Turf zone – TheRedWoods
Yes, I’m sure all turfers who use a bicycle will have come across them, pedestrians, runners, pram-pushers and so on, who are obvious to anything around them. You ring your little bell like crazy and the don’t hear you. You ring again when you are 2.00 meters behind them, same again. You shout at the top of your voice and still they are unaware of your presence. So, you have no choice but to ride past them and, of course, they jump out of their skin and swear at you, “Why don’t you get a bloody bell!”
Now, don’t get me wrong, some people are hard of hearing, particularly the elderly and this page is not aimed at them. It is aimed at all those who have no idea what is going on around them, those who are totally oblivious to anything approaching from the rear. So what is to be done?
I have a pretty decent bell, a cheap clone of a Spurcycle bell. It works well with the majority of folk, effective up to approximately 100 meters away. Not so good with the elderly but it’s easy enough to allow for that and exercise some consideration, even if that means taking another route or simply biding my time and waiting for an opportunity to get past without giving them a heart attack. But for the others I’ve mentioned above, I have a new secret weapon, a Hornit dB140 cycle horn, claimed to be the loudest bicycle horn in the world. Here’s the blurb from their web site.
“The world’s loudest bicycle horn. 140 decibels is the equivalent sound of a jet engine and 4 times louder than the nearest competitor so you can alert cars, buses, lorry drivers & pedestrians to your presence. It has two sounds – a piercing ‘road’ mode and a lower pitched ‘park’ mode for cycle paths. The remote trigger means it is safe and easy to use when braking. It is easy to install and remove and the mount fits all bikes. Completely weather proof (although not submersible!)”
So far I’ve not been in a position to test it out fully in the field, under real turfing conditions, but no doubt will do so soon enough. It really is loud, very loud, the piercing ‘road’ mode is very similar in intensity to when you press the buttom to test your smoke detector and I’m sure it will come in handy in the near future. I’ll keep you posted.
Copyright ©2021 Gary Buckham. All rights reserved.
