To bell or not

I have a bell on the tourer which I use in the city. Riding through a city on shared paths without a bell is just torturous. Most people in that situation are expecting and listening for a ding ding but you get the odd person annoyed at you for dinging. I dont think twice about it. 

On the roadie I have no bell and on the rare occasion the hub noise doesnt alert walkers, I either do a loud kissy noise or a "beep beep" try n keep it jovial. There are always occasions no amount of daft noises works and I just have to slow right down n squeeze past. 

I think if you ride even 20% of your riding in urban areas, a bell is important. 

I think with some people you can't win, they just don't like cylists. I always used to call out something polite to let walkers out in the peak district know that I was approaching on my road bike, as fitting a bell on it just isn't going to happen. Just recently though, I've actually started to call out "Ding Ding!" then when that's got people's attention, I politely ask if I can ride past. This seems to work quite well, although I still had a "don't you have a bell?" from a chap on a bridleway recently.

I have a bell, rarely need it though. On country lanes almost all the pedestrians I see walk facing traffic, so they do see me coming. Tend to use the bell more on shared paths. Usually it's best to ring the bell from a long way back, if you're too close then they don't have enough time to react. I also like to have both hands covering the brakes if I'm close to pedestrians.

I've ordered a bear bell, it's designed for hikers who don't want to surprise the wildlife. Not sure how well it will work on a bike, but it was only £4.

Honestly, you will never be right on this issue. I regularly ride an old shared use railway line and if you dont bell I get "do you have a bell?", if you do, the walkers get grumpy, then others will say "oh nice bell!". The worst offenders are joggers who listen to music wearing earphones so are shocked when you pass, bell or not.

In some ways it's dead easy on a shared use path you need to give the same consideration to pedestrians as a car driver should give a cyclist. Give pedestrians as much space as you can, slow down, if it is not safe to pass wait until it is. A free wheel noise or a polite excuse me works very well as you are making a human contact. Try to smile. It's not the pedestrians fault that it's a shared use path ideally we should be separted. Airhorns are a no-no, bells and speech are better as is a "thank you". 

From bell, bull and balls o'fax, the good lord preserve us!

Even with a rather loud freewheel I find people are just oblivious to the fact at cyclist might be approaching. Especially on well marked mixed use cycleways that are being encouraged these days. So people have the most peculiar reactions, including teenagers ducking and running right across in front of you, oncoming joggers and walkers running right at you (keep left!) I've found that alerting people makes them worse, just pass by without a sound, and if I have to slow right down I will give a polite 'excuse me.'

Having said that, I still get passive aggressive remarks about bells, especially when going slowly. I think this is more to do with a certain demographic of entitled middleaged white women who seem to think they are in some way oppressed and need to fix it. 

Last week, I was on my ecargo bike, heading down to some promising outcrops of elderberries, a fairly steep hill, so even with the regenerative braking I was doing maybe 25mph.  I spotted two lady walkers going in the same direction in the road a hundred metres ahead, so slowed slightly and ran the bell when I was about thirty metres away; no response.  Twenty metres; ran the bell again, three times, no response.  Ten metres; ran the bell continuously until I passed them on the inside, the nearest one jumped.  They weren't deaf as I assumed, as they passed me later picking the berries, and were talking to each other.

What can you do?  Airhorn perhaps?

Pfft.....

I creep up on them ninja style and boot them into the canal, afterall pedestrians are only motorists who've lost their cars 

Actually, I prefer to give clear instructions of my intentions, especially if approaching from behind, so that everyone knows what is happening, all done in a cheery tone and at a speed where nobody is going to feel threatened, even if that means stopping completely as many people seem to have no idea of left or right when caught unawares.

However, dog walkers, especially the twats with the long extending leads definitely need the first treatment. I've had a few dickheads who want to argue the toss, but generally people respond best when you show a bit of empathy and manners.

Find a bell doesn't get a great response 1/2 the time - the trick is to do it VERY early, but still feels a bit presumptuous like a car beeping you with the horn

Had quite a few people literally jump out their skins when I speak (on quiet paths)

BEST solution is just a nice loud clicky freehub  stop peddling get some buzzing going always works great gets attention good without sounding  get out of my way-ey or being too surprising (unless you on some kings and stop peddling at 30mph 10 feet away hahah  save that for people crossing the roads without looking

And unless there's a strong headwind

For some you'll never get it right. I remember once passing a couple of horses on a reasonably wide road in the middle of a village. I slowed right down, moved right across to the opposite side of the road about 15 metres before I got to the horses and still got an earful from one of the riders. The horse didn't react at all though.

I find a good loud parp on the hunting horn does the job very nicely. Any pedestrians having issues with this policy can be swatted away by my grooms SocratiCyclist and BOOBOOJMOOJ using rolled up copies of the Daily Mail.

I mostly delegate my actual cycling to those two anyway.

Historically I found that on shared-use paths pedestrians would get far more grumpy at having a bell tinkled at them (just like if someone beeps their car horn at you I guess?) than other means. Politely shouting something only works some of the time and wind direction can just carry your voice away. These days I try to avoid such paths but do regularly encounter horse riders on the roads. Again, sudden noises like bells can scare a horse and a polite 'hello' or 'bike coming through' might not be heard until its too late. So I have found that a really noisy freehub is the best solution. Just freewheel from a good distance back and the noise is high enough frequency to be different to other nosies around and usually the rider hears it or the horse hears it and turns its ears before you run the risk of giving it a fright. Works for pedestrians too!

Bells are like mudguards; sensible bits of kit that some people would rather be seen dead using (for some reason).  I've got a titchy bell clipped to the side of the shifter hood; never get any grief from pedestrians.