The quiet ding of many bike bells isn’t always enough to alert pedestrians or vehicles of a cyclist’s presence. Trek’s new BellBeats is a compact Bluetooth speaker that can be mounted to a bike’s handlebars giving cyclists a selection of eight quick-access alert tones that are either friendly or urgent.

Like a traditional bike bell, the alert tones on the BellBeats can be triggered while riding, using a thumb button. Cyclists can select two of eight tones — including a ringing metal bell, a subdued train horn, or an old-timey ahooga horn — that are activated with either a long or short press of the button.

Trek claims the BellBeats’ alert tones are more noticeable than the sounds made by traditional bike bells because they encompass a...

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