Making a noise on the commute - ideas please

[Zettie]

Any ideas on discreet techniques to make people aware of your approach with the Gauteng 07h00 traffic in full force a metre from your wheel?

 

I ride to work and back and am forced to sometimes (well most of the time) use sidewalks and pavements down Rivonia (the Spruit is a scary place at 07h00 in the morning if you are a sole rider).

 

Although mindful that pedestrians have right of way - and always thanking people who do make way on my approach - I find the warning part a bit difficult with the traffic noise coming into play.

 

The obvious answer is a bell - but to attach a bell resembling a 1890 relic from a Pennyfarthing is sacrilege on a modern full-susser. Have we come a way in bell technology since then? Is there anything electronic on the market - whithout making a sound resembling the commencement of the Apocalypse?

 

My lbs has nothing remotely suitable - any ideas?

[Tumbleweed]

you can get small bells in most bike shops.

[AndreZA]

I've got a little bell on my bars. Works great for general spruit rides aswell.

[Joe Low]

So you want to travel on pavements hooting at pedestrians to get out of your way?

 

Buy a taxi.

 

[pastapouch]

on our way to school on bicycles, we usually tied 20 empty coke cans to the bicycle and towed them behind us. that creates awareness early mornings. And pisses of everybody...

[The Guy in Pink]

I used the Zound Air Horn from CRC in Traffic for two years, (mainly early morning) Brilliant. We now have them on all our Mountain bikes as they are great fun as well.

[Johan Bornman]

Whilst I have to smile at the fun the Pink Oke has in scaring the daylights out of pedestrians with his air horn, I think a friendlier approach is best. A nice bell does the trick for my mates and I.

 

I also used to ride with a very nice guy who now lives in Aus...he used to shout: "Good morning, good morning...."  It immediately changes the mood on the trail. We use footpaths as our playground, poor people use them as commuting routes.

 

I don't see any reason why we should piss them off. They're always obliging and move out of the way when they hear a bell tinging behind them.

 

 

Johan Bornman2009-07-30 00:56:40

[droo]

But it's so much fun frightening the bejaysus out of people with a 120 dB air horn... I often wish I had one for the clowns that have tea parties in the middle of the Tokai singletrack on Sundays.

[Hairy]

my worst falls commuting having been caused by pedestrians (In the road).

 

 

 

I have tried a bell ... limitted success and found that a good ?hup hup? said at a moderate volume seems to work best. Well better.

 

 

 

I have a mother bright headlamp that goes into strobe mode when I enter the CBD and pedestrians still manage to walk into the road in front of me.

 

 

 

Next step is a decent sound system, lowering the suspension on my duallie and placing a neon strip on the down tube for some street cred/legibility ... maybe this will help being noticed on the road

[Hog_]

Just use the Spruit! I used to ride it every morning at around that time.

When I did the pavement hopping thing I had a route that took me through blocked-off suburbs and roads with wide pavements, which made it easy to avoid the pedestrians.

 

 

 

[NotSoBigBen]

Boris has a cool bell similar to this that seems to do the trick

[splat]

These look quite fun!

 

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[Johan Bornman]

Boris has a cool bell similar to this that seems to do the trick

 

he he....I bought him and our other riding mates those bells in San Francisco. At first there was a lot of resistance to them (not cool on a Specialized, not for adults, etc etc) in the squad but I'm glad to see they're still using them.

 

The others I bought didn't have those floating eyeballs, but compasses. We always knew where North was...not that we knew what to do with North once we had it.

 

[cat-i]

 

i have a tiny bell, it seems to work - but i don't cycle on busy pavements, i have the spruit and backroads.

a friend greets everyone she sees from afar, that seems to work magic on people's moods, i love cycling with her! 

cat-i2009-07-31 12:23:13

[markStockton]

I lock up my back wheel for a moment while still a safe distance away from pedestrians. This gets them to glance round to see what's up. However it only works on dirt. ;-)

 

Also remember to thank them for making way for you.

 

[Dirtbreath]

 

I lock up my back wheel for a moment while still a safe distance away from pedestrians. This gets them to glance round to see what's up. However it only works on dirt. ;-)

 

Also remember to thank them for making way for you.

 

 

As a regular walker on the spruit I cant say I find this approach very friendly.

 

I used to use a bell (on the spruit) but found that most pedestrians were in too much of a dwaal to hear the ding ding ding and would jump out the way at the last second. I now just slow down and take a wide berth. More than enough space pretty much anywhere on the spruit.