A good bicycle bell is hard to find.

It needs to be quiet, with no rattling or unintentional dinging, when it ought to be quiet. Still, it needs to ring loud and true -- predictably and persistently, in varying weather conditions, and even after wear-and-tear -- when a person needs it to ring loud and true. A good bicycle bell needs to get people's attention, without being cutesy or annoying. And a good bicycle bell actually has a range of voices: full-throated ddddrrrrrrrinngs for when a person needs to cut through a crowd, but also soft-and-subtle tings for a courtesy signal when passing another bicyclist who is unaware of the traffic behind him.

I had a perfect bicycle bell once, here in Amsterdam. It had the vague imprint of a fancy royal crown on the chrome dome of the bell, and its plastic trigger was ribbed all the way around for maximum thumb comfort (if I remember correctly the bell looked very similar, though not completely identical, to the picture here on the left). But then something happened to it. I honestly don't remember if it was a crash or a theft or what. I don't remember because at the time I didn't realize that it was the perfect bicycle bell. But now that I've cycled through perhaps a dozen different bells, I see what a tragic loss that "something" really was.

I've looked in multiple shops throughout Amsterdam, trying to find the same type of bicycle bell... but it's been to no avail. Still almost every day -- any time I reach for my bicycle bell -- I think about it. I know it's lame to pine for such a cheap bicycle accessory, but I do it anyway.

So anyway, I say all of that to get to this point: If anyone knows where to find such a bell, I would be extremely grateful for any leads. If not, I suppose I'll live. But still, it doesn't hurt to hope.