After a somewhat perplexing experience this afternoon, I must discuss bike bells (again).
Here's the scenario: eastbound on the Gardiners Creek Trail, approaching the Burke Rd underpass I pass two other riders as we enter the tunnel with one more slower rider ahead of me. With these two gentlemen very much in mind, I seriously consider my options:
- surge by and trust that I can make it back to the left before the tunnel ends, or
- sit back and coast for a hundred yards until it's 100% safe to pass.
If you're not familiar with this spot, you should also know that in the eastbound direction there is not a clear view of the path beyond the tunnel: there is an S-curve in the path, in less than 50 metres it swings right then left. Both bends are blind corners. Google Maps doesn't really show it well, but you get the idea:
I'm no daredevil (and anyway it's a warm evening), so I decided to ease back and slot in behind the front guy.
Here's where it gets interesting.
Old habits…
Because there are two blind corners here, I'm in the habit of making a warning ring on my bell—two or three sharp rings in quick succession—just before I enter each bend. Other riders rarely return the courtesy but I'm damn sure it's saved me from a few close calls over the years.
And when I'm close in behind someone I have no problem using my bell in this manner from the second position—I figure even if the lead rider doesn't care for his/her own safety, if they have a head-on with someone, I'll be caught up in the mess.
…die hard
So tonight, as usual, I did my ring-ring-ring thing as we entered the right-hander, and did that guy in front wobble a bit? Maybe. The left-hander approaches and I ring-ring-ring again, and this time the lead guy shouts at me in a resentful kind of way "Pass! Pass!" Let's be clear here: we're approaching a tight, blind left-hander and he thinks I'm ringing to overtake…the mind boggles.
Of course, I didn't take his suggestion and sat back until we were on the straight before I moved to overtake. As I came up beside him I could see he was preparing to give me a spray so I got in first, calmly advising him that I wasn't ringing at him but that I was warning people coming the other way. "Oh. Right, thanks", says he. (Clearly a reality check moment: it's not all about you, mate.)
Should I have to spell it out?
I'm kind of pleased that I passed on a useful safety tip to another rider, which I sincerely hope he'll use. But I'm frankly appalled and astonished that I actually had to explain it to him. I'd have thought it was perfectly obvious what my intentions were and the fact that it wasn't—and that he signalled that I should pass him on a blind bend—is a little scary.
Maybe the dangers of blind bends on shared paths aren't generally as obvious to others as they are to me? And if so, that is much more scary.
Yeah, maybe SteveG's right, but that raises another question that I only skimmed over: why didn't this guy (and hundreds of others like him) ring his bell when approaching a blind corner? It seems such an obvious thing to do (to me, at least).
At the risk of confusing and/or annoying other riders, I think I'll continue to apply my rule of thumb: if there's the slightest chance that I could be tangled in a prang, I'll keep ringing my bell from the second position.
Interesting. Had I been the guy in front I would have thought the bell had tolled for me too. And I would have been upset because you rang twice. Never would I have thought you were actually trying to protect yourself by ringing your bell as a warning to other cyclists who may be around the corner. But I wouldn't have said anything when you would have passed. Its better to keep things inside.
As a cycling migrant, I must tell you that at first I didn't understand what other riders were saying when they passed me. After a while, I learned they were saying "passing". All I could think was, why are you telling me you are passing? If you want to pass, just pass. I still find it strange and redundant but I appreciate my fellow riders' concern. But for what it is worth, I'm firmly in the camp that you only ring your bell if you want others to make space, when you see that someone is not paying attention and is about to throw themselves in front of your bike (read: pedestrians) or when you need to pass and it is really really narrow. Just ringing your bell to indicate you are passing, or ringing your bell before you turn a corner is not something I would do.
I guess the problem here boils down to the order of the riders. Had this guy been riding behind you, the bell ringing would have been instantaneously clear: you have nothing in front of you, you ring your bell, therefore it must be some warning/courtesy bell. Because you were riding behind him, the natural order of things suggested that your bell ringing was meant for the rider in front.
To close off, some unrelated story. When I was a passenger in a Alfa 156 on the italian coast late one evening, the driver nervously flashed his high beam 3 or 4 times in quick succession before e-v-e-r-y corner. He said this was for safety. This too is something I would never do.
