual real transportation. Most North American bikes are sold as toys that end up rusting in the shed after the "kid" takes them for a spin a couple of times and then loses interest.

I doubt that side reflectors do much. Anyway, in many places in North America a bell is a legal requirement as well, but a lot of cyclists don't have it, and aren't even aware they're supposed to have one. It's not a huge deal, after all, and isn't often enforced.

I have a bell - it does come in handy. Just yesterday morning this ******bag wouldn't step back out of the way no matter how much I rang it (he was standing in an intersection, I had a green light) ... apparently he thought me and my bell should go into traffic blindly to avoid his lordly presence... he had another thing coming (bam !)

I used to have one of those cheesy goose honk horns with the rubber squeeze bulb but it was hard to mount and I kept banging into it with various parts of my anatomy, so that was the end of that...

I don't think that there is a legal requrement that bikes have bells and reflectors. All bike shops here have put reflectors on new bikes for years, but I think it is more a product liability thing than it is a law. Putting those cheap little single dingers on is new, but I suspect the motivation is the same.

I *strongly* disagree with you there. A few years ago on a dark and rainy night as I was driving my car a girl on bike crossed the street I was riding on. She had no light on. The *only* thing I saw of her was the 2 reflecting strips around her wheels as she entered my car lights and then disappeared again. It was a close call, by the time I saw her it was too late to react and then she had disappeared into the darkness again.

Needless to say I felt a slight adrenaline rush for a while.

Over here rim reflectors (printed on the tyre, following the circumference of the wheel) have been obligatory since '85 or so. At the time I strongly opposed that law (ALL bikes had to be retrofitted with such reflectors) but I've changed my mind over the years.

Not to take this thread any more off-topic (apologies to the original poster), but I think these two pictures show the difference very clearly:




First picture shows the bike as I got it (hadn't been used for years, non-reflector tyres had rotted away).
2nd picture shows it with new tyres. The difference is striking and makes using reflector-tyres a no-brainer, IMHO, even if you have to look around for them (over here the bike shops don't stock the non-reflector tyres)

I'll be the first to admit that reflectors are not a panacea and definitely not a substitute for a headlight and taillight, but they certainly help to increase visibility when viewed from the side.

There is in NY - I believe it goes by state, so ymmv.

This is rarely enforced, of course

OMG! It was a She Bike-Ninja!!