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Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones

skoda-storyboard.com

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Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones

#531

Post by sc__ »

michh wrote: post #234

Coincidentally, I bought a 12v car horn yesterday with the intent of wiring it into my ebike's power supply with a little button on my handlebars. Not because of other cyclists or pedestrians wearing (anc) headphones but because modern cars are so heavily sound-proofed they don't hear a bicycle bell anymore. A recent incident with an inattentive taxi driver in a brand new EV nearly flattening me prompted me to want t…

Seconding the point to please not use this on anyone not in a soundproofed car.

Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones

#532

Post by amarant »

sc__ wrote: post #530
amarant wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be careful with your ears! (And those of others) A unexpected loud noise recently caused me to get tinnitus and hyperacusis, and trust me, you don't want either of them! You know a diagnose is bad when Wikipedia lists suicidal thoughts as a common side effect.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperacusis

May I ask what the loud noise was? And sorry to hear that. Tinnitus and hyperacusis suck.

A small firework rocket that someone launched sideways instead of up exploded within a few meters of me.

I say small but I mean tiny. One of those that are sound only, no visuals.(Why are those even a thing?)

Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones

#533

Post by sc__ »

michael1999 wrote: post #222
0x3f wrote: post #116

Do horns and bells really prevent accidents? In order for e.g. a horn to work you need enough time that the driver processes the situation and decides the horn will communicate something AND enough time for the pedestrian or whatever to process that and react to it. Generally it's a lot easier just to press the brake, and more importantly be travelling at a speed and in a manner where the brake is sufficient. Structu…

There are a lot of runners on mixed use paths wearing headphones these days. They are an absolute danger to overtaking bikes. A bell they would hear would be useful.

Deaf people exist.

Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones

#534

Post by anigbrowl »

Through acoustic testing, the research team identified a narrow frequency band – a “safety gap” – capable of penetrating ANC headphone filters. This range lies between 750 and 780 Hz.

Building an entire product around EQ crossover frequencies (which are not standardized or regulated in any way) seems a bit risky to me. Those are things that could change at any time, as could the shapes of the EQ curves themselves. there are fads in engineering design like anything else and in this wholly digital era they tend to cycle and proliferate faster because increased performance (or at least hte temporary consumer perception of such ) is only a software update away. People are extraordinarily susceptible to placebo effects in the audio realm (probably because most people prioritize their visual sense), so just moving EQ crossovers around or making them dynamically adjustable is an easy path to consumer buzz. You see this all the time with pro audio plugins.

Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones

#535

Post by KomoD »

youknownothing wrote: post #527
eigenspace wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A horn or bell is mostly for telling other people "hey I'm here, stay out of my way and dont suddenly cross into my path" My opinion as a cyclist is that I should basically only be using my bell on pedestrians when the pedestrians are wandering onto the bike lane. If im cycling through a shared space, I find it extremely rude to ring the bell, because it feels like I'm telling people to get out of my way, but they ha…

Thank you, I'm a cyclist too and I always try to respect pedestrians' space, and it really pisses me off when people don't. In many cities cycling on pavement is not allowed, yet some cyclists do it... which I'd be fine with, provided they understand that they're doing something they're not supposed to be doing and that they have no priority. But when they're invading pedestrian space like that AND ring the bell as i…

> But when they're invading pedestrian space like that AND ring the bell as if people were supposed to be making way for them

Honestly, I prefer that over those damn electric scooters. Most people who ride them are complete morons. They don't pay attention, ride into traffic, go at high speeds and don't care about anyone except themselves. I’ve even been hit by one.

Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones

#536

Post by Joe_Cool »

Swizec wrote: post #523
Joe_Cool wrote: post #511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly I had to kick a few cars that thought they could run me off my motorcycle. Worked every time. All of them didn't look out the window or they would have looked right into my face. Yelling and horn did absolutely nothing. Most of them were extremely apologetic or even shocked (as if I appeared from thin air). None of them were angry for scratching their door. Some people are just lost in thought it seems...

> or even shocked (as if I appeared from thin air) Motorcyclists are invisible. Never rely on others seeing you, ride as if they're an obstacle you have to navigate. You can hide a whole truck behind the A-pillar of modern cars, let alone a motorcycle. At certain angles, human eyes have complete blind spots that we're not aware of because our brain filters them out. Motorcycles fit perfectly into those. Never hover i…

Oh I know. They look at me while turning left cutting me off.

Maybe I need a bigger bike, the 2cyl 400cc is particularly invisible. ;)

Best one was a woman who cut me off doing her left turn. I high-beamed her and honked. She put her hands in front of her face and came to a dead stop in my lane directly in front of me. I was already braking before I honked. Nothing happened. I stopped wondering and just assume everyone is out to kill me.

It's a rule that also applies to bicycles.

Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones

#537

Post by Nition »

Retr0id wrote: post #291

I'm very sceptical of their claims that ~780Hz is in some way special, especially the way they represent it graphically. Playing a frequency sweep while wearing WH-1000XM3 headphones, I don't notice any particular drop-off there. Near where I live, heavy goods vehicles are fitted with reversing indicators that make a "cshh cshh cshh" sound i.e. pulsed white-noise. White noise like that is the hardest for ANC to cance…

That diagram is pure marketing nonsense. The real chart is on page 10 of their paper[1]. It shows a modest ~3dB less attenuation around 800Hz across several brands.

[1] https://cdn.skoda-storyboard.com/2026/04/Skoda-DuoBell-Resea...

Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones

#538

Post by Nition »

bmicraft wrote: post #416
yegle wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> The "plausible sounding-text generator" generated plausible sounding text. More news at 11 Yeah, that's what LLMs do. Now is it true? Who knows!

The links Gemini references are also to articles about the Skoda bell, so it's just a circular reference to the same claim anyway.

Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones

#539

Post by Swizec »

Joe_Cool wrote: post #536
Swizec wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or even shocked (as if I appeared from thin air) Motorcyclists are invisible. Never rely on others seeing you, ride as if they're an obstacle you have to navigate. You can hide a whole truck behind the A-pillar of modern cars, let alone a motorcycle. At certain angles, human eyes have complete blind spots that we're not aware of because our brain filters them out. Motorcycles fit perfectly into those. Never hover i…

Oh I know. They look at me while turning left cutting me off. Maybe I need a bigger bike, the 2cyl 400cc is particularly invisible. ;) Best one was a woman who cut me off doing her left turn. I high-beamed her and honked. She put her hands in front of her face and came to a dead stop in my lane directly in front of me. I was already braking before I honked. Nothing happened. I stopped wondering and just assume everyo…

> I high-beamed her and honked. She put her hands in front of her face and came to a dead stop in my lane directly in front of me.

Personally I skip the honking and high beams. Just perform evasive action assuming driver will continue on their current path at roughly their current speed. Swerving behind their path of travel usually works great.

Spooked drivers behave erratically. Very dangerous.

So far I've had 0 serious incidents in ~8 years of riding. A couple close calls when I was being an idiot. So I think my approach is working :)

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