Had a great afternoon riding around Woburn & down to Stockgrove yesterday.

As it was a sunday afternoon & I was mainly on bridleway, I was very careful not to upset any walkers. On several occasions where the way was too narrow for me to get around, I gently pedalled up behind people I realised hadn't clocked me & politely said 'erm, excuse me but might I pass?' To my surprise, on several occasions, this lead to the walkers perceptibly jumping with surprise & running to the side of the track.

In spite of my best efforts to be as considerate as possible, I'm sure that the walkers were left with the perception that they were nearly mowed down by speeding mountain biker!

Is this normal? Should I fit a bell – wouldn't do much for my image!

single "ping" bell and ping it when you are a distance away from them.

WTF does image matter. having a bell puts you in the right – and I find that walkers far prefer you to have a bell.

Had the same issue many times. Trick is to say it loudly while still some distance away rather than in a normal voice when close

maybe should use some of those bear bells which they use in Canada 😀

Fit a Hope hub?

"Made you jump, made you stare, made you lose your underwear!"

Overheard being sung in our kids school playground today 😉

😉

i ride up slowly then let them know i am their with an airhorn!

You can't win:
use a bell and they'll either grump about how they heard you and there's no need to ring like that or they won't hear it anyway (ipod in or on the mobile or talking or simply in a world of their own)
don't use a bell and they'll moan at you for not using one

About the only thing is a loud cheery "Morning!" or similar from a reasonable distance – if you're polite in the first place it makes it more difficult for them to be grumpy about it.

LOL Jedi – does the Woburn Trails permit cover 3rd party insurance for walkers heart attacks?

I find my 'ping' bell doesn't get heard most of the time from behind, just a polite 'excuse me …' from a distance seems best, and what is it with people in front walking towards you that don't notice you cos they're busy staring at the ground?? I've startled a few people like that before and muttered something about looking where you're going and not the ground when I've gone by 🙄

I find a single Ping of the bell very seldom alerts the doddering fools, the third ping is the one they normally hear, then they freeze in the middle of the trail and fanny about deciding which way to go, by this point your more or less on them and although you already slowed down 50ft back when you saw them, you wind up gearing down and braking more so you can trundle past at sub walking pace and offer a cheery nod and a smile to their dour, miserable stares…

get a hope pro II rear hub…saves lives 😀

'erm, excuse me but might I pass?'

Maybe they are shocked at how vewy posh you are

I had this a couple of times on my ride yesterday.
However my rear brake packed in at the top of Hope Cross so it was an interesting descent down the Beast I can tell you.
On the climb up to the Snake Pass I was in a world of me own head down grinding away(thinking what I was going to do to me bike once I was home) when a rider came round the bend motoring' making me jump, he did say sorry by the way.
(Anyone off here? he had a couple of dogs with him )

If they're not hearing your ping bell, then you need a louder one! I'd never have considered one until I had to put one on for a race and then couldn't be bothered taking it off afterwards, but it was a real revelation. I took it off when I got my forks serviced (to get the bar mount lockout off), and really missed it when I rode afterwards having forgotten to put it back. Even if they don't hear it, they can't then moan about you not having a bell.

I just shout "Hi there!" from a reasonable distance and then ride straight at them.. They usually work out what to do.

i always shout "ding ding" with a smile

I do my well-practised Marmot whistle at 'em.

Causes great confusion. Are they going to be run over by a loon on a bike or a fat rodent?