Brighten up your bicycle with Hokey Spokes

1 April 2005 6:35 GMT / By Stuart Miles

A US company has come up with a novel way of sprucing up your bike riding. Called Hokey Spokes the transparent “blades” attach to your bike spokes.

As these blades spin during riding, a computer inside the blades modulates the internal string of LED lights to produce design images and custom text.

The user can decide on the number of spokes and a variety of colours they want to place on the bicycle wheel and up to 6 "blades" can be placed on each wheel. The more blades, the more visibility and persistence of vision at lower speeds.

The blades cycle through a number of pre-set designs, or alternatively, the blades can be programmed to display text messages that play continuously.

The blades actually synchronize with each other by communicating with
each other via an infrared communication scheme during spinning.
Therefore, you can pass along a message to another rider simply by placing your wheel next to theirs.