Flapping Bicycle Mascot

pinshape

Ever felt like you're stuck in a rut, surrounded by Rolls-Royce owners cruising around your neighborhood while you're pedaling away on your trusty old bicycle to get to the office? Your coworkers giving you grief and snickering as they whizz by in their Bentleys or Mercedes Benzes? Well, there's an end to that misery! Pimp up your bike with a fancy mascot. And why not go all out - add a wind wheel hidden behind a sleek chrome grille, so when you're riding, it'll start flapping its wings and leaving those luxury limo owners green with envy. The Bicycle Mascot works just like the toy from your childhood days: the "jumping jack" (or "Hampelmann" in German). A pullstring lifts the wings, which drop back down due to their weight once the string is released. To make this happen while riding a bike, I came up with an idea using a wind wheel with a slightly off-center pin attached to the pullstring. The relative wind drives the wind wheel (an idea I used before in my bicycle bubble machine), causing the off-center pin to periodically yank the string about 1cm. Find step-by-step instructions with pictures here: http://www.instructables.com/id/... Note that the wing version isn't quite as smooth as the arms you can see in this video.