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More importantly that bar ends is the comment "Today, you have a higher chance of seeing a bell on a modern mountain bike than a set of bar ends"... If there is

• yarcob 5y ago
  I definitely prefer a bicycle bell to getting yelled at from behind. But you know what would be even nicer? If bikers had the curtesy to slow down a bit when the trail / path is crowded. I also love riding fast. I understand that crowded paths are annoying. But when I see that the path is full of people, I don't start ringing my bell, or hollering "on your left" or "attention" at the people in front of me, I just slow down. There is no curteous way to pass someone with delta V of 15km/h on a narrow path. If I want to ride fast, I pick a time when the paths aren't crowded. I don't understand why everyone wants to race their bikes on multi use paths on a sunny afternoon at 3PM when everyone else is outside too. Try riding eg. Saturday at 7AM and you'll have the world to yourself and you can go as fast as you like.
  • dahart 5y ago
    Most people seem to be curteous already where I ride. There are always a few people giving us all a bad name, but I'm seeing growing awareness of good behavior, and of better signage, at the same time that crowds are increasing. Good to keep in mind that crowds are growing and MTB popularity is growing, because it means that good behavior may be on the rise faster than it seems unless you pay attention to and notice how many people aren't being pushy. That said, I have an always-on bell that rings as I ride over bumps. I like it for multiple reasons - for one bikers hear me coming for a long time, and know that I'm not going agro right behind them. For two, hikers and dog-walkers appreciate hearing it from far away, and often thank me for it.
  • midnightclubbed 5y ago
    The bell I recommended isn't one you ring - it's like a cowbell that rings constantly (while you are moving) and lets people know you are coming before they can see you. Basic trail etiquette. I have nothing against hikers (would be hypocritical as someone who trail-runs) and blasting past people on a crowded path (or at all) is an idiot move. But on a single track trail people can come up on you really quick, 10km/h is a brisk jog so a 15km/h (4m/s) delta V isn't exactly fast. My local trails are way quieter at 3pm (most people are in work and temperatures are still hot) than at 7am (pre-work dog walkers and exercisers). Saturday 7AM is literally the worse time in SoCal - big groups of riders and local running clubs all hit the trails Saturday morning. Guess it is varies by region but no matter the time I'd want to give other trail users the maximum oppertunity to know I was there so we can all be safe. For the record I don't want to ride my bike fast on multi-use paths at any time of the day, not sure why you thought I did. If I ride fast it is on bike focussed routes (accessed via the multi-use trails).
    • tester89 5y ago
      > it's like a cowbell that rings constantly (while you are moving) This is horrific, so much unnecessary noise pollution.
      • GuB-42 5y ago
        Cowbells in a mountain don't seem out of place. As a matter of fact, we need more of them.
      • realbarack 5y ago
        It's really not. These bells aren't that loud, you really only hear them once the cyclist is maybe 50 yards away. It's an incredibly important safety feature on low-visibility singletracks.
        • haspok 5y ago
          I have a loud rear hub instead... mostly works just as fine. But if not, I'm also very patient in passing hikers, once I spent like 10 minutes behind two hikers on a singletrack before they realised I was behind them, because they were discussing something very intensively... but this is fine, in the meantime I can rest a bit, adjust my gear, eat and drink something etc. I always try to smile and thank people for letting me pass by. The only - very few - occasions when this tactic did not work were usually hikers coming in the opposite direction and being actively hostile. There was an angry lady once who refused to move even an inch to the right, so I had to move to her left, which was a large field of nettle... To this day I don't know what her problem was, but this happens sometimes.
