Forums > Technical Discussion > Flowpoi (Streetlight) durability?

Posted: 20th Jul 2005
The man to ask is Orbit (Roger)- he knows the guys who runs flowtoys and I got to spin with the poi and a staff when Roger was in the UK a few months back- PM him or look him up on tribe.net

Posted: 20th Jul 2005
Dude, just wrap your streetlights in packaging tape. Then you can bang em up as much as you want and they won't fall appart. They'll still crack, but who cares about that?

-James

"How do you know if you're happy or sad without a mask? Or angry? Or ready for dessert?"

Posted: 21st Jul 2005
@ Mr Chutney - Thanks, I'll PM him in a moment

@ sparkey! - Problem is I live in South Africa, so I want to get something that will last. it sucks having to order anything from America/UK because of the shipping fees. I can't bring myself to buy anything when I know it will break (even though it will still work)

'n Boer maak 'n plan.

Posted: 21st Jul 2005
Woft - i have streetlights, and managed (even with my DIY skills) to make good protection for them cheaply. If you take a big clear plastic lemonade bottle, slit it and cut it into rectangles, you can turn them into tubes by rolling them around the streetlights and wrapping clear tape around them. Then i got two plastic screw lids (from bottles of squash or whatever), and stuck one on one end.For the other end i cut off the whole squash bottle screw bit with the lid, and drilled a hole in it for the streetlight ring to poke through, and glued it onto my tube. so basically you can unscrew the top to change batteries and turn them on. If you do it neatly, they look like 'proper' glow poi, and can take any amount of bashing..

Tomorrows World isnt on anymore...Does that mean its tomorrow now?

Posted: 21st Jul 2005
I have Streetlights with deflectors from NeonHusky. Even with the deflectors I didn't feel absolutely safe when swinging them around so I glued a strip of stainless steel to the 'flat' side of the streetlight (the side with the nametag on it) and then slid them into the deflectors. Works better

As far as I've read the Flowtoys site it is the best quality/price you can imagine... but don't pin me on that cuz I haven't got Flowtoys myself they are Streetlights with a Polycarb tubing around them. I have a Polycarb short-staff and it's basically unbreakable. You can throw it 30 feet in the air and it still won't break. If Flowtoys are the exact same material I'll say: Go for the Flowtoys!

Good luck with making a good descision WOFT

"Don’t know how long, this one’s gonna take;
I could fail, but I’d rather be a fuckup, than a fake"

Posted: 22nd Jul 2005
sean's flowpoi are actually pretty damn durable. I have a set of the duos that I picked up a few weeks ago (he's local here in SF) and not only are the tubes polycarbonate plastic, but the streetlights themselves are wrapped in a plastic mesh that creates a buffer between the lights and the tube itself.

I had one accident that cost me a streetlight, but it involved someone who had never used the poi before not securing the endcap properly and it came off mid-spin. that's probably the only [semi] weakness of the flowpoi... the endcaps are rubber and are pretty secure, but you need to make sure they're really on there or else you risk flinging the whole rig across the room. (again, it's only happened once, and not on my watch!)

..·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸ ><((((º>

These are the roots of rhythm
And the roots of rhythm remain

Posted: 27th Jul 2005
ive got the flowtoys streetlights - they work fine - one issue is that if you spin for a long time or fast the end caps do come off (this has happened to me a few times)

they are pretty big to spin and hurt like hell when they hit

otherwise they're fine - my only other gripe was that the cords and handles dont have swivel links and arnt easily adjustable but its fairly simple to get a swivel link and retie the stuff so you have a better spin

back

Posted: 29th Jul 2005
Alright... I haven't been on HOP in ages, but have to put in my few cents.

Streetlights ARE fragile. Covering them with tape does help... but basically people stopped playing around with Streetlights here in San Francisco until the Flowpoi came along. The polycarb tubing does help protect the streetlights, especially in the poi.

Sean uses the thinnest polycarb tubing that will still protect, though, so that the weight is still kept as low as possible. If you want more weight, he can add some vinyl tubing on them.

I wouldn't say that they were completely indestructable, though... If you're really concerned, you can still wrap tape around the streetlights before putting them in the polycarb (though that might be a tight fit).

ORbit