Danielle, this looks like a really cool design, and I'm passing the link to your website on to a few hooper friends of mine. One thought I had was what was the sail area with the hoops so high in the air? Does it catch the wind, say like on the playa, or is the area of the hoops too little for that to matter.
When you first posted, I envisioned something that would hold them lower, and on each side of the bike. Kind of a hooper saddle bag, so to speak. It looks like a well designed and innovative device. Were you going to plan on making and selling them?

That is AWESOME. and you've got things set up under a Creative Commons license too. Nice!

Did you have experience with fabrication prior to the project? I'm assuming so ;)

Congratulations and happy hooping!

Wow! Nice compact design. I would not worry too much about the sail factor unless the bike is parked on it's sidestand. For safety sake, you may wish to beef up your bike's kickstand for parking when the rack is fully loaded. You know how soft the playa can be in places and having your bike tip over when loaded is no fun.

Oh, yeah, an integrated cable lock might be a nice touch to keep your bike and hoops from wandering off on their own.

Every hooper out on the playa will be envious of you this year!

Cool cool!! Thanks for all the nice comments. I have yet to test the prototype outdoors (Wisconsin winters are pretty chilly and icy... it's currently -14 out there!), but I don't think that wind should be too much of a problem since most of it would probably blow thru the hoops. Since the arms are constructed from steel, it's pretty rigid, and the way that the hoops are strapped in keeps it together rather nicely (something I hadn't planned on!). As for the construction, I did most of it myself, but got some assistance with the welding and a lot of guidance from my professor (he is a wonderful machinist). I am definitely going to need to reinforce the kickstand (I was even thinking that maybe adding another one on the other side might be helpful) since the rack is a bit wobbly even on a hard surface.

This was the first project that I've ever embarked on for a bicycle and I was wondering if anyone has used aluminum tubing or another lighter material. I just used some low carbon steel hydraulic tubing that was lying around our shop but I was wondering what might be a better material. Has anyone ever used plastic components?

Again... thanks for all of the input! It's so great to pour so much work into a project and find out that other people like it as much as I do :-)

Hi Danielle, it looks terrific. Great work.

Andy