  • kybernetyk 5y ago
    > If bikers had the curtesy to slow down a bit when the trail / path is crowded. Where I live we have a wonderful bike/pedestrian path which is heavily frequented whenever there's good weather. The worst offenders are racing bike drivers. Well at least those who like to LARP as such. (50yo, wearing cloth like they would be competing in the Tour de France). They don't have bells on their bikes because "aerodynamics" (my guess) and they drive like absolute madmen down the path (they compete on Strava). I myself got yelled at several times which I usually shrug off or tell them to f** off. But what gets my blood boiling is when those people go out on a Sunday when there's sunny weather and start their BS on a crowded path. The path is frequented by families on weekends and I have seen multiple times how those 40yo/50yo "gentlemen" yell at little children because the kids have the audacity to have fun with their little bikies and thus ruin the racer's Strava times. Our local mountain biking (we're not really mountain terrain yet we still have some single trails) community is completely different. They're nice, they always make room when you meet them in the woods. No problems there. /rant
    • akadruid1 5y ago
      There's something about that hobby. I suspect having "all the gear and no idea" is expensive and somehow they feel entitled. We have a steep winding road near us which is full of blind spots. On a sunny weekend you're guaranteed to encounter a line of cars unable to overtake a 50yo man on foot slowly pushing a expensive carbon frame bicycle up the hill. I live in a very car-central part of the world, I suspect if we had actual cycle infrastructure the hobbyists would be diluted by people actually going somewhere on bikes.
      • pharmakom 5y ago
        This 1000x. The types of rider you get are a reflection of the infrastructure you have. Mostly busy roads? Aggressive ,fast male riders. Quiet, physically separated bike lanes? Families, children going to school, cargo bikes...
    • brippalcharrid 5y ago
      This is why it's important that Road Cycling takes place on roads; shared-use paths are designed for everything from small children frolicking about in the sunlight to large slow-moving bicycles and big groups of hikers, whereas road bikes are designed for cruising at >20mph and large turn radii. They are vehicles, and are designed for use on roads in the presence of other vehicles.
  • pa7ch 5y ago
    Agreed, all riders should be able to stop before their event horizon. So if you can't whip blind corners on crowded paths if you would hit someone who is a the worst spot on the turn. I ride a lot of bike paths. I don't like hollering or ringing. I just slow down and let people hear my hub if need be. They can take their time.
    • comprev 5y ago
      A Hope Tech, Industry Nine or Chris King hub is plenty loud enough!
  • pjmlp 5y ago
    No need for mountain bikes for that, you see that behaviour everywhere here in Germany. It is like some bikers forget they have breaks on their devices, instead just yell and curse the other people on the sidewalk that happen to be on the bycicle lane for whatever reason, after all it is just a different colour on the sidewalk.
  • datavirtue 5y ago
    Well said. I don't use a bell but I have developed a deep, unalarming: "on your left" that travels well ahead of me. I also try to slow to just about pedestrian speed and create maximum distance when passing. A lot of my fellow cyclists (all of them kitted to the nines) thread the needle at 20mph. It's bullshit.
• sva_ 5y ago
  Yeah, the comment about bells struck out to me as well. I didn't have one on my MTB in the beginning, but it just felt so stupid to yell 'sorry' at people. I don't see what's the reason, saving a few grams of weight? While riding recreationally? Makes no sense. First I got one of those minimalist designs that blend in with the handlebar, but it didn't work too well. So I just got a huge one, in black color like the handlebar, which is very loud. Sometimes people get scared for a moment but it's much better than them jumping as you ride by them silently. And I don't think it looks bad at all.
  • midnightclubbed 5y ago
    I think there may be a thought a bell isn't cool enough for mtb bro's? Or maybe it's just that they aren't fitted to mountain bikes as standard (they should be) and so people don't think to pick one up.
    • puchatek 5y ago
      Obviously not cool enough! Same thing with racing bikes. All that gorgeous gear and Lycra and then you're supposed to announce yourself to the slow masses with that ridiculous sound!? No way!
  • pedalpete 5y ago
    Why yell "sorry" instead of "hi there", or something as you come up to them. I'm Canadian, and as the saying goes "we say sorry 50 times a day, and we're sorry we can't say it more", but still...I don't understand why you're apologizing rather than giving warning, and is ringing a bell really any better in this instance?
    • kybernetyk 5y ago
      >Why yell "sorry" instead of "hi there" The local racing biker etiquette here seems to be yelling "AUS DEM WEG" (make way) in a very rude tone. "Hi there" or even "sorry" would be a definitive improvement over what we have now. ;)
  • 5y ago
• swader999 5y ago
  I prefer the Air Zound. It's like a train horn. Cars notice it.
