If you make them with lofty enough parts you can get people like sam to knock themselves to the ground. :)

Weight is an issue of personal prefrence and ratio of end weight to total weight. I like mine to be somewhat medium in weight, and heavy at the ends. Jared's one with the heavy ends is really great.

Meteors are going to be expensive. Just swallow that fact. There is crap like this www.firetoys.co.uk/juggling...poi_.html But that will just tear up your hands.

Rope attached to chain isn't nerely the problem you imagine. I was very paranoid about this for a longtime with my rope dart, but linked metal conducts heat very poorly, and it isn't going to burn/melt your rope unless flame is directly on the rope for a while, or you do something silly like get fuel on the rope. Its something to think about, but not really worry about. Along this same line, you only need about 4" of chain to keep the rope from being toasty, which means you SHOULD use 6-8". A foot is a good length, but anything moreis just adding weight and limiting your grip area.

I've used ball chain meteors, and I don't really like them that much, you need some rope grip are in the center, some people use lariat rope, and that seems to work quite well. Kevlar rope is terrible for something your hands are going to be on. It's abrasive to you, and they dont' last long at all, so you'll need something over the kevlar portion ifyou do it that way.

What's worked best for me was securing the end with twine or glue for natural fibers (heat for synthetic), and piercing above that with a quicklink. Only works with braided ropes, not twisted, though.

look, home of poi is ridiculously overpriced. actually, their markup must be about 50%.

Here's what you do...make one. Get some 1" think nylon rope and experiment with tying monkey-fist knots. Vary it to your liking (length...whatever) and then buy some 1" think kevlar WIRE REINFORCED rope. i got 40ft to make mine from www.trickconcepts.com and it was about $60. and a bit cheaper than dube. in addition, dube did not have WIRE REINFORCED. this is important, as you will have just have spent 60 damn dollars on rope and you won't want to replace it any time soon.

I'll post about my meteor someday, ah, the day i finally get those pictures back....