The sound of a traditional bicycle bell is inherently friendly and impossible to ring angrily in the way that car horns are blared, so to help cyclists make heard above the din of city streets, MYBELL is a new design of bicycle speaker that plays any sound you choose at over 100 dB.
According to the makers of the £60 MYBELL, different sounds elicit different responses depending on geography and culture. A traditional bike bell might work in some areas if it can be heard, but sometimes your surroundings necessitate a different audible or visual signal. What works in Brooklyn might not work in Shanghai or London. The sound emitted by the speaker is limited only by what you can provide as a sound file; truck horn, favourite piece of music, string of expletives. The list goes on.
MYBELL can store two digital files. Tapping the button on top of the speaker plays the first sound and tapping it twice access the second digital file. The firt sound is intended to be used for imminent danger while the second as a gentler sound to provide a friendly heads up.
Win your own MYBELL
MYBELL is currently available via Kickstarter, and if the project makes its target, we have one to give away. To enter, leave a comment at the bottom of this page letting us know what sound you would upload to your MYBELL.
Ultimate bicycle horns
The bicycle bell is a much under-valued accessory. Although it is a legal requirement that bicycle start their lives with a bell fitted, the fashion is for them to be quickly removed.
Perhaps one reason for the absence of the bicycle bell on so many handlebars is that the sound doesn’t carry particularly well in traffic. It’s the reason that urban cyclists tend to shout warnings and bike couriers sometimes carry whistles. at over 100 dB, the sound of a MYBELL is certian to be heard amongst the traffic, but there are even louder bicycle horns in existence. Here at the ETA, we built the 178 dB Hornster in reaction to the danger of lorries in city centres.
“The Hornster” is one of many custom bikes we have built
Cycle insurance
Every cycle insurance policy from the ETA includes new-for-old replacement if your bike is stolen, cover for accidental damage (race events included), £5m third party insurance (in the case of an accident you may need to seek compensation or even deal with a claim by someone else), personal accident cover and if you breakdown, we will even come out and recover you and your bike.
Phill T
It’s gotta be a police siren, a T-Rex roar, or a recorded voice saying “Do you have a minute to talk about our Lord Jesus Christ?”
Keith McRae
The first one needs to be some sort of Lorry air horn and the second “not so alarming” sound would be Homer Simpson shouting “DOH!!!!!”
David Smith
Something like a T-Rex roar? That’d be good!
james sheppard
The Tour de France theme tune from ITV!
andyh
i would like the sound of concord’s sonic booms blasting out
Peter Milligan
The urgent one – very loud breaking glass. The less urgent one, probably the instrumental version of Raindrops are falling on my head” from the bicycle scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Paul Tucker
A Ship’s foghorn for warning, and a lamb bleating just to say ‘Hi’ at 100dB. Now those would get my attention !
adrian price
a fighter jet being launched by catapult from an aircraft carrier
Sarah Lou
As I’m known for being similar, it would be a siren followed by Victor Meldrew from One Foot in the Grave shouting ‘I don’t believe it!’. Great for those who step out or pull out in front of you. Then the more friendly one would be the Jaws warning music.
Carl Penny
The first needs to be a loud lorry horn, or similar and the second needs to be something like the instrumental break in the The Chain by Fleetwood mac, or something silly like,” Hi im Brian” from Compare the Market 🙂
Eric Ludlow
A clip of Phil Neville’s football commentary. Guaranteed to bring everything to a standstill.
Les Kennedy
It’s got to be the traditional toodle loodle noise they have on the Tour de France team cars hasn’t it ?
Doug Milsom
A loud door bell chime for the “friendly” sound, and a truck air-horn for emergencies.
Susan Whitham
Well, I would get the loudest trumpet fanfare I could find. Perhaps the one in the “William Tell” overture?
Or a sprightly version of the army call “The Rouse” (it’s played at the Cenotaph after the “Last Post” – there are unofficial words to this, rather rude, and they could well be adapted for motorists…..”Get out the way, get out the way, you *** ****”
john moore
Nathan KLA5 train horn
Will Johnson
One of those klaxon horns from the old black and white American movies and maybe a 100 decibel bicycle bell.
Richard
Excuse me and Oi!
Katharine Harris
The best noises are from nature so for the emergency noise dogs barking, for the friendlier version a cat purring!
Alan Donnelly
First, the combined noise of squeaky brakes and a skidding tyre, with the second the sound of a trumpetting elephant with elephant footsteps getting louder.