  • scottlamb 5y ago
    What a strange non sequitur. I've never said "I don't need a bell because I have an Air Zound" or vice versa. There's no overlap in when I'd use them. The Air Zound isn't a polite way of telling a pedestrian or cyclist you're passing them. It's more like yelling "move over, jackass!" I can count on one hand the number of times I've used mine on a trail—only when folks were (perhaps deliberately) unaware of more subtle attempts at communication and blocking me from passing and/or doing something reckless. In the few cases I did use it on a trail, people involuntarily jumped in response. On the other hand, the Air Zound is a way of telling cars "I'm here" / "be careful" / "don't do the stupid thing I see in your eyes". I use it in that way almost daily. (Maybe as much a commentary on the drivers around here as anything else.) A bell just wouldn't work for that at all. They really wouldn't physically hear it. (I'm a road cyclist and the trails I ride are paved urban creek trails rather than mountain bike tracks, but I think the etiquette is similar.)
• Humphrey 5y ago
  Perhaps there is a place for a bell on shared use trails... but I don't see the need for them on dedicated MTB trails. Riding a bike is loud, so you usually hear somebody smashing down a track faster than you are going. I'll usually say something like "there you go" when the trail straightens/widens to indicate they should pass me.
• lmm 5y ago
  A bell is pointless unless you have some difficulty speaking. People pay much more attention to a verbal hello or warning than a bell.
  • CogitoCogito 5y ago
    It's pretty obviously not pointless. This helps with blind turns for example. It also can be heard earlier than a biker's speech (assuming the biker doesn't continually give verbal warnings for 15 seconds as is true for basically all bikers on earth).
    • lmm 5y ago
      > This helps with blind turns for example. How so? You can say something in the same scenario where you'd ring the bell. > It also can be heard earlier than a biker's speech (assuming the biker doesn't continually give verbal warnings for 15 seconds as is true for basically all bikers on earth). I don't quite understand the point you're making here - most bikers don't continually ring a bell for 15 seconds except if a pedestrian is obviously not paying attention, and speech is more effective in that case. Maybe a bell is louder than typical speech, but since it's not acted on reliably by pedestrians, that doesn't help much - you always have to be prepared for the worst case.
  • MarkusWandel 5y ago
    As someone who uses both verbal alerts e.g. "passing on your left!" and bell dings, I've found that the human brain is quicker to process the "ding" than the verbal cue. At the relative speed of pedestrian vs. cyclist this matters. I think it's simply that "ding ding" is a standard alert with a preprogrammed response, whereas spoken stuff needs to be interpreted first. My personal optimization is also to not make noise at all, if I can clearly and safely pass without warning i.e. the pedestrian is not moving erratically and there are no small children. On rare occasion this elicits anger from (usually elderly) pedestrians though.
    • lmm 5y ago
      > As someone who uses both verbal alerts e.g. "passing on your left!" and bell dings, I've found that the human brain is quicker to process the "ding" than the verbal cue. At the relative speed of pedestrian vs. cyclist this matters. I think it's simply that "ding ding" is a standard alert with a preprogrammed response, whereas spoken stuff needs to be interpreted first. For some humans, sure. The trouble is that maybe 1/3 of people simply won't process the "ding" at all, which makes it so unreliable as to be useless in practice, IME. (You can ring repeatedly and people eventually notice, but overall that's less effective than saying something).
• ajuc 5y ago
  Wait, can you drive a bike without a bell at public roads in your countries? It's illegal here (and for a good reason) so you won't find a bike without a bell (or lights for that matter).
  • Ichthypresbyter 5y ago
    In the UK bikes are required to be sold with a bell, but there is no requirement to have one when riding. So bikes are often sold with the cheapest bell the manufacturer can find, which the rider will remove when it inevitably breaks if not before. Oddly, here in the Netherlands the reverse seems to be true- it is illegal to ride a bike without a bell on public roads, but bikes are often sold without them...
• sundvor 5y ago
  Spurcycle bells on both my MTBs. They are great, sound nice and clear -and certainly not too offensive, and are just easy to use whilst looking awesome. So sad to see their design being ripped off by copycats.