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

skoda-storyboard.com

561–570 of 618 posts

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

#561
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…

i think the slightly less cynical interpretation of this is that it's not marketing, it's an employee morale booster.

some skoda employees got to have fun with this. just like the amazon engineers got to have fun building drones for a while. letting the engineers out to play every now and then is cheaper than just giving raises. the shiny marketing videos gives the people who worked on the project something to show off to their friends.

i can't imagine the actual marketing value here really does anything for the company.

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

#562
post #551
post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love these types of videos because they create this fiction of how design happens, where people sit around a table with drawings and or come up with beautiful mock-ups (the motion sickness glasses is a good example). Often, a lot of design decisions are super obvious and don't require a lot of sweat and collaboration to come up with, but in videos they're made to appear very difficult as it presents better. And oth…

Yeah a lot of this is a very very cleaned up, performative version of design process. It's like its own subgenre. Original thinking is wild, feral, messy, often solo tho heavily influenced by the context around you. None of that presents well. However I bristle at the idea that core design decisions are usually super obvious, even when the end results are. Not sure this is even your point so forgive the tangent if no…

I'm in total agreement regarding some designs that seem obvious later but really took several iterations to reach. There's definitely hindsight bias when a design works so well that it feels obvious.

My point was more that I've seen product demos where parts of a product were presented as having been pored over painstakingly when in reality it was decided on day one that it would work that way. However, because it's a prominent feature, it feels cheap to show the reality, so I get that for demos there's a bit of storytelling that goes into it so the audience feels like it was a revelation.

For UX that I've designed myself, I have definitely found that a lot of the great ones required a ton of iteration and almost "courage" to go against my initial bright ideas and look at things from a different perspective. It often required taking away elements that I thought were absolutely required at first but later realized made more sense to go without. If someone were to look at the final result, they would definitely think "Well, obviously that's how it should work." But more likely they'd have go through a similar journey that I did to come up with it if they hadn't seen the solution.

In a way it's like finding out how a magic trick worked. It's only obvious in retrospect.

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

#563
post #449
post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Writing as a regular cyclist, the other side is seemingly always the problem. Cars, cyclists, pedestrians, each of them thinks they are right and other side is wrong.

That seems to be exactly the case. As a pedestrian, my problem is the cyclists who think the sidewalk is for going faster than the speed limit and the bike lane is for pedestrians to dodge into. As a driver, it's cyclists who think "you can treat stop signs as yields if there's no traffic" means "stop signs are go signs, yield signs are go faster signs, there's no such thing as a red light". I'm sure if I biked, I'd…

> yield signs are go faster signs

Reminds me of a good line from Starman…

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

#564
post #530

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?)

Bottle rockets I assume. I had a lot of fun with them as a kid. Thankfully no one involved with those got hurt.

https://www.nhpyro.com/black-cat-bottle-rockets.html

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

#565
post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately in many jurisdictions it is legally required to do that when passing a pedestrian.

Can you list some examples? When I lived in Chicago it was quite common for cyclists to shout this on the long lakefront trail, I wonder if that's the case there too.

I've never ridden in Illinois, but yeah:

> § 11-1512. Bicycles on sidewalks. (a) A person propelling a bicycle upon and along a sidewalk, or across a roadway upon and along a crosswalk, shall yield the right of way to any pedestrian and shall give audible signal before overtaking and passing such pedestrian.

https://codes.findlaw.com/il/chapter-625-vehicles/il-st-sect...

No idea if the lakefront trail is classified as a sidewalk but there are at least some cases in Illinois where either a bell or a "on your left" are legally mandatory.

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

#566
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…

The original Boosted Boards Kickstarter video has a lot of this energy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWV8irg64oM

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

#567
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am aware that most countries do not have dedicated roads for cyclists, but that doesn't mean that cyclists should be using sidewalks. When I go out and walk on the sidewalk, I expect to be able to just walk safely without having to think about potential riders of bicycles or other things that people ride on sidewalks.

No he meant this: https://www.fahrradstadt-braunschweig.de/wp-content/uploads/... Left side is for bicycles. Right side for pedestrians. It is a dedicated lane but a shared space.

They have other signs, where there's no dedicated lane either.

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

#568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

… I have a modern bike (a Specialized). The tires' rated range is 75psi to 100psi. I usually pump it to around 80–85psi. The tires are 33mm.

You're overinflating your tires. A lower pressure will increase your speed and efficiency unless you're riding in a velodrome. Here's a video about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r8f3w89XeM

(watch out, there's a lot of extra stuff in this video about the machine they use to measure efficiency)

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

#569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not to be pendantic (but to be pendantic) 80psi is the correct pressure for 28mm tires ridden briskly on good roads. At least according to ye olde Silca tire pressure calculator. Back in the day when folks ran 23mm tires they would typically run above 100psi (though that may not have been optimal...).

That calculator is wrong. Cycling people have been overinflating their tires for ages (as well as using too-narrow tires), with the assumption that the ground is perfectly smooth. Lower pressures yield higher efficiency (and better comfort) on rougher surfaces.

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

#570
post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back when I roller skated, the ultimate question: you see a person and a dog, several meters apart. Is there a leash between them? :-)

Oof. If yes, you might be about to get nailed. If no, will the dog run after me and bite me? I’ve had a dog on my heels doing doing 40kmh. They were at my heel, past the back of my rear tyre. I was briefly a competitive sprint cyclist.

FWIW, it's better to stop and talk to the dog. Dogs don't really want to bite you, most will just chase you and don't really even know why. If you stop and confront them, they are confused and don't know what to do next.

Get off the bike on the side opposite of the dog and keep the bike between you and the dog just in case, if you are afraid.

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