Fellow geeks... I'm look'n to make a low-profile sound-maker that'll warn the occasional ped. Ideally, not another gadget on the handlebars - installed elsewhere. Anybody got a suggestion for a light-weight low profile noise maker?

try yelling: On your left!!

If they're facing away from you so they don't see you coming maintain about 15 mph and just as you're about to pass make loud, high pitch, train whistle noises. WOOOOOOOOOOO

Okay, yeah, I don't do this either, might give somebody a heart attack, but it's still funny to think about.

Already got a row of junk on the handle bars...don't want to add more junk there!

The peds seem deaf! ... although when I rode with someone else last week he had a small bell that seemed to work like a champ. I'm thinking something low tech like banging on the bike-rack. But it doesn't have a good ring-tone

- a whistle?
- ties some baloons to your bike and pop em when you approach.
- drop some pennies on your front tire so that the rotation of the tire hurls them at the peds.
- mount a whistle on your handlebars or stem or fork. affix a funnel or cone to the "blowme" part and mount that part forward. the wind from riding will make the thing whistle as you ride. I'll bet you'd get tired of listening to it, but if you chose a decent toned whistle it might be barable. (use a larger cone for slower speeds). Not sure if this will actually work as I've never tried or thought of it before just now.
- fire a cap gun
- hollar "ON YOUR LEFT!" with a kazoo in your mouth
- baseball card in the spokes remember being a kid?

don't take my advice, i don't use any of these methods....except the kazoo one without the kazoo.

Get a bike with disc brakes and bang on the disc with a stick?

I find a bell only partially useful. Some pedestrians get it, some don't. Nothing works better than a really bright headlight at night.

If this is a cow bell, it just might work!

Rip apart a smoke detector for the buzzer. Most only need unregulated DC. I'm picturing a 9V, a normally open push button and a buzzer. It should wake the dead.

More Cowbell

Now that's a great idea. I'm going to have to remember that one.

Not paticullarly thinking peds here, but cars that cut me off.

Screw that. All you need is one of these A 9v battery and a push button momentary switch It's not like you have to rip apart a perfectly good smoke detector

Cool, thanks for the idea guys.

Ah, beat me to it.

The only downside to the smoke detector is now people think you're backing up.

The voice is the best thing for peds. It is the lightest. The cheapest. Takes up no more room on the bars. It is the fastest, you don't have to reach for something, and you don't have to let go of the bars or the brake levers in a panic stop. And can give useful information.

People in cars can actually hear you if they don't have the radio cranked up, and you are close. They normally just ignore you. The deaf peds may not react correctly to loud horns and buzzers, they sometimes don't think it is a bike.

Yell "PASSING" loudly. Keep doing it until they react. Do it early and often.

Keep it simple, many pedestrians have no idea what "On your left means" If they react reasonably to "Passing" then you can give more info like "On your left".

When a car stops to let me go and I say "Thank you" loudly the cars with the windows rolled up give some kind of acknowledgement. If it's something they don't like they don't react, and it "looks" as if they can't hear me.

Why not just get a back up alarm, and have them think a truck is backing up? It might work better.

True, with the newer ones. Find an old school detector and it will have a horn like sound that will make your ears bleed. I managed to find one last night, it sounds like an air horn.

Oh, you could also use a fox40 whistle. Should be loud enough.

I vote for whistle.

Whistle it is. I have my "Official Whistle for Water Safety" from the last boat show. If that isn't geek 'nough they can go fish!

And it doesn't work the Blue Oyster Cow bell will be 2nd choice...it can go right under the bike rack...clang clang!

It may not be important, but in some states a whistle on a bike is illegal. Same for a siren. I have a hard time imagining a cop doing anything about it. ??

I don't like a whistle cause I push pretty hard on my commute and having something blocking air through my mouth sucks (no pun intended).
On the bright side, if the cops pull you over, just eat the whistle.