To Ding or not to Ding

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SmellyTofu
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Location: Obviously not on the bike when I'm online in Sydney

Re: To Ding or not to Ding

Postby SmellyTofu » Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:36 am

VRE wrote:Are you seriously considering putting something on your bike that will make it continually noisy? One of the most appealing things about bikes (to me) is how quiet they are. I use bells when they're necessary, but try to keep their use to a minimum.
No I don't have a cow bell on my bike (I am tempted) and yes I will put some mega loud hubs on my bike. My frustration is that my bike is too quiet and at night when there are many black clothed ninjas walking the cycle path, that seriously appear out of nowhere despite 800+ lumens, you need to have a way to at least let your presence known somehow. I will resort to having the ABC News radio on my commutes so at least it is not some genre of music which will invariably incite some opinions and I can get some news fed to me via a loud speaker and not feel so bored riding.

MisuVir
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Re: To Ding or not to Ding

Postby MisuVir » Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:21 pm

high_tea wrote:Ringing on constantly is legally dubious too. I myself think's an issue that's unlikely to come up. But we keep getting told we are legally required to have a bell. I feel I must point out, for balance, that there's also a legal requirement to only ring it when necessary.
While the letter of the law may be slightly obtuse on this matter, I'm quite happy going by the guidelines posted by my state government: http://www.sa.gov.au/upload/franchise/T ... ooklet.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In the extremely unlikely event that I get waved down by a cop for unnecessarily using my bell as I'm approaching a pedestrian on a shared path, I'll happily refer them to said guidelines. Heck, I'd be happy to even see a cop on my commute.

high_tea
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Re: To Ding or not to Ding

Postby high_tea » Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:39 pm

MisuVir wrote:
high_tea wrote:Ringing on constantly is legally dubious too. I myself think's an issue that's unlikely to come up. But we keep getting told we are legally required to have a bell. I feel I must point out, for balance, that there's also a legal requirement to only ring it when necessary.
While the letter of the law may be slightly obtuse on this matter, I'm quite happy going by the guidelines posted by my state government: http://www.sa.gov.au/upload/franchise/T ... ooklet.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In the extremely unlikely event that I get waved down by a cop for unnecessarily using my bell as I'm approaching a pedestrian on a shared path, I'll happily refer them to said guidelines. Heck, I'd be happy to even see a cop on my commute.
The guidelines have no basis in law. People have tried to use reliance on that sort of thing as a defence and failed. What matters is what the law says.

It so happens that the law in SA is the same on this point as the law in Queensland. As you point out, the odds of this coming up are pretty slim.

mrincognito
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Re: To Ding or not to Ding

Postby mrincognito » Tue Apr 16, 2013 11:35 pm

i grew up in a rural area where bells were pretty much useless when our main obstacle was a cow and even when i ride in the city now i still give out a loud and mad shout or short sharp bark when near pedestrians, it can come off as rude but its a habbit ingrained into me. once you hit a cow doing 45kmph down a gravel road you learn fast to shout out :)

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VRE
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Location: Ringwood North, VIC, Australia

Re: To Ding or not to Ding

Postby VRE » Wed Apr 17, 2013 7:45 am

mrincognito wrote:i grew up in a rural area where bells were pretty much useless when our main obstacle was a cow and even when i ride in the city now i still give out a loud and mad shout or short sharp bark when near pedestrians, it can come off as rude but its a habbit ingrained into me. once you hit a cow doing 45kmph down a gravel road you learn fast to shout out :)
That cow must be very fit to go that fast 8) .

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g-boaf
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Re: To Ding or not to Ding

Postby g-boaf » Wed Apr 17, 2013 9:19 am

I've stopped ringing the bell now - it isn't that effective.

I've noticed that just calling out passing right works for most people, plus I generally slow right down to about 10km/h.

That keeps the pedestrians happy. I'm doing more of my riding on quiet roads now so I don't have the worries of pedestrians much anymore.

Nobody
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Re: To Ding or not to Ding

Postby Nobody » Wed Apr 17, 2013 8:38 pm

VRE wrote:
mrincognito wrote:i grew up in a rural area where bells were pretty much useless when our main obstacle was a cow and even when i ride in the city now i still give out a loud and mad shout or short sharp bark when near pedestrians, it can come off as rude but its a habbit ingrained into me. once you hit a cow doing 45kmph down a gravel road you learn fast to shout out :)
That cow must be very fit to go that fast 8) .
Well it was down hill after all. :D

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SmellyTofu
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Re: To Ding or not to Ding

Postby SmellyTofu » Thu Apr 18, 2013 9:58 am

Well, I'm glad to say now that I've got my Hope Pro3 hubbed wheel, it makes the Zipp 188 hubs sound like a mouse.... well, maybe 30% more noise on free wheeling. I could not be any happier to hear the hubs sing so loudly! Will certainly do a noise test to compare.

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casual_cyclist
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Re: To Ding or not to Ding

Postby casual_cyclist » Tue Apr 23, 2013 12:27 pm

arkle wrote:
casual_cyclist wrote:
landscapecadmonkey wrote:i have found that Dings, with decent notice and slowing, work almost always. No ding and its a crap shoot.
I had the opposite experience this morning. There were two guys walking on a shared path in the same direction, one on the far left and and one on the far right (of course :roll: ). Anyway, the guy on a bike in front of my decided it would be a good idea to ding them. So the guy on the left stopped, turned right and stepped in front of the cyclist.
That was not decent notice.

arkle
What? If the guy in front of me had dinged any earlier, the ped would not have heard the ding.
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