Cycloslalomeur
Senior Member
So I´m building cheap bike for a friend around one of those Planet X pig-iron frames (La Quelda) and an Automatix back-pedal brake hub, with one Tektro RL 340 brake lever thusly facing unemployment. I do have one of those massive ding-dong bells knocking about, so came up with the plan of mounting it on the headtube and simply threading a cable through the bell´s trigger. The bell has a fairly robust return spring. I was thinking of doing away with the faff of mounting a cable stop by simply gaffertaping the outer tightly around the handlebar. Has anybody else done something like this? I found a couple of old threads but they were mostly about taking the weewee out of the idea. Someone had posted photos but they´ve been removed by the photo-hosting site.
The way I see it, this unholy alliance between lever and bell has the twin advantages of leaving the bar uncluttered and of having a finger on the bell´s trigger most of the time. Until you crash with a cheery ding-dong soundtrack...
The way I see it, this unholy alliance between lever and bell has the twin advantages of leaving the bar uncluttered and of having a finger on the bell´s trigger most of the time. Until you crash with a cheery ding-dong soundtrack...
Why though? Handlebar tape would cover the gaffertape and the amount of force required to ring a bell is a fraction of that required to stop a bike with a caliper, so shirley the cable outer would stay in place if taped from the brake all the way to the stem. Or maybe not. If it slips, plan B is a band-on cable stop around the handlebar at the stem and a V-brake noodle from the small parts bin.
