UC Davis researcher John Hess is trading cells for bells when the Amgen Tour of California comes to town.

Cowbells, to be exact. The kind you hear spectators clanging as the racers pass by in the Tour de France.

The Amgen tour, which takes off Feb. 15 from downtown Davis, is California’s answer to the French bike-racing extravaganza. And, if it can have cowbells, then so can the Amgen, courtesy of Hess and the California Bicycle Museum.

“Bells are a bike-racing tradition,” Hess said. “They’re great noisemakers, a great way to cheer on the racers.”

Come Amgen tour day in Davis, the museum will be selling the bells, emblazoned with the city of Davis logo on one side and the California Bicycle Museum insignia on the other.

UC Davis and the city of Davis are partners in the museum, and Hess is a member of the board of directors, which is working to establish a permanent home for the museum as a showcase for the university’s extensive bicycle collection. Part of it is on display through Amgen weekend in the basement of the city’s Third and B Street Building.

By day, Hess is a professional researcher in the Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy in the School of Medicine. Outside of work, he is a cycling enthusiast. This year, for example, as a member of the Davis Bike Club, he will coordinate Foxy’s Fall Century for the fourth year in a row.

And, on recent Saturdays, he has been volunteering as a docent at the bicycle museum’s Third and B Street exhibition.

“Our goals,” he said, referring to the museum’s board of directors, “are to find a home for the museum, and to convince the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame to move to Davis.”

Now, with the special bells, everyone else can show their support for the museum — and Amgen, too.

The bells — with UC Davis lanyards provided by the university’s Office of Government and Community Relations — will be sold for $10 each. Look for them at the bicycle museum tent near the Amgen starting line on C Street adjacent to Central Park, and at the bicycle museum’s exhibition in the basement of the Third and B Street Building.

And, while there, look for the 1916 Pierce-Arrow bicycle and pay particular attention to its bell: It was made by Bevin bells of Connecticut, the same company that, nearly 100 years later, made the cowbells that the bicycle museum will be selling during the Amgen Tour of California.

The California Bicycle Museum exhibition in the Third and B Street Building will be open only four more days: 9 a.m. to noon Feb. 7 and 14, 4 to 7 p.m. Feb. 11 and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 15. Admission is free, with donations accepted.

On the Net

California Bicycle Museum: californiabicyclemuseum.org

All about the Amgen Tour in Davis: story and details.

Symposium on the science of cycling.