"British Waterways has commissioned etiquette bible Debrett’s to issue towpath guidance for cyclists and pedestrians.
The Debrett’s polite code of conduct to commuters is said by British Waterways to “remind people how to behave on the towpath.”
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
"Towpath commuters: be polite to each other, advises Debrett’s"
(18 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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two tings
Posted 13 years ago # -
I think there is serious mileage in some kind of spoke-based auto-bell (for a continuous ring, like an old-school fire-engine).
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).
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).
Fitted with a flip on/off like a bottle dynamo. Make a fortune?
Posted 13 years ago # -
playing card between your spokes and fork, people will think it's a motorbike and LEAP out your way!
Posted 13 years ago # -
"Fitted with a flip on/off like a bottle dynamo."
Used to exist - operated with an extra gear lever.
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.)
Posted 13 years ago # -
@Dave: providing you weren't on a brompton or other deviant bike?
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!
Posted 13 years ago # -
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 ;-)
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.
My highly-evolved precision voicebox seems to do the trick so far though.
Posted 13 years ago # -
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.
Those rotary bells might be quite good. My little bell turned from "ping!" to "tonk" in all the rain yesterday.
Posted 13 years ago # -
ridiculed for being a bottom feeder and tarwave rider!
Sounds like a new sport.. (not the bottom feeding bit!)
But Mr Rapid Hamstring, do you not think your insistence on carrying an extra wheel with you should be banned...?
Bet you go over 6mph the official speed limit for parts of the watery network.
Posted 13 years ago # -
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.
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.
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.
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!!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Then people will whine about the racket..
Posted 13 years ago # -
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?
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.
TBH I reckon the novelty might wear off quickly on the riders too, but it may be the lesser of two evils?
Posted 13 years ago # -
@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?
Posted 13 years ago # -
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.
Posted 13 years ago # -
gembo - the problem with SpokeyDokeys is that they stop working over a certain speed. (non-existant) centrifugal force pins them to the rim.
Posted 13 years ago # -
the problem with SpokeyDokeys is that they stop working over a certain speed. (non-existant) centrifugal force pins them to the rim.
Not a problem on the towpath, we're all watching our speedos and religiously keeping it to 5.5mph.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Posted 13 years ago #
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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!
(But yes, that is quite cool!
Posted 13 years ago #
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