http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Topic: "Towpath commuters: be polite to each other, advises Debrett’s" en Thu, 09 Apr 2026 03:47:13 +0000 http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13842 Sat, 02 Oct 2010 10:45:03 +0000 Dave 13842@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>It doesn't need to be loud - there are so many people on the canal that you'd deafen the nearby ones trying to ring at the ones ahead!</p> <p>(But yes, that is quite cool! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13837 Sat, 02 Oct 2010 01:01:37 +0000 kaputnik 13837@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><strong>@Dave</strong></p> <p>Think loud. Think Dixie;</p> <p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3P95R8atT4" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3P95R8atT4</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13836 Sat, 02 Oct 2010 00:57:50 +0000 kaputnik 13836@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><em>the problem with SpokeyDokeys is that they stop working over a certain speed. (non-existant) centrifugal force pins them to the rim. </em></p> <p>Not a problem on the towpath, we're all watching our speedos and religiously keeping it to 5.5mph. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13835 Sat, 02 Oct 2010 00:34:21 +0000 druidh 13835@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>gembo - the problem with SpokeyDokeys is that they stop working over a certain speed. (non-existant) centrifugal force pins them to the rim. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13834 Sat, 02 Oct 2010 00:33:02 +0000 druidh 13834@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>We had a lady in TBC recently with one of those fork-attached bells - and yes, it was operated by an extra (Sturmey-Archer style) gear lever on the bars. It took James a wee bit of fiddling to get it going againm but worked fine after that. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13828 Fri, 01 Oct 2010 20:43:54 +0000 gembo 13828@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@Dave Spokey Dokes make a fair bit of noise, the more you put on the spokes, the noisier they get, a sort of rainstick rattle effect, very non-threatening, alternatively give up the moody brooding about tinging the bell? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13797 Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:00:59 +0000 Dave 13797@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Well, remember in the Friends of the ##### rulebook, cyclists who say "excuse me" are to be shouted at for not ringing their bell, while cyclists who ring their bell are to be shouted at for being rude?</p> <p>This way, you're not beeping people out of the way OR shouting at them. You've just made your bike audible so that they know you're there.</p> <p>TBH I reckon the novelty might wear off quickly on the riders too, but it may be the lesser of two evils? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13796 Fri, 01 Oct 2010 09:58:10 +0000 Min 13796@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Then people will whine about the racket.. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13795 Fri, 01 Oct 2010 09:56:11 +0000 Dave 13795@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>At its simplest, you could just fit an ordinary bell off the fork or one of the stays (the EBC style bell with a sprung striker as opposed to a 'telephone dial' ringing action) and then fit something to a spoke which would hit the striker on the way around.</p> <p>The circumference of a wheel is usually around 2m... 30mph is 13.5ms-1 so even at full tilt, you'd be talking less than 7Hz. At the 6mph speed limit you'd get about 1Hz - still plenty to advise people of your presence.</p> <p>Definitely going to try this one. I think we've even got a spare bell or two in the cupboard, taken off our various bikes through the ages.</p> <p>The only problem I forsee is durability. At 30mph the top spokes on a wheel are going at 60mph, not sure the little bells would handle 7 60mph impacts per second for very long!! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13775 Thu, 30 Sep 2010 18:48:55 +0000 LaidBack 13775@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><em>ridiculed for being a bottom feeder and tarwave rider! </em></p> <p>Sounds like a new sport.. (not the bottom feeding bit!)</p> <p>But Mr Rapid Hamstring, do you not think your insistence on carrying an extra wheel with you should be banned...?</p> <p>Bet you go over 6mph the official speed limit for parts of the <em>watery network.</em> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13767 Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:49:13 +0000 Arellcat 13767@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I wonder, though, how much the code of conduct will end up being read only by the converted? I'm all for polite towpath cycling, especially after a cliched Tuesday, watching someone tanking under one of the bridges without warning of his presence, and an elderly couple scowling as he disappeared.</p> <p>Those rotary bells might be quite good. My little bell turned from "ping!" to "tonk" in all the rain yesterday. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13754 Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:20:16 +0000 Dave 13754@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Well, as pedestrians are always telling me that they can't see me, I don't bother alerting them to my presence. Besides, once you get above 40mph on the towpath, you're been-and-gone before anybody would have time to move aside regardless ;-)</p> <p>I have thought about getting an airhorn a few times - think I'd prefer that to a bell if it became compulsory to have a noisemaker.</p> <p>My highly-evolved precision voicebox seems to do the trick so far though. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13747 Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:57:26 +0000 Rabid Hamster 13747@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@Dave: providing you weren't on a brompton or other deviant bike?</p> <p>You are a fine one to speak D; the one who wants to tin-open 'outjutters' into the red bike lanes!? I don't even know how you could start to warn others of your presence on the towpath (except by jamming in between their legs!). You are Mr Invisible so I feel you would need twin airhorns and strobe lights, and the pedestros could then alarmingly jump or fall in the canal at your merest whim! Or possibly you could just zip through on the grass or take a bead on the little wooden path edge, or even flail through the hawthorns growing at the side! I just have to be patient, courteous undemanding and be ridiculed for being a bottom feeder and tarwave rider! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13740 Thu, 30 Sep 2010 10:11:43 +0000 chdot 13740@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"Fitted with a flip on/off like a bottle dynamo."</p> <p>Used to exist - operated with an extra gear lever. </p> <p>Suspect it was Dutch - from an era when people in the UK turned their noses up at 'utility cycling'. (OK; even more than they do today.) </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13737 Thu, 30 Sep 2010 10:01:58 +0000 Stepdoh 13737@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>playing card between your spokes and fork, people will think it's a motorbike and LEAP out your way! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13736 Thu, 30 Sep 2010 10:00:18 +0000 Dave 13736@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I think there is serious mileage in some kind of spoke-based auto-bell (for a continuous ring, like an old-school fire-engine).</p> <p>Not only would this save your thumb when on high-density parts of the canal path, but it means you can't forget to ring (say, before an obstacle, because you're occupied looking out for a dog on a stretchy lead).</p> <p>I suppose another advantage would be that pedestros (and other cyclists) could tell how fast you were going by the frequency of your ringing (providing you weren't on a brompton or other deviant bike).</p> <p>Fitted with a flip on/off like a bottle dynamo. Make a fortune? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13723 Wed, 29 Sep 2010 21:20:53 +0000 gembo 13723@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>two tings </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1446#post-13680 Wed, 29 Sep 2010 10:27:44 +0000 chdot 13680@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"British Waterways has commissioned etiquette bible Debrett’s to issue towpath guidance for cyclists and pedestrians.  </p> <p>The Debrett’s polite code of conduct to commuters is said by British Waterways to “remind people how to behave on the towpath.”  </p> <p><a href="http://www.bikehub.co.uk/news/bike-to-work/towpath-commuters-be-polite-to-each-other-advises-debretts/" rel="nofollow">http://www.bikehub.co.uk/news/bike-to-work/towpath-commuters-be-polite-to-each-other-advises-debretts/</a> </p>