Tuesday, September 13, 2011

A Bicycle Wheel Clock

This gives new meaning to bicycle education.  It is time (no pun intended) to start teaching my 4 year old how to tell time.  Something I do fairly often with all of this fujicraziness is rebuild the wheels on these old fujis I find.  If the rim is aluminum  and still straight, I will reuse it and just use new spokes.  However, if the rim is steel I won't reuse it.  Steel rims are not good in the rain, and they are quite heavy.  However, they make excellent clocks!  Thirty six spoke holes makes for a perfectly round (no pun intended) number and sufficient space to fit all 12 numbers.  My daughter's bathtub numbers worked perfectly as I was able to push the spokes through them for stability.  I had to use cardboard for multiple '1's and I couldn't find the spongy number 2.  An old recordable CD and some heavy colored cardboard pieces for the arms finished it off nicely.  Every hour we go to the clock to see what time it is.  She is beginning to get the concept.  

By the way, this is a Ukai rim.  It is this model that is most likely to be found on these old fujis, and they really are great rims.  They are usually just fine to rebuild with, and remain straight and strong.  

1 comment:

Lim Soo 林蘇 said...

I guess it is to teach your girl only and not to use as a clock. Sure it is easy to find the clock movement device then you can use it as clock.