Re: What do you call out when you come up behind pedos? - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

09-10-2003, 02:36 PM

Onlooker wrote:
>...
> What seems to get the best results to warn (peds) you are passing?

Use a bell instead. No need to figure out what to say, always the
same volume, pretty well conveys the idea that it's a bike.

> How far back do you call it out? I cant seem to determine the optimum
> range: too far and they cant hear, too close and they irritated or
> paniced.

Depends on your speed and theirs, and their activity. A blader
practicing a straight line needs less advance warning than mother hen
with chickets on trainer wheeled bikes. Ring it far enough back to
permit them to move to one side (a solo ped can't resist the
gravitational pull of the center of the paved surface, no matter how
wide).
My only rule of thumb is: if I can see the face, I should have made
the noise already.
HTH
--Karen M.