Horns, bells and mirrors.

These are topics that don’t appear to hold many peoples’ interest. But bikes are required by law to have some warning device.

It is a reasonable law. Calling or yelling to indicate your presence might be ok sometimes but other people out and about will object to bike riders yelling "hey, look out" every time the cyclist wants to pass a pedestrian.

Riding in a combination of urban and rural settings leads to situations such as:

• On a shared path where the cyclist is approaching a few pedestrians from behind. Conditions are good. The bike is travelling at over 20kph. There are not many people about and the pedestrians are hand in hand across the middle of the path. 
• Out in the country with animals on the road. The cyclist wants to miss the animals and needs them to move over a bit.

In the example with the pedestrians, a cyclist with a bell has to slow to virtually walking speed as the pedestrians will not respond to the bell until it was about 5 metres away. But with a horn they notice it 20-25 metres away. Here the cyclist only needed to slow to 20kph to be able to safely pass (and say thanks!). In the example with the animals, the bell does not register with them and the horn does.  

Horns can be modulated. They are passive and friendly on bike paths. They are especially good in traffic in the ‘old world’ where all road users have to rely on noise to announce that they are coming through.

The fashion trend for horns on bicycles appears to not yet have arrived. Probably there is no 'fashionable' warning device.  On World Randonneurs we use black horns. We mount them on custom brackets in the headset stack so that valuable handlebar space is not taken up.

We recently road tested brass bells. The idea was that the more dense material of brass might be loud enough to be heard. But it was definitely not the case. The day we returned the horns it was very obvious that we were being heard.  It could be that people are "tuning out" a range of sounds and this happens to include the range that bike bells fall within. Coming up behind a pedestrian, ringing a bell and seeing no response, is frustrating. For some reason they do hear the horn.

As much as you don't want to hurt anyone you don't want to be hurt yourself. Spending hours a day on a bike with most of your body protected by only skin or cloth, you really want people or animals up ahead to be aware of your approach. Hopefully you don't need to virtually stop each time you come up behind someone. Often the scene is so amazing you want to stop anyway!

Mirrors.

There is a case for having a mirror on a bike. There are a few problems though. They are vulnerable if the bike falls over. In bike packing for travel they most likely need to be removed. There are helmet mounted mirrors but there are other issues there such as a false sense of security from a tiny area.

World Randonneurs are not supplied with mirrors but we like to know how, and which ones, can be fitted. We have tested the Mirrycycle product which fits onto our STI lever on a drop bar. It seems to be harder to fit a mirror onto a drop bar bike with barend levers.

We think they are a bit neglected by bike designers. We'd love to hear if you have a favourite mirror.

On the left is the Zefal Spy Mirror. Easy to mount on a trekking bar. On a drop bar with bar-ends it is hard. With STI there is this spot close to the handlebar plug. It is a bit small but you get used to it. When you lean the bike on a wall it is in the way and if you twist it you might eventually hurt the handlebar tape. It is better than no mirror and is a great attachment idea.