The Great Bike Bell Protest of 1899

In mid-1899 the City Council of Los Angeles was at it again, thinking up new ways to regulate the use of bicycles within the city. Two of the most contentious, as far as wheelmen were concerned, were limits on speed, and the use of bike bells. Of all the various bicycling groups found on the city's streets, the one that took the forthcoming legislation most closely to heart were the messengers. As a group, the messengers, who were mostly boys, set out to elevate the use of bicycle bells to a most absurd and extreme level as a means of protest. Riding up and down the streets at all hours of the day and night, the continual ringing and clanging created quite a din and disturbance. We are not talking the little handlebar bells of today that you ring with a flick of a thumb. One enterprising youth, whom a reporter described as surely "born to be hanged," pulled a giant cowbell behind him which made a "most hideous noise," while others attached large dinner bells from mid-century, the kind used at country inns to call guests to meal. Apparently those meals were less than pleasant, and the ringing of those impromptu bike bells briought forth memories equated to "daylight nightmares."

Should the ordinance pass the Council's judgement, the reporter suggested a special clause should be included "for the special benefit of messenger boys and their ingenious instruments of torture."