I’m gonna order a wheelbuilder disc cover in a few weeks and I want to do something with it that makes it stand out. It’d be really cool to paint an optical illusion on it, like Benham’s disk, or a three-dimensional cone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_XDJ0QRgxE
can I paint on one or is there any method to do so? I’ve read that they have a finish, not sure how it’d affect its customizeability…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i6eD_rBBE4&feature=related Kind of opting for this one
Granted that its possible.
you could maybe get a graphic company to print you out a sticker to attach to it.
dont decals that big run 80+? It’d be cheaper to paint 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i6eD_rBBE4&feature=related Kind of opting for this one
Granted that its possible.
Awesome. It’d be a lot of work, but worth it.
I bought a vinyl disc cover sticker set from a mob in Hawaii http://www.ridealoha.com, $25 a set.
The swirl pattern would be kinda funky, I think they also do custom ones so you could ask them if they could do the optical pattern in the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i6eD_rBBE4&feature=related Kind of opting for this one
Granted that its possible.
Awesome. It’d be a lot of work, but worth it.
Uni Disc had a wheel cover like this in the 80’s
http://www.bikejournal.com/images/rschlumpHPIM1583.JPG
I had the google chrome logo spray painted on mine before I upgraded to an actual disc. My chromed out rims got alot of comments
I had the google chrome logo spray painted on mine before I upgraded to an actual disc. My chromed out rims got alot of comments
How well did the paint stay on the disc? The next thing I read was that with a lot of flexing the paint tends to crack really easily. I’m not worried about the extra hundred grams or so to make it look cool =P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i6eD_rBBE4&feature=related Kind of opting for this one
Granted that its possible.
I’m sure it’s possible to make the pattern, but you won’t get the same effect looking at it with your eyes in natural light. The weird effects can come from either using artificial light which cycles at some frequency (either 100 or 120Hz = double the line frequency of 50 or 60Hz) or from using a recording medium that samples the image at fixed time intervals. But if you just want it to look cool when someone videos you going by, then by all means go ahead! 
So optical illusion disc designs don’t work? The wheel is going to be spinning at different frequencies so doesn’t that count for something? I’m sure that the top they were spinning in the video was under a regular lamp. Since the design has several levels that causes it to seem like its spinning all funky the Hz they “react” at will be different, so wouldn’t it work anyways?
I had the google chrome logo spray painted on mine before I upgraded to an actual disc. My chromed out rims got alot of comments
How well did the paint stay on the disc? The next thing I read was that with a lot of flexing the paint tends to crack really easily. I’m not worried about the extra hundred grams or so to make it look cool =P
Mine stayed on pretty well with no cracking. I just used standard spray paint and painters tape for the design, but I also messed up and made the paint way too thick. It looked good, but it was pretty heavy. I also only used the cover for a couple hundred miles of training/racing so I don’t know if that’s enough time to crack.
A couple of ideas in this thread: http://forum.slowtwitch.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=2748395#2748395 Mine is the Felt B2Pro
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So optical illusion disc designs don’t work?
Nope – at least not that kind, that attempt to show any or part of the wheel spinning at different rates/stationary/backwards/etc.
The wheel is going to be spinning at different frequencies so doesn’t that count for something?
Nope.
I’m sure that the top they were spinning in the video was under a regular lamp.
A “regular” incandescent lamp cycles at 120Hz. And the video was probably taken at 30 frames per second (30Hz).
Since the design has several levels that causes it to seem like its spinning all funky the Hz they “react” at will be different, so wouldn’t it work anyways?
No. Your eyes don’t work like video cameras – they don’t ‘sample’ at fixed intervals, it’s more like a continuous readout (albeit with some non-instantaneous ‘response time’).
I’ll repeat again just so it’s clear: You can get the weird effects under artificial light that flickers at some rate (street lamps, incandescent lamps, etc). AND/OR you can get the weird effects by sampling the images at some fixed rate. But you will not get the effects if you observe the wheel directly with your eyeballs under constant illumination (the sun, DC halogen lights, etc) or lights that flicker at high frequency – much higher than the effective ‘signal’ frequency of the pattern on the wheel (such as fluorescent lights with high frequency electronic ballasts).