Cycling UK Forum

I'm with drossall on this. I like to think I'm as considerate towards vulnerable road users as anybody. There are some circumstances which scream danger - ball comes flying out of a garden, child likely to follow etc., but it is difficult to prepare for a pedestrian who is walking normally along the footway and suddenly steps into the carriageway without looking.

No. Horn (or bell) says 'audible warning of approach'. It does not nor do I use it, to say get out of my way. I leave that to car users

Throw away horn lose additional advantage, if you feel you gain an extra brake or regain a lost one......... depends on road surface/conditons/speed etc There is an argument to suggest that if you cant stop with the front brake int he distance you can see to be clear then you are going too fast anyway (unrealistic?)

Weight transference sometimes doesnt add grip at front and sometimes loses grip at the back.

Any road up I'm keeping my bell, horn and a nice little line in 'excuse me or heads up' at school time on some so called cycle paths and the roads around some schools in my area (heads up works very well in my opinion).

You cant anticipate every move by every one but you can let others know of your presence - if appropriate...........

I only have a bell on my shopping bike, it's a Flintsones one, bought by somebody as a joke. When I first fitted it I had a phase of riding around ringing it just for fun. (It was one of the things that told me my hearing was failing when I realised people could hear it some distance off when I thought it was quiet.) Anyway, oneday I was struggling uphill from Morley Bottoms with a load of shopping when in a moment of gay abandon I gave a trill on the bell. A pedestrian on the footway must have assumed I wanted him out of the way on the path because without looking round he stepped into the gutter. I was going so slowly there was never any likelihood of a collision but I felt silly, and it shows that precautionary bell ringing might have unintended consequences.

I agree Andy Miller is being judgemental.
In fact the way I have my horn mounted I can press it with my thumb as I am braking with my index and middle finger, and holding onto the bar with my ring and pinky fingers. And use the other brake as well.

Horns/ bells/ etc should be used as a warning that you are there to people who have not noticed you and are doing something potentially dangerous.

i largely agree with andy millar.

those that don't sound to me a bit like clarkson et al, but on a bike

Hi All
Thanks for all you good wishes.
Shoulder is doing well and I am out of the sling now.
I had slowed down on approach to a group of children waiting to cross the road from the left to the central reservation in the direction of the school.
This child was already on the central reservation and stepped into me from the right and heading away from the school.
There are off road cycle tracks on either side on this road but they are totally unusable during "busy periods" so the council lowered the speed limit and created an on road lane with an 18" strip of red tarmac.
I should be back on the bike soon but will re-time my commute to avoid the school run.
Decided to take no further action but some contact from the child's parents would have been appreciated.

Argh! Similar (but thankfully much less painful) thing just happened to me on my way home. Two kids one with a dog walked up to a pelican crossing (one that was part of a road junction) stopped, looked both ways, made eye contact with me then walked straight out in front of me when I was about a meter from the crossing. Lumped the brakes right on and had a choice between kid or dog. I hit the dog, which through me over the bars.

Thankfully I'd scrubbed off enough speed to only end up with grazes to the knee and elbow and no damage to the bike. The dog was mobile afterwards and walking around a lot so I guess the worst it suffered was bruised or broken ribs.

...and what did the kid say? "Sorry thought I had enough room!" Twit. He won't do that again in a hurry.

I do have an Air Zound to but there simply wasn't the time to use it, much the same as in a couple of vehicle accidents I've been in there wasn't enough time to use the horn, and by the time things have gone tits up it doesn't do much good anyhow. The horn is primarily there as a "Hey I'm here!" reminder to accidents waiting to happen, like cars coming backwards out of drives, narrow two way hump back bridges, buses giving you the squeeze, pedestrians cutting through stationary traffic that your also filtering through, pedestrians stepping out in front of you etc... However I only use it in situations that won't effect my ability to stop or avoid the accident. In this case I was having to move my weight around on the bike up until the point of no return over the bars, and then trying to man handle the bike (and unclip the cleats) so that I and the bike landed in the same carriageway (dual carriageway road) that I started in.

Was your bike OK?

Thankfully yes. Got it to the side of the road, put chain back on, spun the wheels, checked the quick releases major frame joints around the headset and handle bars and all seemed ok. I guess that comes from riding something that's massively over engineered for road riding, a xc mtb! Felt a little odd for a few minutes but think it was because I was a little shaken. Got me home ok yesterday and back in this morning so must be ok. Wheels where due a re-tension any how.

Odd thing though, there's a scuff on the saddle I noticed this morning on the opposite side to what I thought hit the road, so the bike must have danced around a bit more than I had thought.