I have one.......................

 

Get serious. This is 2014, NOT 1600's Salem.

 

Hope so, my missus surprised me the other day with one for my bike she got me for xmas but thought I could have early

 

Yes they works as well as a lucky rabbits foot, a St. Christopher, a lucky horse shoe, etc. etc. I'll take all the luck I can get as well as my experience and skill.

 

That's relatively current. Some of the things people say they rely on for good luck date back 2000 years.

 

True story: I have a friend that has one on his motorcycle and its really noticeable on his frame. I look at it every time he drops his bike or lays it down and we help to pick it up.
Is there a front and back to the bells? He might have it on backwards.
In the meantime he's gotten one of those kits that adds two large wheels to the rear and makes it kinda look like a trike. It seems to bring him better luck than the bell.

 

Got 2 on my Road King, not taking chances.

 

Many of our superstitions are based on fact.

Knock on Wood: Pagans believed that living things including trees had a spiritual awareness. When they died, they turned hollow or rotten and were taken over by the evil spirits. Knocking on the tree to find out if it was hollow (ie rotten) inside made sense when you only had a hand axe, perhaps stone to chop it down. Knocking on trees went away with chain saws. Anyway all good fairies have moved to plastic.
Black Cats crossing your path. Black Cats were originally good luck, then early christian decided to label then evil and tied them to people labelled witches, so they could steal their land and property. Therefore, if became bad luck after the 1600's to own a black cat and from there, have one walk across your path.
Walking under a Ladder..Well if someone is on it, they could drop something on you or you could startle them and they could fall. Here the Christians just took advantage that a ladder against something looked like a triangle and that might be a Trinity, so if you walked through it you must be the devil.
Lucky Rabbits foot. When you killed the right rabbit, it was a witch in her familiar form, so you wore the foot to show other witches you were not to be trifled with.
Lucky 13. Loki, the Norwegian God crashed into Valhalla making the number 13 Gods and chaos ensued, Judas was the 13th guest at the last supper and we all know what happened there. In ancient times were 12 zodiac constellations, each ruling for 1000 years, then old fashion chaos in the 13th.
But the bell. There are so many good things that happen with bells that it was only logical that someone would give you one for your bike. Almost all bells represented something good. Cure fever, end bad weather, chase away evil, announce new angels earning their wings, etc. If we remove all the religious reasons, we are still left with the fact that bells were used to announce the presence or whereabouts of your farm animals. From cow bells in the Alps, to bells on hunting dogs, bells told the owner just where the animal was. That adapted to early horse drawn wagons, then bicycles, and then the little ring-a-ding on your own first bike or trike. Here it was used to alert your parents that you were riding past the front door or some such other equally magnificent feat for a 4 or 5 year old. So maybe the bell of today, now that bikes are louder and way to fast for even most horns to be very useful, are a link to your own early biking, where pedaling and ringing were the only concerns you had all day.

All of this is made up for your benefit and does not represent the opinions of any rational person . I had the time and interest because I am glad that my friend in Texas sent me a new lone star Texas ride bell as a gift when I got my new bike.

 

 

Well this one didn't work..