Hamster Central - View Single Post - Fluffy still seems to prefer flying saucer

AmityvilleHams · 06-17-2022, 04:24 PM

Flying saucers have inherent design flaws, one being that they don't allow a proper natural running position which would lead to side arching - something an actual upright wheel wouldn't have.

Flying saucer style wheels also have a major design flaw when it comes to the actual usable running surface. It's significantly smaller than it would be on the same diameter upright wheel with flying saucers having roughly 1/4 of the total diameter being usable running surface(some may seem closer to 1/3 at most), while an actual upright wheel would be 1/2 the inner diameter in running surface.

This basically turns into an 8 inch flying saucer having only 2(~2.6 inches maximum if we're generous and go to 1/3) of usable running surface. That's a lot different to the equivalent 8 inch upright wheel having 4 inches, so the upright wheel size that would be completely fine for the larger dwarf species doesn't necessarily translate to flying saucer size. That 2(~2.6 maximum) inches of running surface is nowhere near enough for a hamster that'd be ~4 inches in body length! Even a 12 inch flying saucer would have 3(4 maximum at the 1/3 mark) inches of usable running surface. 3 inches of course is not enough for a 4 inch long hamster.

Even if you're being generous and going with the 1/3 of diameter being usable running surface, you still have the side arching and lack of natural running position.

06-17-2022, 04:24 PM
AmityvilleHams PM Fluffy for custom title Join Date: Mar 2016 Posts: 4,545	Re: Fluffy still seems to prefer flying saucer Flying saucers have inherent design flaws, one being that they don't allow a proper natural running position which would lead to side arching - something an actual upright wheel wouldn't have. Flying saucer style wheels also have a major design flaw when it comes to the actual usable running surface. It's significantly smaller than it would be on the same diameter upright wheel with flying saucers having roughly 1/4 of the total diameter being usable running surface(some may seem closer to 1/3 at most), while an actual upright wheel would be 1/2 the inner diameter in running surface. This basically turns into an 8 inch flying saucer having only 2(~2.6 inches maximum if we're generous and go to 1/3) of usable running surface. That's a lot different to the equivalent 8 inch upright wheel having 4 inches, so the upright wheel size that would be completely fine for the larger dwarf species doesn't necessarily translate to flying saucer size. That 2(~2.6 maximum) inches of running surface is nowhere near enough for a hamster that'd be ~4 inches in body length! Even a 12 inch flying saucer would have 3(4 maximum at the 1/3 mark) inches of usable running surface. 3 inches of course is not enough for a 4 inch long hamster. Even if you're being generous and going with the 1/3 of diameter being usable running surface, you still have the side arching and lack of natural running position.