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  • What Ever Happened to Baby Joan?clickhere@mastodon.ie
    Apr 8, 2026, 3:42 PM

    @dec23k

    So, in the use-case scenario here, I'm on my bike, and I see that there's a person walking/wheeling ahead of me and they're wearing noise cancelling headphones.

    Question:

    Why do I need a bell?

    Assumptions:

    (a) If they're ahead of me and in my path, I'm either on a footpath, shared path, or carriageway;

    (b) I have seen them.

    Answers:

    (b) I have seen them;

    (a) If I'm on a footpath, I need to move; if I'm on a shared path, I need to wait; if I'm on a carriageway, I need to wait.

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  • Dec [{(:no_ai:)}]dec23k@mastodon.ie
    Apr 8, 2026, 5:23 PM

    @clickhere
    In your scenario, if you don't need a bell then you also don't need a Skoda bell (which may or may not cut through ANC).

    The video that I linked in the OP has a clip of a busy bridge in London, with a number of Obvious Tourist pedestrians who had stepped down from the footpath into the cycle lane.

    The web site and PDF mention 2 frequencies, and don't say whether different headphones have a different "blind spot" frequency.

    I'd advise field testing with tones before buying a bell.

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  • Sam (RB1 is back!)ravenbait@mastodon.scot
    Apr 8, 2026, 8:36 PM

    @clickhere @dec23k My use case for bells is that there are people ahead of me walking in the road, and I want to let them know I'm there when I'm far enough away that I won't startle them when passing politely (assuming it is safe to do so). Some people prefer a bell to a call -- sometimes a bell announces "bicycle" rather than "runner" in a way people prefer.

    I don't cycle on paths or the pavement.

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  • What Ever Happened to Baby Joan?clickhere@mastodon.ie
    Apr 8, 2026, 10:59 PM

    @ravenbait @dec23k Oh yeah, in general, I use a bell now and then, in a fairly similar way.

    But if I see that someone has noise cancelling headphones - or otherwise doesn't seem to have reacted to the sound of the bell (they may be deaf or hard of hearing) - then I'll adjust what I'm doing. (Like, I won't barge past, usually just take my time and wait for an opportunity to pass safely.)

    But this over-engineered, highly specific use-case? Nah.

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  • Dec [{(:no_ai:)}]dec23k@mastodon.ie
    Apr 9, 2026, 12:54 PM

    @clickhere @ravenbait
    I just saw something vaguely interesting in a video, and saw that nobody on Fedi had written about it. So I wrote something on Fedi about it, and then more than 100 accounts liked or boosted it.

    The video has quotes about "working with partners" in London, and "sharing this with the world", but Skoda seem to have only made enough bells for the field test, and aren't trying to sell them.

    Maybe they just want more people to be aware of Škoda's bicycle-manufacturer origins?

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  • Sam (RB1 is back!)ravenbait@mastodon.scot
    Apr 9, 2026, 12:59 PM

    @dec23k @clickhere Or who the *intended* audience is, I should say.

    Full disclosure: we have a car chez Ravenbait, and it is a Skoda. Other than it being a reliable workhorse that is relatively cheap to repair, I have no allegiance.

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  • Dec [{(:no_ai:)}]dec23k@mastodon.ie
    Apr 9, 2026, 1:27 PM

    @ravenbait @clickhere
    Full disclosure: I have never owned a car, and I no longer own a bicycle (was a daily rider until I had 4 stolen in the same 12 month period when I was living between the canals). Getting around mostly on foot and on public transport. Never had the car brain, but the rothar brain is still strong.

    I also don't own any ANC headphones, so I can't test for any possible "blind spot" frequencies.

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  • What Ever Happened to Baby Joan?clickhere@mastodon.ie
    Apr 9, 2026, 2:40 PM

    @dec23k Ker-ching!

    Yeah, Skoda have been leaning into the cycling buzz a fair bit over the years, so this could be more marketing, all right.

    I mean, I think it is interesting as an exploration of the physics, etc., but not so sure about the bike bell application - maybe emergency warnings in public places, or something?

    I must take a look at Fry's video, though, love her. She's such a nerd, and such a great communicator for normies like me.

    @ravenbait

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  • Sam (RB1 is back!)ravenbait@mastodon.scot
    Apr 9, 2026, 5:22 PM

    @clickhere @dec23k I'm certainly not the right market for their bell -- I have a couple of very loud, sustained, but discreet bells that I bought for their minimal handlebar real estate and delightful sound. That thing looks like you could use it as a life preserver if you fell in a canal! I will give them points for trying to build a bridge between motorists and cyclists, though, because we sorely need bridges.

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  • Lena Schimmellenaschimmel@chaos.social
    Apr 9, 2026, 7:36 AM

    @dec23k That 750 Hz bell that uses the 750 Hz gap in noise cancellation headphones seems to be all nice and good, until you look at the actual frequencies that the bell emits:

    - 1980 Hz (missing sometimes?)
    - 5040 Hz
    - 9000 Hz
    - 13300 Hz

    The image below was created using Specdroid while playing the video.

    Spectogram of the last minute of the video, ranging from 43Hz to 22KHz. Most of the sounds fill the range up to 12KHz almost continously. The bell produces four bright spikes as described in the toot. Near the top of the image, which corresponds to the end of the video, other sounds are muted and only the bell can be heard or seen. Further down, the bell rings two times in quick succession. The second time the lowest frequency is missing for some reason.
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  • Dec [{(:no_ai:)}]dec23k@mastodon.ie
    Apr 9, 2026, 12:22 PM

    @lenaschimmel
    So there isn't any 750Hz audible in the video?

    The 1980 Hz is probably the secondary resonator, missing sometimes maybe because the rider's glove was muting it?

    The higher frequencies could be harmonics or other resonances.

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  • Glen Tglent@aus.social
    Apr 9, 2026, 4:55 PM

    @dec23k This is rubbish. 750Hz is around F5#, the F# in the octave above middle C.

    So the claim is that if you put on your ANC headphones and run your fingers up the white and black keys, then a few notes will be particularly louder.

    If you have a piano or a keyboard, give it a go now. See for yourself. One of the cases where a cheaper instrument is better.

    If this really existed, audiophiles would be besieging the HQs of Sony, Bose and Apple over poor headphone performance whenever near the huge amount of popular music in F# minor.

    ---

    So of course I had to read the paper. Turns out the claim isn't that 750Hz is louder. The claim is that 700-800Hz is psychometrically more noticed. So this need not be a feature of ANC at all. It could be a feature of humans.

    And why are these frequencies more noticed as bicycle bells by human listeners. That would be because these frequencies are often used by bicycle bells. People pay more attention to the things they are listening for. Shocked I am.

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