User:Jmacalister/The Wheel of Death

The Wheel of Death (Commonly known as WOD) is a tubeless bicycle wheel with an independent rope running through the rim as a large pulley.

Similarly to the seesaw a person holds onto each end of the rope and take turns to jump into the air aided by the ballast weight and pulling action of the other person.

Currently all equipment is brought to the park on the "Wheel of Death Day", assembled within 30mins on average and disassembled upon completion with no impact upon the environment.

Origins
Invented around 1990 by teenagers David Eliezer and James Bailey in Violet Town. The prototype model was made from an old BMX bicycle, twisted rope and wooden dowel handles made from an old broomstick. Originally hung from a Willow tree overhanging the Honeysuckle Creek near the railway viaduct in Violet Town.

This prototype model had no rope guides on the bicycle rim and subsequently would derail itself frequently from the rim to hang jammed around the axle between the bicycle fork and spokes requiring a person to climb up the tree to realign the rope into the bicycle rim.

After moving to Adelaide in 1993 Jake Macalister began making and modifying the original design.

Mechanics
The headset frame, bearings, wheel and front forks are taken from a complete bicycle.

The headset component allows the wheel fork to spin independently and continuously within 360° which eliminates rope entanglement and twist.

Historically the top tube of the bicycle frame was cut at the seat post, flattened and bent circularly over the top of the forks to be welded back to the headset tube centered above the forks enabling a looped attachment point to secure it to a tree branch.

The wheel has the inner tube and tire removed to allow the rope to seat in the groove of the bicycle rim.

Improvements
Further improved designs began in 1996 with 3mm plywood bicycle rim profile guides screwed onto the fork shoulders to facilitate rope alignment during operation and eliminate derailment.

In 2001 experiments were carried out using twisted fibre rope as hand loops in place of the "Wheel of Death" incident. Hand loops consisted of loop spliced fibre twisted rope that were painful to use which were rejected in favour of the old broomstick dowel style handles.

In 2003 after The Wheel of Death incident the entire setup was replaced with a mountain bike 700c rim and forks, the top tube of the bicycle was removed and a separate attachment point was welded on. Rope hand loops & broomstick dowels were replaced with 25mm tube tape webbing which worked well.

In 2005 the Wheel of Death underwent a complete makeover to remedy all suggested design flaws from participants.

The headset tube was replaced with a new steel tube, a welded diamond attachment point and black powder coating for corrosion resistance.

This enabled a central attachment point but still allowed spanner access to the headset bearings atop the fork assembly.

The sides were reinforced with 2mm plate steel welded to the fork shoulders to extend past the axle point & double nut on the axle.

The axle was replaced with a BMX high tensile axle.

The ropes were replaces with 20Kn 9mm black static kernmantle rope.

The hand loops were upgraded to 25Kn 50mm tube tape webbing.

The Wheel and hand loops gained 25Kn karabiner attachment points.

The hand loops gained 40Kn swivels.

The Divers Weight Belt with 12kgs was introduced to balance participants.

In 2007 the Sherril Big Shot an 8ft Aborists sling shot was added to the kit to aid setting the wheel in the tree.

Naming
Historically The Wheel of Death had always been know as "That Rope and Wheel Thing". In 2001 a Wheel of Death Day was impromptly held in Hyde Park, Adelaide with the original wooden dowel grips, that resulted in one participant exclaiming "I can't hold on much...." as he consequently released his hold on his end of the rope. This resulted in the other participant plummeting to the earth with great speed enough to cause his body to bounce upon the ground with a spectacular a belly flop.

Since that day forward it has always been known as the "Wheel of Death".

Advertising
Since the ill fated belly flop of 2001 and the subsequent stigmatized Wheel of Death name, all production material and advertising has been modeled upon that paradigm. Always advertising everything with macabre and gore seemed to enlist the folk most suited to adventure sports. "No Cry Babies" being one of the catch cries seemed to weed out the week as we only wanted the fool hard & brave to try their hand at our new sport.

Wheel of Death Days
Wheel of Death Days will entail a flash group gathering of people in a park having a BBQ or kicking a football. The WOD would arrive & get placed quickly so as not to arouse suspicion, the activities would the go unharmed except for the odd intruder who invariably ask "How did you get that up there?".

Getting it up there
How do you get it up there?

This is simply the most asked question of random bystanders who come across the WOD in the park.

Initially the crew arrive with all equipment in bags, the first step is to catapult a weighted sand bag over the prospecting tree limb with bricklayers cotton or string mounted on a large fishing hand spool. Next the 9mm static climbing rope is attached to the end of the brickies cotton and drawn back over the prospecting tree limb. Finally the WOD is attached by a figure 8 on bight with a rope protector and drawn back up to the tree limb.\

At the end of the day the wheel is simply untied and the rope released as the wheel returns to the ground.

Philosophy
To get the most out of your jumping experience you need to work with you partner.

Use the divers weight belt to balance the weight between you and your partner.

When your partner jumps pull them into the air with all your might.

When your partner is at center of their travel arc (directly under the wheel), sit up & jump your whole body weight off the ground.

You partner will do the same for you.