I usually do the "on your left" thing only if they're blocking the whole path. I recently bought one of the bells Rivendell sells. It's so pleasant and kind, but doesn't move people out of the way like a good yell. The other day I passed a jogger, and just as I got alongside her, she wheeled around to head the other way. We didn't collide, and there wasn't really any chance of it, but I really startled her. She yelled "nice bell" as if to mean that I should have rung a bell. I guess she was right. I'm going to try and be better about ringing at everyone now.
On another note, I bought the Riv bell specifically because they said it was prone to ringing itself on bumpy trails. I want that for when I'm on 2-way singletrack. The bell I got doesn't ring itself, ever, though. I even bought the extra heavy clapper, which turned out to be identical to the stock one. Major bummer. Chris On Tuesday, December 27, 2016 at 8:33:06 PM UTC-5, Tim wrote: > > Do you think it's ok, when riding on the path, if you can pass a > walker/runner/family, safely with 3 feet to spare, to go by without > warning? That means not saying "on your left" or something else, or not > ringing your bell if you have one. I ask because I was riding my Roadeo > today (50 degrees here in KC!) and it doesn't have a bell yet. A bell is my > much preferred method of warning that I'm there. But I find that many > people are startled by a bell just as much as "on your left." Or they have > earbuds in and don't here you. Also, my experience with "on your left" is > that 50% of the people who hear that, move to their left. I ALWAYS ride > with the knowledge that pedestrians have the right of way, NO MATTER WHAT. > I give a wide berth to others, really slow down when there's a family, and > try to smile and be friendly. But the more I think about it, it really > seems to me that a warning of any type only works with about half of the > people out there. On the other hand, I passed a woman one day without > warning her, she was on the far right and I was on the far left, at least 5 > feet away, and she was pretty nasty about letting me know she didn't like > it. So sometimes it seems like you just can't win. What do you all think? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
