I got one of these a few weeks ago off Woot. It’s easy enough to get on and off that its a really fun toy to use at night.
…and this is how you tron, real-life like.
awesome, bike lights to turn my road bike into light bike.
I bought this the last time it was on here. Here are my few observations:
1: The magnet mount for the wheel writer is extremely flimsy and broke off not even two days into ownership.
2: The two wheel contraptions need to be mounted as close to the middle hubs of the wheels as possible to get the maximum light effects. Mount them outward on a 26"+ wheel and the circular velocity won’t be fast enough to make it look cool unless you’re riding 40mph.
Other than that, it’s not a bad deal for the money.
Would this be something to use on a motorcycle to increase night visibility?
The Gyro Flasher and Wheel Writer will throw your motorcycle wheels horribly out-of-balance. I would rather recommend a decent set of LED’s but check with your local laws regarding the legality of using them while in motion.
As Above… I bought three of these in Sept on Woot. If you are really going 15 or more MPH, you will notice that your wheel may have a whup whup in it as these lights that attach to your spokes are heavy. and will put your tire out of balance and out of round. The blue rope light is cool but you will have to use some tape to keep it taunt/straight.
It does provide something unique to the night ride. Each box has three different units in them, and if your budget is tight, you can place each unit on a different bike… It is something fun to see in the dark hours.
It will keep you visible for all motorized traffic.
I bought two of these last time. They are junk. Both of the blue “neon” wrap around tubes failed and started overheating the batteries. I was unable to get the writers to write anything.
I love Woot!..but I disliked this.
I would agree with some of the other posters. The wheel units are heavy once you add the batteries and noticeably throw your wheels out of balance.
But that being said, my daughter really likes it and for $15, it’s a good deal.
I bought these last time they were up. Actually, I was suckered enough to buy 3 - thought they’d make great Christmas presents for the kids, and one for my bike.
I’ve opened two of them. One of the EL wires is bad. The EL wires were my fallback if the spoke things sucked, and to have one bad just, well, sucked. The things that fit in the spokes - don’t. If you can contrive a way to make them stay, they are extraordinarily heavy and are noticeable when riding - I mean the weight, not just the lights. You’d have to be doing probably 40 mph on your bicycle to get a good image with one of these mounted, otherwise you’ll be scratching your head saying something like, “WTH is that supposed to be?” Lastly, you can’t change the batteries without removing them again from the spokes.
I bought three. Three strikes against them. It was a bad purchase and I do not recommend.
This doesn’t make sense to me. At any given wheel speed, the light will make a single revolution at the same rate no matter where it is placed on the wheel.
It makes sense. You’re right in that the whole thing is traveling at the same speed, but a point at the end of the wheel travels a far greater distance than a point near the center of the wheel. The image is likely calibrated to a child’s bike rather than an adult size bike and the bigger wheels distort the image. If you remember the Olympics, it is why runners are staggered in any race that includes the bends in the track.
I bought a set of these last time also and think that they are complete junk.
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They require 3 AAA batteries to operate. Thats a lot of weight to add the the spokes of your tires and is going to make your ride A LOT more wobbly. I would say they would be okay if you were going 5-10 miles an hour but…
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You cant really see any images unless you are biking at 20-25 MPH. I had my biking buddy along side me with the wheel writer displaying speed and he couldnt make sense of it until we got going downhill at 22mph.
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the magnet for speed read out is bulky and snapped right off because the wheel writer bumped it.
4)The rope light (the reason I bought it) overheated for me too. It made a humming noise, then got hot and died.
With all that being said, these lights are bright and last a decent amount of time. If you want to keep your child safer at night, they would definitely help, and Im not sure a child would notice the downside of the heavy lights. Just don’t have any expectations when you get them! 
Thanks for all the comments. I’ll likely pass. Maybe I’ll change my mind tonight after picking my daughter up…nope, still not convinced.
I was going to buy these last time on Woot, but because of all the negative reviews I decided to drop some cash on the adult version: revolights.com
Maybe if woot gets involved with them I can afford a set for my girlfriend’s bike!
If you put the the two wheel units on opposite sides of the same wheel they balance perfectly and you don’t get any wobble. I actually bought two sets and put two of the picture ones in the back wheel and two of the colored ones in the front wheel. This way they make a solid picture at slow speeds.
you can also do your own balancing, by weighing it, and making a wheel balance (i usually just squirt epoxy on some wax paper on a scale, sculpt it into something that can be tied to the wheel opposite. and bam! fixed!