Right within arm's reach of my computer sits a tireless bicycle wheel. The quick release handle is stuck down into the top of a pipe that's part of my drill press. This way, the wheel freely rotates about two feet off the ground. The quick release works nicely. I found it in some bushes one day. I constantly reach over to spin it. It spins well; more than a minute for each good, hard spin. Very addictive and calming. When it slows down, a few turns before it stops, you realize that it isn't perfectly balanced. One hole is drill in the rim. It coincides with the light side but I can't tell for sure if that's the only factor. Directly across from it is the seam where the two ends of the channel were connected together after it was bent into the shape of the rim. So I don't know if that's a heavy spot or not. I would guess so.

I want to do something with it. Maybe something like a water wheel. I've been wedging pennies in it like slats, then making it rotate by dropping more pennies on it. I don't have any good ideas yet. It has always got that nice gyroscope thing going on. That's a nice property of movement that you can feel but it's too obscure from daily life for me to make something of that element. The clicky, ratchet sound is still fully intact on it. We'll see what happens. If I continue to play with it as often as I do now, I'm bound to come up with something of decency.

posted by cliff

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