Hells Bells

[drgannet]

Elementary screwdriver   https://tinkerandfix.co.uk/collections/elementary-screwdrivers
I have no real need for it, but it is so well designed.

Oh dear, you really shouldn't have posted a link to that website. It is going to be expensive...

[mr ben]

Any more ridiculous but nevertheless oh-so-satisfying bling? Let's all share in the "this was expensive but I am so happy I bought it" glow.

Not ridiculous but definitely shiny: Gilles Berthoud stainless steel mudguards.  They were a bugger to fit, but have been faultless ever since.  I'd destroyed multiple SKS chromoplastic ones before these.

[ravenbait]

Those are very shiny.

Sam

[Canardly]

Get thee behind me.......

[Regulator]

Elementary screwdriver   https://tinkerandfix.co.uk/collections/elementary-screwdrivers
I have no real need for it, but it is so well designed.

You absolute git...

[Paul H]

Tubus ti racks, yes plural, I have a Titan and an Airy, they have no added practicality that justifies them costing three times the price of the steel equivalents.  Their only possible purpose is to allow Tailfin owners to think they got a bargain.  In my defense... No I'm not even going to bother with the lies... I like them and that's it, I would buy them again.
More practical bling, to the extent of probably being my best ever cycling buys, are the 20+ year old Rohloff and SON hubs, which have outlived several bikes.  I'm so glad I got the polished silver rather than the anodised later versions.  It's really satisfying to get the Silvo out once every few years and polish them back to a mirror finish.
Back to bells, I like the clear note of a brass ping bell, but so many of them are IMO aesthetically ruined by ugly fittings.  The Crane Mini Karen doesn't suffer from this, has a nice note which just hangs, isn't stupidly expensive, or too big.  I can get a decent range in volume and it's easy to multi-ping.  I do also like those big ding-dong bells, but they take up a lot of handlebar, get muffled when wet and on a sample of one, are very nickable.

[ravenbait]

Tubus ti racks, yes plural, I have a Titan and an Airy, they have no added practicality that justifies them costing three times the price of the steel equivalents.  Their only possible purpose is to allow Tailfin owners to think they got a bargain.  In my defense... No I'm not even going to bother with the lies... I like them and that's it, I would buy them again.
More practical bling, to the extent of probably being my best ever cycling buys, are the 20+ year old Rohloff and SON hubs, which have outlived several bikes.  I'm so glad I got the polished silver rather than the anodised later versions.  It's really satisfying to get the Silvo out once every few years and polish them back to a mirror finish.
Back to bells, I like the clear note of a brass ping bell, but so many of them are IMO aesthetically ruined by ugly fittings.  The Crane Mini Karen doesn't suffer from this, has a nice note which just hangs, isn't stupidly expensive, or too big.  I can get a decent range in volume and it's easy to multi-ping.  I do also like those big ding-dong bells, but they take up a lot of handlebar, get muffled when wet and on a sample of one, are very nickable.

I considered the Tubus ti rack for Hamish, but ended up with a Tailfin. Case proven! 

Not keen on the Karen, but that did introduce me to the Crane Suzu, which in the brass model has an amazing ring. It sounds like beating, where there are two tones not quite the same, but close enough that we hear the same pitch with a pulsing effect. The Woodstock Zenergy chime does this. I kind of want a Suzu just to have. It's too big for my handlebars, though.

Sam

[drossall]

I've remarked on it before, but I don't really use bells. I prefer to whistle a merry tune. The sound carries well, isn't aggressive, and seems to work in alerting people to my presence while I'm still some distance away. Less fear of scaring horses as well.

I do have one on my Brompton, integrated with the left shifter. Which is the problem. Every time I change gear, I risk upsetting some innocent pedestrians, minding their own business and doing nothing to cause alarm.

[cycleman]

Hello bell

https://photos.app.goo.gl/G9ZjNpYBVpMf72Fb8

[Kim]

I do have one on my Brompton, integrated with the left shifter. Which is the problem. Every time I change gear, I risk upsetting some innocent pedestrians, minding their own business and doing nothing to cause alarm.

Also, potholes.

On the other hand, it's all worth it for the little typewriter-esque PING! you get when you allow the handlebars to drop into place under gravity at the end of the fold.

[Pingu]

Ah, yes. I can grade the roughness of a road by Mrs P's bell auto-dinging.

[Ian H]

Elementary screwdriver   https://tinkerandfix.co.uk/collections/elementary-screwdrivers
I have no real need for it, but it is so well designed.

I'll have to disagree - form over function.  Stanley screwdrivers are better.

[Ian H]

Any more ridiculous but nevertheless oh-so-satisfying bling? Let's all share in the "this was expensive but I am so happy I bought it" glow.

Not ridiculous but definitely shiny: Gilles Berthoud stainless steel mudguards.  They were a bugger to fit, but have been faultless ever since.  I'd destroyed multiple SKS chromoplastic ones before these.

Indeed, and a negligible weight difference.  My 'fun' bike photographed by Richard before I took it away.