Ronnie Smith
Star Wars Imperial March (Darth Vader tune)
Phil
A Leslie Phillips style ‘hello’ and the sound of nails down a chalkboard should do it
Peter Clark
The Imperial March from Star Wars. Ring tone for my Mrs (before Ted made it fashionable) and guaranteed to get anyone’s attention
Pamela Gossage
a lion roar would do for me
Richard
Or just use your voice. A scream gets people’s attention and you are not fumbling around for the button when you should be braking or steering to avoid a collision.
Alan Jones
Tardis and a Dalek exterminate. One soft warning and one sharp warning.
Graham Bates
Jimmy Savile yodelling
hayden weston
Got to be the fire scene from despicable me 2 😀
Amoeba
Sound one: Sound of large car-engine, revving.
Sound two: Screeching tyres, a loud bang, and breaking glass, ending with sound of metal hubcap doing that peculiar metal noise, as it falls over and whirls around, faster & faster. Like those often heard in 1950s & 1960s BBC radio comedies.
Clif Abbott
Ding Dong – Leslie Phillips
beep beep roadrunner sound
Alfie Eagle
The roar and rumble of an African thunderclap offset by the whistle of the wind through long grass.
Andy Mitchell
The tubular bells bit from Tubular Bells.
A lorry, full of agitated pigs, locking it’s brakes as it tries to emergency stop.
clarke
normal bicycle bell, since every driver of a combustion engine recognises it and at 100dB it should frighten the life out of them
Andrew Castiglione
The claxon horn from a vintange car (a long low sounding URRRR,Arrrrh) and my five year old son’s voice saying “Excuse me”.
TimA
Police siren!?!
Ann Marie Wrigley
A sound that graduates from soft to strident.
I will give it to the next cyclist to creep up behind and make me jump (hopefully out of, rather than into his path) as I walk down the canal towpath
John O’Reilly
WOOOP! WOOOOP! IT’S DA SOUND OF DA POLICE!
ooor just a very loud:
‘SCUUUUSE MEEEEEEEE!!!!
James Skinner
I’d have the “Where’s the ice cream” sample from Noel Fielding’s one man gabba band in Nathan Barely https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frV-5dB52JQ
Jeff Summers
I would either put an electronic air horn (like they have on Police Cars) or a really loud train whistle!
Karl Wallendszus
Urgent sound: John Cleese as Basil Fawlty shouting “Raus, raus!”
Less urgent sound: Father Dougal (from Father Ted) saying “Careful now!”.
Peter Chisnall
Cool, Ferrari Testarosa or whatever here we come
David Curran
I have always found a very loud “Oi!” to work well with pedestrains, but for uncanned pedestrians, a comic book alternative to a stream of abuse might be more appropriate, thus “Bleep-Bleep-Oink-Oink! might just get acrosss to road hogs.
Rory
1 – The horn blast from Inception
2- the steelworker from the Simpsons “hot stuff coming through”
Francis Voon
Jingle bells!
Andrew Harmsworth
“Don’t Panic, Mr. Mainwaring!”
Victoria Harmsworth
The sound of a classic Chinese bell going “Ding! Dong!” just AMAZINGLY LOUDLY!
Dr Richard Lakin-Inzunza
I would use the diesel shunter horn for the main warning, for the lighter one, a gentle voice politely saying in affirmative tone “Excuse me please”!
Tanya Day
I’d like the General Lee’s dixie horn from the Dukes of Hazzard as the first one, and an “Oi! Bike coming through” for when that’s ignored.
Vick
Queen “I want to ride my bicycle”
and
Rolling Stones “Hey you get offa my road(cloud)”
Helcha
A sound of a thunder.
TD
An elephant trumpetting and then the second would be laughter.
Anthony
I want it to sound like a heard of sheep!
David
I would play “The Vaccines – (get) out of my way” dedicated to all those pesky kids going to school invading the bike lane :p
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYDz_rbNwfs&feature=kp
champaklal lad
Chariots of Fire
Dave TAYLOR
The sound you have on the Hornster bike is just PERFECT for the main warning. The mechanism though is a bit O.T.T.
The MYBELL is much more practical 🙂
And of course the second sound would be
“This is MYBELL!!!!”
Sylvia Morrison
My 26 yr. old son with Asbergers among other problems needs to lose over 200 lbs. So he chose a bicycle for his exercise program. Since he has balancing problems he had to get a 3 wheel bike. Michael has always loved trains so his new routine includes trips to one of the boat docks daily to watch the trains. Hopefully with time he can get good enough to go to the boat docks at the other end of town to watch the trains. But first we have to afford to buy him a loud horn because between the traffic, tow boats & the trains you can’t hear his bicycle horn. But he loves trains so much I had a train horn put in one of my cars & he says he’d love to have one on his bicycle. That would be really cool. Plus that would help him get the attention of the engineers to get them to blow their horns. So if I got one I’d put a train horn then the chugga chugga sound inside.