The towpaths of London demand it, I’m afraid. A Hope freehub is not enough by itself. My old bell won’t fit to OS roadie bars, so it’s time to find one that will.

But that’s not enough … most bells look either dull or stupid, especially if supposedly “fun”. It’s time to find a bell that works and looks good.

So far I’ve found only two that look interesting – the Sogreni below looks nice but doubt it’ll fit, and the Veeel design one is OK (although the novelty could wear off) but I think it’s a concept only.

So, what works? Do any actually look good?

It’s not pretty but –
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-WIDEK-DECIBELL-XXL-BIKE-CYCLE-BELL-FITS-OS-H-BARS-/120562723396?pt=UK_SportGoods_CyclAcces_RL&hash=item1c12192a44

That Sogreni looks nice …..

If you want it to be fun, perhaps you should get an old school horn

Veeel ? product design wrote :

Thinking of bike bells in general, they are not much different from each other in terms of form. Yes, they can have different size, colour, graphic and slightly different shape but they always have a round form in order to make sound. However, our idea was to start with design and then adapt the functionality. The result was an aesthetic and good looking bike bell, amplifying the simplicity and purity of form.

Aargh, stop. It’s a bicycle bell, not a coffee machine.
Why not just get a Bell app for your *ing iPhone and use that ?

If apple made bike bells…..

I had a bell but found that vibrations from riding made it constantly give out a morse-code-style ringing noise. Faint but infinitely irritating. An Air Zound is what you’re after.

I would so like a bell that doesn’t rattle after a couple of months on the bike…

The sogreni looks fabulous, but I cannot justify £40. Not even if its shiny.

🙂

And shiny usually works for me.

Perhaps…

There’s no way the Sogreni would fit without fabricating a new bracket. It’s designed to fit on to a quill stem/head tube or 26-28mm bar.

Thank you neninja. The voice of reason.

I have one of these

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=31846

Which has been fine so far and is great because i can easily pop it on and off bikes without having to unscrew things. I got an unbranded version years ago though, not the ‘It’s the Law’ one in the link.

I always take a bell on towpath rides as it’s the best way of letting folk know you’re appoaching without annoying them. I then take it off again once i’m riding away from the masses.

It’ll be going on again tonight for my pootle down the canal to Worcester tomorrow morning.

How about this for an alternative:

http://lionbellworks.co.uk/index.php?option=com_rokecwid&view=ecwid&Itemid=8#ecwid:category=0&mode=product&product=8200943

I like.

+1 for the NC17 from CRC, no ghost pings for me.

id get one that goes ‘bring bring’ rather than ‘ting’

the first is the oldschool type bells with the little lever like this that makes lots of rings per stroke.

the other is one of these kind of things where you have to be franticly fliking the lever to get it to ring properly, and they suck, hard.

I like this Portland Design Works one:
http://www.charliethebikemonger.com/bells–horns-99-c.asp

Good to see that the STW tradition of not actually answering the OPs question is alive and well.

I thought I answered the question.

Ah well.

Nice to see the spirit of STW and disparaging posts is alive and well.

+ another for the NC17 ones; they fit on oversize bars.

The only downside is the “It’s the law” slogan which has caused confusion when trying to persuade anyone who notices that it isn’t really!

tootallpaul – ~I was referring to the post above mine. Sorry for any confusion and offence caused 😳

I actually have a Sogreni bell since Xmas, would have never bought it myself due to cost but since my sister moved into the neighbourhood of the bikeshop in Copenhagen that makes these bells, it was a nice Xmas gift idea.
I thought they looked stunning on pictures but not quite so great in reality, but they do fit on my oversized MTB handlebar just fine.
The clamping mechanism is a simple brass water pipe mounting piece from a plumber’s hardware shop (and hence got replaced with an old light handlebar mount), and the diameter of the bell is actually huge, I got it machined down now by a few mm and am happy with it (even though it could be louder but I don’t want to admit this after having gone through all the trouble…).
Sven
P.S.: Ben at Kinetics in Glasgow used to sell them but not sure whether he still does.

Thanks all … the search continues but the Lion one is good. The Sogreni has the looks, but not at the price it seems to be no matter how gorgeous it looks.

I think there must be a market for a titanium/carbon fibre bell. But then perhaps it’s just me, which probably wouldn’t be economically viable.

onewheelgood – Member
I think there must be a market for a titanium/carbon fibre bell. But then perhaps it’s just me, which probably wouldn’t be economically viable.

+2

If I wanted an air horn, I’d buy one. I want a nice bell! Bells tend to get people to move (in London, anyway) rather than make then drop dead.

If you look at the latest Rose catalogue (if you can lift the thing) there is a choice of no less than 21 bells!

I think there must be a market for a titanium/carbon fibre bell. But then perhaps it’s just me, which probably wouldn’t be economically viable.

Carbon and titanium don’t have much of a ‘ring’ to them. Try tapping CF with something metallic – more of a thunk than a ting.