"The cymbal" is rarely just one sound. A ride cymbal alone has three completely different voices depending on where the stick lands; a crash cymbal has two; a china or splash is its own colour entirely. The drummer who knows the geography of their cymbals has an enormous expressive range.
Bow. The wide flat area between the bell and the edge. The default ride sound: clear stick definition, a steady "ping," some wash underneath. Most jazz and fusion ride lives here.
Bell. The raised dome at the centre. Cuts through everything — high, brassy, almost like a cowbell. Used as an accent inside a ride pattern (Latin, gospel, fusion) or as the ride voice itself in mambos and certain rock songs (Phil Collins, "In the Air Tonight" verse hi-hat-bell motif).
Edge / "crash zone." The outer rim of the cymbal. Strike it with the shoulder of the stick and the ride momentarily becomes a crash — fast attack, lots of wash. Useful when you want to crash without leaving the ride.
Crash. Designed for one purpose: short, loud, broad burst on a downbeat or song-section change. Strike with the shoulder of the stick at the edge, never the tip on the bow. A hesitant crash is a wrong crash — commit fully or don't hit it.
Splash. A small crash. Faster attack, faster decay, smaller. Used as a percussive accent inside a phrase, where a full crash would be too much.
China. A trashy, dirty crash. Used as a sentence break — at the end of a fill, on a rare loud accent, or in metal as a stand-in for the regular ride. Always musical, never random.
John Riley (in The Art of Bop Drumming) is explicit about this: bop ride patterns are not just rhythms, they are colour choices. The same pattern played at the bow vs. the bell tells the band two different stories.