Electronics Projects Phase II

So I feel like I have been really busy with things lately and have not had as much time as I would have like to devote to electronics stuff, I mean between school, work, keeping up with friends, who has time!? It is sometimes frustrating and kinda sad that I don't make the time for the things that I would like to do like blogging or playing guitar or throwing pots or all the other sort of things I loved to do but for whatever reason haven't made the time. One of the barriers I think I have run into is the fact that when I sit down to do something on my spare time after school or work I tend to be somewhat mentally drained. This makes it hard for me to sit down and devote mental energy to a project so I end up surfing the net or end up doing other mind numbing activities.

But lately I have been imagining up some projects that I really want to do.

The first one that I would like to try and tackle involves my bike and some cool material called electroluminescent wire, which from what I have looked at is a neat material that has a lot of potential for some interesting projects. What electroluminescent wire or EL wire allows you to do is have a thin, flexible, light emitting wire that gives off a cool light effect. What I would like to do is mount some EL wire on my bike and pair the EL wire with another cool component called a Hall Effect sensor which is a sensor that detects the presence of a magnetic field and will subsequently vary an output voltage essentially, acting like a switch. Interestingly Hall Effect sensors play an unseen but major role in the timing of internal combustion engines. Hall Effect sensors are also used on bike computers and allow you to measure your speed and distance while on a bike.
So how I envision this whole project to work involves:

1. getting the EL wire mounted on the bike with the proper voltage and connections
2. using the Hall Effect sensors to activate the EL wire as I move.

to give you a better picture for how this works I whipped up something in paint real quick.

here we see the EL wire mounted on the bike in three individual sections. One on the fork and down tube, another on the top tube and seat post, with yet another on the seat and chain stay (colors are just used to differentiate between each section of EL wire, I am thinking of having all the sections be one color). I would like to have each section of EL wire to be independent of each other with each section linked with its own Hall Effect sensor on the fork (independent as to its ability to be activated, not powered). The small colored circles on the wheel represent the magnets needed to activate the Hall Effect sensor which are mounted on the fork which are represented with dashes. 

By having each section independent of each other it will allow each section to respond to my speed, with each section lighting up after the other one as the magnets on the wheel trip the sensor on the fork.

The other project I would like to try out is building a FM transmitter with a modest amount of power. as posted earlier, I like the idea of starting my own radio station. I don't know how serious I am about actually broadcasting on a regular basis, I just like the idea of learning and building my own radio station.

But to even get started on some of the steps in these projects I feel like I need to learn a lot more and I don't know where I can get the hands on practice and theory I need to get these going. I know there are a ton of resources online or at the library, I would just like to have access to have someone guide me along a bit and teach me. 

But alas I don't think that will happen so I should just go for it and quit worrying about screwing something up!