geez, some crusty folks here
I like bells, though I don't have any on my mt bikes. But two timber bells are on order (they are neat, on/off function)
Live in NJ and it's the law but I rarely hear them on the trails.
There's a local park which has tight trails with lots of blind turns. Even at 7am, others guys training for races like me are chasing KOMs (lol) and there's 2-3 near misses each time weekend. Which is why I like riding with my buddies with the timber bells. You can hear them much early than the bikes themselves. Now if everyone were to have i9 hubs we wouldn't have this conversation....