[yoav]

_{[1] Anyone want to lend me a high-end Bosch e-bike and a canbus adaptor?}

Kim, I'm not entirely sure what you are thinking of but someone on the Rohloff Facebook group was trying to sell the Rohloff e-14 shifting mechanism they'd stripped out of an e-Bike and replaced with a mechanical shifter. The various replies to it asked if electronic shifting could be adapted to work with a regular bike and also lamenting that Rohloff wouldn't sell the e-14 separately and that even if they did then they didn't have the electronics knowhow to make it work.

[Kim]

_{[1] Anyone want to lend me a high-end Bosch e-bike and a canbus adaptor?}

Kim, I'm not entirely sure what you are thinking of but someone on the Rohloff Facebook group was trying to sell the Rohloff e-14 shifting mechanism they'd stripped out of an e-Bike and replaced with a mechanical shifter. The various replies to it asked if electronic shifting could be adapted to work with a regular bike and also lamenting that Rohloff wouldn't sell the e-14 separately and that even if they did then they didn't have the electronics knowhow to make it work.

Yes, basically that.  It wasn't an entirely serious suggestion.  I expect I'd manage to reverse engineer the communications given a bit of work, but there's a world of difference between that and being able to produce a control unit that's sufficiently robust to do the Rohloff justice.

This is presumably why it only works with e-bike systems at this point: By borrowing someone else's proven control unit and power source, they can concentrate on getting the shifting motor part right, and develop the stand-alone system later when they've recouped some of the development costs.

Better that that a half-arsed solution like the Falco e-bike console^[1].


_{[1] Which lets down a perfectly competent motor.}

[yoav]

My wife has a R&M e-Bike with the Rohloff e-14 but I don't think she'll part with it, even temporarily  It is quite an impressive system integrating the Rohloff hub with the Bosch motor and handlebar display. I'm not sure any of the other e-bike systems have this level of integration between motor and gears, apart from the e-Pinion possibly.

Previously, I might have considered it bling but not any more.

[Kim]

My wife has a R&M e-Bike with the Rohloff e-14 but I don't think she'll part with it, even temporarily  It is quite an impressive system integrating the Rohloff hub with the Bosch motor and handlebar display. I'm not sure any of the other e-bike systems have this level of integration between motor and gears, apart from the e-Pinion possibly.

STEPS with the Enviolo system (which is in a league of its own, really, being continuously variable and able to shift under full load^[1]) is pretty well done. 

STEPS with a Di2 Alfine hub is competently integrated, but I'm betting the e-14 is substantially more slick at gear changes.


_{[1] I urge anyone who gets the opportunity to have a ride on one of these, for the sheer novelty value of it keeping your cadence constant.}

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Hello bell

https://photos.app.goo.gl/G9ZjNpYBVpMf72Fb8

I have one like that with pop art on it.  It's possible to do a simple 'ting' or a noise that sounds like there is a tram coming.  Got it 2nd hand for 3 squid

[cycleman]

Bloody autocarrat. It's meant to be hell Bell 🔔

[L CC]

Elementary screwdriver   https://tinkerandfix.co.uk/collections/elementary-screwdrivers
I have no real need for it, but it is so well designed.

I'll have to disagree - form over function.  Stanley screwdrivers are better.

I couldn't buy any'thing with such a need'less apostrophe. Ugh.

See also: Wahoo modls mssng thr vwls.

Wank.

Back to the topic at hand. I have power meter pedals which for someone as mediocre powered as me is entirely frippery. I love them.

[Jurek]

Elementary screwdriver   https://tinkerandfix.co.uk/collections/elementary-screwdrivers
I have no real need for it, but it is so well designed.

I'll have to disagree - form over function.  Stanley screwdrivers are better.

I couldn't buy any'thing with such a need'less apostrophe. Ugh.

See also: Wahoo modls mssng thr vwls.

Wank.

Back to the topic at hand. I have power meter pedals which for someone as mediocre powered as me is entirely frippery. I love them.

Shirly the 'postrophe should be betwixt the 't' and the 'y' and the 'ar' absent.

[fd3]

I have a spacer mounted bell what were cheap on px.  I get as many pedestrians telling me off for pinging as not pining (whether I have or not).
I bought my first son hub 14 years ago, well worth it.
My crazy expense would be the catrike which I love but ride incredibly infrequently.

[Zed43]

Any more ridiculous but nevertheless oh-so-satisfying bling? Let's all share in the "this was expensive but I am so happy I bought it" glow.

Global scissors for the look but especially the silky smooth feel when cutting things.

Snoek velomobile ridiculous and over the top expensive but I just love the thing to bits (after it got softer springs in the suspension) though the bell (well, claxon) is awful.

I bought a trekking bike with a Rohloff and Son28 in 1991, the Rohloff is now in a bespoke campeur (with 50k+ km combined on the clock) and that Son (obviously the campeur got a fancy Son SL) now lives in a new wheel in that trekking frame converted to a single speed commuter.