This is my new brass bell, purchased from the well-mannered wheelmen at Velorution, which is fast becoming my favourite London bike shop.All too often cyclists -- myself among them -- succumb to Bike Rage, snarling and feinting through the wreckage-strewn city streets. Like certain kinds of bully, the traffic can be both cruel and stupid, and it encourages reciprocity.
But the bell is a sign of civility and simple decency.
So ring your bell, I say! Ring it and smile and wave.
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Where can I get one of those bells in Nuu zild?
ReplyDeleteI often get the urge to ring my bell at strangers, but Wellington isn't really a bell-ringing city. The times I've rung my bell at other cyclists (when I'm passing them or they're passing me) I've gotten a glare and flared nostrils in return. Maybe people think it's pretentious? Maybe bells are being replaced by speedometers...which has worrying implications for civility. Maybe I should get a horn instead?
Dear Ashleigh,
ReplyDeleteI'd advise against a horn -- too clown-ish. No disrespect to clowns. No, where once ringing was di rigeur it has now fallen into obscurity like some kind of ancient dwarfish art – yet you’d be surprised how many plebeians still hearken to its clarion tone deep down. The flared nostrils may be a sign of inner stirrings. We can only hope that, like the entish folk, they will gloriously awaken and sunder the walls of Saruman. Forgive the LOTR analogy. I don’t know what is the matter with me this morning.
But anyway, far from being pretentious, the bell is actually highly practical. Many's the time I've politely alerted a mobile-phone toting pedestrian before they blithely step into my cycle-path, thereby averting disaster.
So persevere with that bell in the windy city, girl. One day it may indeed be a bell-ringing capital again, thanks to people like you.
I'm afraid I don't know where you'd find a brass bell in Nu Zild though. Surely, such a thing must exist down under? Anyone? Can we get a brass bell over here?
Maybe I'll send you one.