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Author Topic: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners  (Read 9641 times)

yoyospin

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Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« on: March 01, 2017, 07:12:41 PM »

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the Earl of Whirl

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Re: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« Reply #1 on: March 01, 2017, 08:51:47 PM »

Looks like fun.  A stem with a tip might also be fun!!!
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Jeremy McCreary

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Re: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2017, 11:02:43 PM »

Very cool design, Ed. Any plans for a finger top with the same rotor?
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yoyospin

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Re: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2017, 09:27:04 PM »

Very cool design, Ed. Any plans for a finger top with the same rotor?

Thanks...I tried putting a bike chain on the top shown below, but getting the dimensions right is just about impossible on a hand turning, with no CNC support.
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the Earl of Whirl

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Re: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2017, 08:16:24 PM »

Kids in the neighborhood have been showing up with fidget spinners so I have been checking them out.  Here is a video where he turns one into a top...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pszp6-5-ls8
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the Earl of Whirl

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Re: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« Reply #5 on: May 21, 2017, 05:56:27 PM »

Fidget spinners continue to dominate the toy news in our area.  Stores order them and continue to sell out time and time again.  I carry a couple in my pocket (they are nice and flat) and almost always find someone to spin with.  Of course, once I get their attention I pull out my stem and turn one into a spinning top. 

Yesterday I rode my six foot unicycle through downtown Miamisburg in the annual Spring Fling parade.  I will be 64 in a couple of weeks and would like to take this moment to gloat and brag a bit about finishing the whole course without a fall!!!  For the fun of it, I took my fidget spinner and spun while riding.  It was amazing how I connected with kids much more than ever.  No longer did  anyone say "look at that tall unicycle" or "see that old man on that one wheel" or "what an idiot".  What I heard time and time again was "look......he's got a fidget spinner!!!"
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Jeremy McCreary

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Re: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2017, 10:20:46 PM »

Kids in the neighborhood have been showing up with fidget spinners so I have been checking them out.  Here is a video where he turns one into a top...

That video inspired the one below...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rl5JhY7Y-Y

Spins ~9 sec as a top and up to 14 sec as a spinner.



Details on blog page.

This one, too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsyD4iTeWFM

Gear and bearing friction and lousy aerodynamics make short spin times par for the course with planetary spinners, but no matter: When I dumped a pile of LEGO fidgets on the table at a recent committee meeting, they were snatched up and seldom put down -- especially the planetaries.

My favorite planetary spinner (orange below) goes ~6 sec with a nice mechanical sound. It doubles as a tops at 2:28 and 5:47 below.



Details in video description and on blog page.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2017, 10:25:48 PM by Jeremy McCreary »
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yoyospin

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Re: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2017, 11:33:33 PM »

Here's some new ones. I call these "ChainSaw" bike spinners:














« Last Edit: May 22, 2017, 01:16:09 AM by yoyospin »
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Jeremy McCreary

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Re: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« Reply #8 on: May 22, 2017, 04:01:40 AM »

Here's some new ones. I call these "ChainSaw" bike spinners:

Beautiful, Ed! What kind of spin times are you getting?
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yoyospin

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Re: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« Reply #9 on: May 22, 2017, 10:38:26 AM »

Here's some new ones. I call these "ChainSaw" bike spinners:

Beautiful, Ed! What kind of spin times are you getting?

The steel bearing ChainSaws go for about 2 minutes. Ceramic bearings...maybe a little longer. Here's a video of the little buggers in action:

https://youtu.be/nxTr02Xfxxo
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the Earl of Whirl

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Re: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« Reply #10 on: July 12, 2017, 10:53:22 PM »

So so so many stores now offer fidget spinners.  It is so weird....so I have been asking a few people in these businesses how their fidget spinner sales have been.  Amazingly, they say that they are still selling - just not as quickly as they once were.

And with this post I can claim the "grand slam" of the NSTR section as I have the last four NSTR posts!!!
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Jeremy McCreary

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Re: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« Reply #11 on: July 13, 2017, 12:26:05 PM »

Amazingly, they say that they are still selling - just not as quickly as they once were.

More evidence that the fidget spinner fad is still going strong: The LEGO planetary fidget video I shared earlier in this thread now has over 60,000 views with no sign of slowing down. That's roughly 300 times my previous average for a LEGO video and over 4 times my previous best!

This video also smashes my previous records for number of likes, dislikes, and comments. But alas,  the microwave platter I used as a spinning surface is drawing almost as many comments as the spinners themselves. Go figure.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2017, 12:37:53 PM by Jeremy McCreary »
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Jeremy McCreary

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Re: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« Reply #12 on: July 21, 2017, 12:18:30 PM »

Well, the fidget spinner craze must be alive and well: The planetary fidget video above has reached 105k views with 5-10k more added each day now! That's well over 500 times my previous average for a LEGO video.

In second place at over 26k now is this older video of my LEGO planetary top starters....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu93GZffA58

Oddly, these starters are also very popular at LEGO shows -- even among folks showing other evidence of interest in either mechanical things or tops.

Is there something about planetary gears I don't know about?
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the Earl of Whirl

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Re: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« Reply #13 on: July 21, 2017, 09:38:51 PM »

Congratulations on all the interest in your videos.  I do not see many fidget spinners in action around these parts but I do see more and more unique ones for sale......like the one I saw yesterday with the Cleveland Cavaliers logo on it (plus many other NBA, NFL and MLB teams).
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the Earl of Whirl

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Re: Cycling themed Fidget Spinners
« Reply #14 on: August 31, 2017, 02:34:13 PM »

I was skimming through some threads as a reward for getting the church newsletter out and ran across this one again.  I find it quite humorous that now I am seeing more and more signs at stores advertising fidget spinners as "two for the price of one."
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