Friday, June 22, 2018

For Whom the Bell Dings

On the noisy streets, a bicycle bell is just about useless. An air horn and a flamethrower would be good. But on multi-use paths a bicycle bell is apparently an important social convention.

I have ridden sections of the local trail for years, announcing myself to pedestrians simply by speaking to them, or with the routine noises of tires on crushed stone. At my job, I hate being summoned by a bell. It seems so peremptory and condescending. You ring for the servants. You don't ring for a respected professional or craftsperson. I thought people might prefer the human touch. Funny that: I'm not very fond of talking to strangers. And I'm not trying to strike up a  conversation when I make a human sound to warn them of my presence.

The response was almost always faintly or overtly hostile.

So I finally got a bell. I don't like little dingy bells, or cheesy, staccato ringers. Even the one I settled on was ultimately just good enough. I'd prefer something with a deep enough tone that it is more felt than heard, but it would probably have to be made of bronze and weigh a thousand pounds. That's the gong I want at home, too. I want some enormous temple gong that groans out an earth-trembling tone that makes the villagers in the next valley lift their heads.

On the bike, I have something that goes "ding!"


Of Lezyne's offerings, this one had the lowest tone. The least highest, I should say. And it sustains fairly nicely, though not as nicely as the one a customer came in with last week. He said he needed it to ride on a path in Canada, where they are required equipment. His bell had no brand markings at all. Its tone was higher than I want, but it sustains forever. It launched me on the hunt for something with a deeper voice, and similar duration. And by the way, it needs to fit on my already crowded handlebar.

The Lezyne attaches with elastic bands, so I can transfer it from bike to bike easily. As shown here, it is riding on top of a Planet Bike Beamer that I use as a front blinky and supplemental short-range light. It'll do for now.

On the first evening commute with it, I came up behind two people. When I got close enough to figure I could ring and pass in a smooth, concise maneuver, I gave it a ding. The pedestrians leaped aside and stood almost at attention. No dirty looks. No snide or snarly comments. Wow.

A little further out, on a causeway with water on either side, I had the opportunity to ding again. The walkers practically threw themselves into the lake, again without visible irritation.

Talk about conditioning. Ding! Leap! The results have been roughly the same on each ride since the first.

Oncoming pedestrians still look like they consider me a nuisance and an affront. I have not yet tried dinging at them to see if it transforms them abruptly into obedient robots. I don't want power to corrupt me.

5 comments:

  1. I like bells. I would prefer to be overtaken by another cyclist using a bell rather than the usual "on yer left" right in my ear. I usually ting my bell at what I imagine to be the limits of hearing, then repeat until I see some change in behavior.

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  2. Anonymous2:42 PM

    The Crane Ritan Japanese brass bell gets my vote, 2 on my existing bikes, ageing beautifully, one awaiting my surly ogre build. The dring dring seems to attract more attention and tone and the length of sustain cannot be beaten. More conventional brass strap so less swapping between bikes.

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  3. Thank you both for ringing in! I may start sampling more bells.

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  4. My favorite bell was a big old-dtyle monster that I first had on my last roadster bike. It was a big hit at the DC Tweed Ride. Then I got them for a couple of the other machines. The sound was great, and plenty loud, but they were the size of soup bowls and weighed a couple of pounds, or so it seemed. I sold them with the machines they were on when I reduced the fleet a few years ago. Currently I'm using smaller versions of the same basic design that sound almost the same and weigh a lot less. I've had some of those little ding-y bells but they tended to be too tricky to ring (thus often missing the opportunity to use them) and weren't very loud. Once on one of my early trike rides, when I had one of these little bells on it, I passed a jogger and rang the bell beforehand. Later on I was crawling up a hill and got passed by the same jogger, who said "ding!" as he went by.

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  5. Mike C6:31 PM

    I have a Sögreni somewhere. I haven't seen it in a few years (buried in a box somewhere in the basement, I think) but I remember liking its tone quite a bit: http://www.sogreni.dk/

    Like many things Danish, it is pretty and expensive.

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