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

skoda-storyboard.com

541–550 of 618 posts

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

#541
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…

LOL. I put the loudest 12V train/air horn I could buy on my 60 mph escooter with a 72V to 12V buck converter and a motorcycle handlebar button. It was pretty easy to install. (I added a fuse too.) Stupid motorized vehicle drivers get the horn of doom.

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

#542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least they’re forward about it - I’ve lost count of how many bike accessories claimed to be USB C, but they only charge when connected to their specialized cable that converts from USB A to C.

Double-sided USB-C connections require a handshake before sending voltage. USB-A ports can have the 5v line active at all times. Cheap USB C gadgets often don't make the handshake, they just use it as a 5V input, necessitating an A to C cable.

I'm still waiting on full-size usb-c instead of current mini-usb-c

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

#543
post #357

This seems to be part of a type of brand marketing where a brand claims it has invented something, but the only thing that ever exists of significant economic value is the attention raised by the promo video / article. Not the thing/service. Examples: - Samsung safety truck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GNGfse9ZK8 - Citroën motion sickness glasses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aco63dlq_WE - Amazon Prime Air http…

Innovationwashing, maybe?

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

#544
post #357

This seems to be part of a type of brand marketing where a brand claims it has invented something, but the only thing that ever exists of significant economic value is the attention raised by the promo video / article. Not the thing/service. Examples: - Samsung safety truck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GNGfse9ZK8 - Citroën motion sickness glasses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aco63dlq_WE - Amazon Prime Air http…

[deleted]

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

#545
post #354
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…

for your safety, when people hear a car horn, they’re going to be looking for a car.

[deleted]

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

#546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeas ago I motorcycled a lot, all over the world. I escalated to an air horn and hi-viz. But I pretty quickly realized that these made no tangible difference to the behavior of larger vehicle drivers. So I ended up for later vehicles with a stock horn and hi-viz only for heavy rain. These days our family cycles a lot for commuting. It’s really easy to observe that people in vehicles treat us far better if we look lik…

Slapping panels in the US will occasionally get people trying to fight you, as I've had happen. Not really sure what a good solution to that looks like short of cultural changes.

As a pedestrian I slapped a panel of a slow car that failed to yield to me at a crossing. The driver glared at me and looked ready to reverse into me. I never slapped any panel any more.

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

#547
post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any innovation benefiting cyclists and coming from the auto industry is a way to move attention away from the fact that cars are the most dangerous thing on the road.

Well, obviously. What else did you expect to be the most dangerous thing on roads? Sharks?

A tank.

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

#548
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a crappy pressure vessel holding 350ml of 80psi air, for about 100J of stored energy. I’m not entirely sure I’d be comfortable with that, especially anywhere with my face in the line of fire it it fails.

Your bike already has two crappy 80psi pressure vessels, why not three?

If this is a modern bike, 80psi is way too high. 50psi is sufficient and will give you a more comfortable ride as well as higher efficiency on real-world surfaces.

80+psi is for old-style road bikes with narrow 23mm tires. Modern bikes (even road bikes for racing) don't use these any more; 28mm is the minimum these days.

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

#549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A car company wanting to divert attention away from the carnage cars cause. Seems a bit suspicious no?

In the UK, an important market for VW group, there are two types of bicycle, one for the proletariat and the other for the bourgeoisie. Due to the k-shaped economy, the proletariat bicycle died a long time ago, to evolve into the 'Lime bike' in places such as London. In the past, companies such as Raleigh provided excellent proletariat bicycles, and the working man could afford them for his kids and himself. Of cours…

Why would somebody transport a bike on car to London and ride on the streets crowded with pedestrians? And attach a massive bell to a carbon bike to facilitate that? The video shows that they have given these to delivery riders, which seems to be the target audience for a device like that. Seeing that this story is going viral everywhere it appears to be a quite a successful PR campaign. I doubt it's a real product though now I imagine similar devices will appear on Alibaba and Amazon.

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

#550
post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Political cyclists hate this because they think anybody who complains is just a car driver concern trolling, but having been hit by a cyclist I can attest to it being a real problem. Sure I wasn't in real risk of dying, but I was bruised and scraped up for a week after that. I've done my fair share of road cycling in my years, I don't do it now but I still cycle on trails. The way some cyclists push back on any criti…

It's one thing when you're a fit adult male and get hit by an idiot cycling recklessly on the pavement, it's another if you're a small child or frail through sickness or old age. I've seen a couple of very near misses that would have ended very badly for the pedestrian through no fault of their own. Saying this it's mostly teenagers in the idiot role from what I've seen and they are reckless by default.

I've been nearly hit by a bicycle-messenger looking dude in San Francisco when I was crossing the street with a "walk" sign at a crosswalk and he blew through the red light at probably about 15mph, and I have plenty of other experiences like that.

If you are running a red light at 15mph on a bicycle, dodging pedestrians, you are just an asshole - maybe you're slightly less dangerous than an SUV running a red light, but it is still completely not okay.

There are dumb teenagers, which is one thing, but the aggressive "well, we're not emitting carbon, so we can do whatever we want crowd" is probably even more crappy and dangerous, since they're deliberate about it, and more present in areas with lots of pedestrians.

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