It's arguably good practice to toot the horn of your car before a blind corner on a narrow road, in case of oncoming traffic. Not many people do.
If I was driving slowly on a narrow road and had somebody sitting behind me blowing their horn, oncoming traffic would be the last reason on my mind.
Likewise in your circumstance. Ringing the bell at a blind corner is a sensible practice; ringing the bell to pass - with or without aggression - is common practice. Your overtakee's response was quite understandable.
Funny youtube video of out-of-context responses to bike bells: linky
tim
I've said before that I appreciate the intelligent comments that I receive on this blog, and I'd particularly like to reiterate that in regard to this post—you've really given me something to think about. As I said right at the top, I honestly thought my intentions were pretty obvious but it appears that I've just been confusing people (and more than likely pissing them off at the same time). So it's re-think time.
From my point of view, a warning bell when approaching blind corners is as much (or even more) about self-preservation as it is about courtesy and concern for other riders. As I said in the post, my main worry is being taken down as collateral damage in the event of a head-on collision between other riders who appear to be less concerned about blind corners than I am. I honestly think that ringing from the second position is justified, but if it causes distraction and/or aggravation then it's just not worth it. If I'm tucked in behind someone who doesn't have the same survival instinct, then maybe taking the belling into my own hands (thumbs?) isn't necessarily the answer.
Clearly other self-preservation tactics are required, so I'm going to adjust my riding behaviour: whenever I'm behind someone who doesn't ring their own warning on blind corners, I'll take that as a clear indication of that rider's lack of ability and safety awareness and will treat them as someone to avoid—and instead of trying to do them a favour by bell-ringing from behind, I'll back off to a safe distance and get past them when I can. When you think about it, following someone closely into a blind corner is a pretty dicey sort of thing to do anyway, even after sounding a warning bell.
In response to hielke's comments about the "strange and redundant" way that Australian cyclists (sometimes, though not always) warn when passing, I can't do better than refer to Andrew Hammel's The Meaning of Bicycle Bells:
As I found out, bicycle etiquette is different in Germany (or at least in my part of Germany) than it is in the U.S. If you can bicycle past someone and leave a meter between you and them, you just do it without saying anything…You ring the bell only when the people walking on the trail have to move in order to let you ride by. That is, you will hit them, or will have to stop, if they don't move to the side…So when I rang the bell, the message I was sending them was "I do not have full control of my bicycle, and might run into you unless you move right now!"
So it's just a cultural difference: unlike people in Germany (and perhaps Europe in general?) for whatever reason, people on shared pathways in this country seem to prefer to get a warning every time they are overtaken by a bike. As a regular and habitual bell-ringer I am often thanked for my courtesy by pedestrians and cyclists that I pass.
Oh yeah, and I love that video that tim found: I'll be recycling it at the top of my next speedlink entry.
If I ever rode on shared paths (and thank the lord I don't, sir), I wouldn't bother using the bell to begin with. The human voice is a far more flexible and effective warning device. It comes with volume and tone that can be adjusted as the situation requires, and can be used in such a way to send a far clearer message than the often ambiguous sound that comes from bells. A simple "excuse me" or "passing on the right" sends a far clearer message.
That said, if someone sat closely behind me without overtaking, I doubt I'd be too impressed either.
ChrisL: Actually, I've found that its really hard to make out what people are saying as they go past - was that "passing" or "pisshead" or "money is coming out of your pocket"? . My preference would just be to pass someone smoothly when you have space...
Closing comments due to excessive spam received on this entry.
I can't imagine why, but there you go…
Comments
I appreciate bike bells, but I think the guy in front of you was in a bit of an awkward position. Did he know you'd slipped in behind him? My own first inclination upon hearing a bike bell immediately behind me is that the rider is warning me he's going to pass or encouraging me to make room. The guy in front of you obviously thought so, and he may have thought you were crazy trying to pass, which might explain why he appeared so aggravated.
Granted, if I'd been in his position, and I'd had my own bell, I'd have been ringing it as a safety precaution. I do the same thing when I'm driving a car and coming around a blind corner. But if I were in a car, and the fellow behind me honked his horn, I'd be thinking, "What the hell?"