Granite Cricket Bell review £20.00
Everything you could need from a bell for off-road riding
Ty Rutherford
|
Jun 15 2021 |
Accessories - misc
Overall
Quality
Performance
Value
What's good?
- Cowbell mode
- Loud and clear sound
- Quiet when not in use
What's not?
- A little bulky perhaps
Buy if...
You want to alert other trail users of your presence
The Granite Cricket Bell looks like a classic bicycle bell but has a handy cowbell feature and can be mounted to a range of bar sizes. It works flawlessly and is well priced in the market. If you need to alert trail users of your presence, this is a solid option.
The Cricket Bell may look like any other bicycle bell; however, some well-thought-out features make this a handy bit of kit. First and foremost is the mounting kit that allows the bell to be mounted anywhere on your handlebar, whether near the stem (35mm or 31.8mm diameter) or the grips (22.2mm). This flexibility allows the bell to be near your thumb or mounted elsewhere if your cockpit is already busy.
Granite Bell_2.JPG, by Ty Rutherford
The other great feature of this bell is the two modes; one as a regular bike bell ding when you use the hammer, and one as a cowbell ringing on its own free will when the bell is pulled down.
These features proved to be very helpful on a recent trip to Scotland, riding on paths populated with hikers and large families. On the rougher descents where reaching for the bell striker was not an option, the cowbell took care of alerting people to my incoming presence. However, I had to remember to pull the bell down and activate cowbell mode before dropping in.
The sound was loud and clear with an impressive range which gave plenty of time for walkers to disperse to the side of the trail. However, I did find the cowbell to not work on smoother sections of trail and therefore pushed the bell back up to engage regular bell mode. Again, the sound was loud and clear, as you’d expect. However, whilst in this mode, the bell stayed reassuringly quiet down trails with no rattling or accidental ringing even on the roughest of descents.
Granite Bell_3.jpg, by Ty Rutherford
At £20, the Granite Cricket Bell seems a little expensive “for a bell”; however, it actually represents good value for money compared to others on the market. I think the clever features and solid build quality mean that the price is quite reasonable, especially when comparing to its direct competition, the Timber Bell, which has fewer features and is bulkier for £25.
Granite has designed a seemingly simple mountain bike accessory that is well thought out, works flawlessly and manages to one-up the standard market offerings. If you need a bicycle bell for off-road riding, the Cricket Bell is hard to overlook.
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7 comments
thanks a lot for the side by side comparison! I have a Spurcycle and a Timber! on my bars and wondered if this was a good replacement.
Shorter ding than the Spurcycle but not bad either.
I've got a Timber! Trail Bell (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av18OTkM9dg which looks very similar bar the additonal striker.
It was actually a really good most of the time, particular around town, shared use paths, cycle lanes etc. The cow bell sound did an excellent job of gently letting people know someone was around (assuming no ear wires). However, there were two flaws that meant it now languishes in the draw of left over bells, old bike lights, mounts and other assorted stuff that probably should go to the tip.
Firstlly, and not such a big-deal, it was useless in emergency warning situations, which it sounds like they've fixed with addition of extra striker.
The second, and thing that killed it for me, was that when the going was rough and fast, i.e. just when you least want to be faffing to turn it off, it made such an agressive, unpleasant racket that it would scare horses and upset walkers in the next county - let alone those you might want to try and get past in the next hundred yards.
If these guys have figured out how to fix the crazy, unpleasant ringing problem down, then I'd be interested in the update.
Pumping, I meant to write pumping.
Where is the edit function?
Pumping, I meant to write pumping.
Where is the edit function?
Does puming the bars a bit, to compress and release the forks make it ring?
I guess the main thing with a bell, which is difficult to replicate in words, is the sound it makes. Maybe best to have a video of it side by side with some kind of reference?
https://www.instagram.com/p/CP5oh01BPIb/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link