Is This a Special Interest? Need Some Advice

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Elgee
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21 Jan 2022, 3:14 pm

I'm making a list of childhood special interests for my evaluation. I don't mean just anything I was interested in, but interests that aren't "normal" or mainstream. In grade school I was fascinated by the sound that multi-speed bicycles make when they're being coasted. But I don't know if this is something that would intrigue NT kids. That's why I don't know if this indicates autism.

I desperately wanted a multi-speed bike for this reason, but my parents only got me a single-speed bike. I was envious of kids who had speed bikes and when they coasted, I heard that sound. One day a girl with a five-speed was coasting towards me. The sound was so prominent and I asked to ride her bike. I did and coasted it and was enthralled and envious.

Finally my parents got me a three-speed. But this three-speed didn't have the same kind of sound. Instead it went "tick tick tick tick tick" instead of a more continuous vibrating sound. But occasionally when in coast, it suddenly emitted the steady sound. I thought this was SO cool and couldn't understand why it only occasionally happened. I'd coast a lot just to elicit it.

I eventually outgrew this fascination in early teen-hood.

Does this qualify as a neurodivergent special interest or just something that many NT kids would've found equally fascinating?



kraftiekortie
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21 Jan 2022, 3:17 pm

“Normal” kids might be if they are mechanically-inclined.



_cora_
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21 Jan 2022, 3:27 pm

That sounds like a sensory thing to me. I very occasionally am absolutely amazed by certain sensations, like one time I was at a doctor's office and the sound of the air conditioning put me in some kind of trance. Even though I usually never notice the sound of AC. And when the teacher would take the lunch orders in middle school, she did it the same way every day and something about it was extremely comforting. It had to do with the sounds and sights, and just the whole process, every little detail, instantly calmed me.
I try to search for those sounds, but I'll never hear them again. If you wanted a different type of bike just for the reason that you could hear that sound, that seems like an intense sensory interest.
Of course, I could be wrong, but that sounds exactly like me with those 2 sensations. Intensely comforting is the best way to describe it.



Mountain Goat
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21 Jan 2022, 4:24 pm

The differences of sound... A single speed in theory should sound similar to a deraileur system when it freewheels as they normally have two pawls. There maybe a difference in the tone between different makes and models and if it is a freewheel or casette and some modern casettes on carbon fibre racing bikes (Which amplify the sound) happen to need stronger pawls etc to compensate for the larger amount of cogs they cram into the things these days but their pawls are noisy and echo a lot more with their freewheeling mechanisms.
Now there are tandem freewheels (Not talking about casette freewheeling mechanisms) which look like ordinary freewheels except that they have four pawls instead of two which cope better with the two (Or more if a triplet etc) people who are pedalling.

Hub gears are interesting in that they have sets of pawls which click in depending on which gear one is in and then there are the ordinary freewheeling pawls which allow one to freewheel.
The other pawls (Depending on how many gears and what gear one is in) will engauge when one is pedalling as they allow certain gear clusters to rotate when they need to or if certain gears are selected, have their pawls mesh in the relevent retainers if that makes sense?
I used to regularly work on the insides of the Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub to change pawl springs as though these would last years, some very old hubs would come our way and also some neglected hubs void of gear oil will end up with their pawl springs rusting through due to them being void of the protection of the gear oil, or if the pawl spring has been left out of the oil due to years of storage where only the lower pawl springs happens to be in contact with the oil.

The single speed freewheels do have a larger diameter area where the pawls engauge and they being narrower, make a different sound. While the older ones had many tiny bearings (Varies according to make and size etc though from memory I believe they were 1/8th if I recall? Can't remember. Been years since I ordered them. Then around the 1970's onwards many makes started inserting curved bits of metal as spacers inbetween bearings to save cost (I can see no other reason for doing this) and the cost saving came in their shorter time of assembly when new in the factory.
A similar situation to save on costs of assembly is the only reason why ball bearing cages are used in wheels, bottom brackets and headsets. The cages do mean that the bearings wear quicker because they wear quicker and fragments of worn bearing cage mash into the bearings and the result is that loose non-caged bearings last a good three times longer then caged one do.

Anyway. I have no idea if it is an autism trait or not. I can't tell you because I am waiting for an assessment.


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