I not only have a cool gremlin bell that the family gave me last Christmas, in my saddlebag I also have a small hand-woven cross made by a nun from a remote Greek monastery that I received 2 years ago during a trip there. It's all about what you believe; no right or wrong answer.

"A man is what he thinks about all day long" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

It's not that I believe the bell does anything for me. It's the thought a friend wanted all the best for me that makes it special in my mind. So mine is hung with pride.

 

Nice thread revival!

I'd never heard of a gremlin bell until I saw one on a friends bikes and he told me the story and how to get one. So my wife bought me a USMC bell. Sadly, unless you get close to it, you can't see the Marine emblem but I know what it is.

 

You have a good wife. Sad to say and I've seen many that don't seem to understand, from what I believe, the bell needs to be put on a person's bike by a person that cares about them in order to work. I've known many that try to buy the bells themselves or somebody sends them a bell to put on their own bike and according to legend, that isn't the way that it is supposed to be if they want it to work right.

 

Never heard that someone else has to put it on your bike for you. Just that it works best if it is given to you as a gift.

 

There might be different interpretations about it but that is just the way that I heard it by some friends that ride. Also, according to the story, the old man put the bells on the bikes of those that helped him out so that is also one reason why I tend to lean that way in my thinking.

 

I don't care who you are or how you feel about them Tufel has the right answer.
If they care about enough to give you one you hang it.

Like I was once told, no matter macho you are if a 3 yr old hands you a toy phone and says "it's for you," you answer that call."

Some things in life you do not because you believe in it but because someone else believes in you.

I have one with a beautiful cross on it that showed up in my mailbox one day. Giver anonymous.

 

I don't believe it them saving me from anything...*knock on wood*...but why tempt them? (Rubs rabbit foot). I just think it's a fun tradition.