System, methods and apparatus offer improved coexistence of devices on a serial bus. A bus master coupled to a serial bus transmits a start condition on the serial bus, and a first series of pulses on a clock line of the serial bus, the pulses having a duration that is less than a maximum duration for spikes to be filtered in accordance with the I2C protocol. The bus master transmits a second series of pulses on the clock line, the pulses having a duration that is greater than or equal to a minimum duration for clock pulses defined by the I2C protocol, and uses the second series of pulses to transmit a data frame on the serial bus in accordance with a different protocol. A stop condition is transmitted on the serial bus in accordance with the I2C protocol after transmission of the data frame is completed.