I saw one of the first Zippers at a fair in 1968. It looked terrifying, yet it fascinated me. I’ve never gotten to ride one, but I love watching them, and I love the unique whining sound they make.
I was so scared to go on it. When I got onto it before the door shut, the dude asked me “are ya scared” Me and me friend replied with yeah. He replied with “Welcome to hell” and slammed the door shut and sent us off
The Zipper really is my favorite carnival ride! The Tilt-A-Whirl, Sky Wheel, Yo-Yo, Spider and Ferris Wheel are must at any carnival or fair in my world.
The Zipper is one of the easiest rides to break down for transport...The operators align the boom vertically, with all the cars lined up on the sides, lowers the entire assembly via hinge and hydraulics onto the trailer, locks it down, then dismantles and stows the ramps and sign... I've seen seasoned guys pack it all away in less than a half an hour...
I got to run one of the first Zippers back in 1968. Chance brought it out to Joyland Park in Wichita to field test. I worked part-time there and had a “chance” to run it. Very easy to run and operators love it because it literally rains money under it. It will shake every loose coin out of the riders pockets. And like you, it was one of my favorites to ride.
Wow that is awesome. I'd imagine the control panel consists of a button to run the ride, another to cycle the cabins around and joystick to park the boom arm or something like that.
@@D00rHandleMedia on the one I ran, the controls were on a “pickle switch“ at the end of a long cord. Four buttons: boom CW or CCW, cages CW or CCW. Operation was very responsive with the hydrostatic drive system. Sadly, I got only the one day running the Zipper. My regular gig was the 16 seat Big Eli wheel, plus relief operator on every other ride in the park.
@@LandNfanAh makes sense having controls for both directions of the boom and cages. The hydraulic system is so punchy given how fast it can get up to speed. That is such sweet memory to have operated one of the first few Zippers @Norman Morgan ever!
I saw one of the first models in 1968 and was fascinated by it! I was young and too scared to ride it, but I could have watched it all night! I still have never had the courage to get on one. I am physically unable to ride one now, so I missed my chance. But I still love to watch the zipper, and I especially love the characteristic whir sound of the old one. I have not seen a new one, so I don’t know if it sounds the same or not. But the whirring of the cable is a really cool sound.
Agreed the sound that this ride makes is incredibly off-putting to the average guest but I really love the acoustics of the ride too. At least from my experience the newer ones sound identical since as the only noticeable modification I could tell were the new passenger cabins.
1968? Wow! That ride has been around that long? I like that newer model on here though. But where I live, Austin (Texas) they don't bring it to any of the carnivals or rodeo fairs at all. I have not seen it for years! I enjoyed this video and voice over narrative even though I hate that ride.
i rode it 30 times in a row in new mexico and finally puked behind the bathrooms it was like a hangover . dont ride it more than once. dont ride if your pregnant , dont ride if your drunk, dont ride it more than once if you don't want to be sick. and if you ride it too much it can impair you for life.
DYNA KLO I don't ride it anyway. Too terrifiying! I only watch the videos of it because I rode it once when I was a teenager and kept bashing my head on the bars Everytime the cage spun upside down. My brother used to run this ride a long time ago! I'm more of a tilt a whirl fan! ☺
This is a crazy ride. I don’t get to ride them very often because of the no single riders policy. In order to ride I have to either drag along a friend or con a perfect stranger who doesn’t have a partner. Otherwise you get turned away if you come up to it by yourself, sometimes rather rudely. There’s got to be a way to be more accommodating for single riders who want to ride. Also, a bit of trivia here. Michael Jackson owned and operated one at his Neverland Ranch.
i'm with you friend. i hate that single riders can't go on it, although i 100% understand why. these state fairs have had some serious accidents in the last 6-7 years. they want to keep us safe
The ride I loved riding in my younger days was the Rock-O-Plane! I got the tummy tickling thrill on the Rock-O-Plane, but when I tried the Zipper, but there were too many wild jerky motions that made me feel jostled and shaken and more like being in a car about to crash....almost like you could get whiplash on the Zipper...of course, now that I am older with arthritis and motion sickness, I can't go on any of the rides like that anymore....I went to the fair with my nephew a few years ago, and I felt sick after riding the Round-Up, LOL! So I gave my nephew and his friends my tickets and was like "Here, more tickets for YOU! ENJOY! I will just watch, LOL! 🤣🤣
LOL. I love the parks and still can do roller coasters. But I did the tilt a whirl a few years ago and once was enough - I couldn’t take the spinning anymore.
I believe its a Flying bobs from Chance but it owned by Butler Amusements and in 2015 I got that nice blue and white LED light package. Pretty rough but still better than the Chance ThunderBolt that they also own.
well over 200 were made starting in 1968 before the new version with the shoulder harness came out so i would say the old version that has been around for over 50 years is completely safe
Hello loving 🥰 the ride review of the Zipper I was just wondering 💭 what advice would you give to someone who’s never ever been on one of these wild crazy rides but would very much like to explore riding one.
i don't think the Zipper would be good in a theme park for one reason. The slow time it takes to load the ride with riders. Only two cages can be done at a time and they have to rotate the cars to make sure its balanced to reduce the wear and tear on the cable drive. Still one of my favorite rides of all time. Hard to believe it originally went double the speed on debut!
It would still be better than those ring of fire/fireball knockoffs or if they can't add a zipper at least add a gravitron or zero gravity to theme parks
Storytime!!!!!!!! So when I was 5 years old I went on this ride with my mom(I was just barely tall enough to ride)so they put me on and for the first few minutes were going great!!,we were flipping and screaming and in general having a run time.but then we did a flip where we were upside down for about 6 seconds and I shit you not I start slipping out of the lap bar but my mom caught me in time, for 5 years I was too scared to ride until my friend dragged me on😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Yea you get some pretty ridiculous hang time given the chances. Those ride ops were pushing the design limit of those lap bars to allow you to ride at that time Lol.
Always been a fave not a carnival without it. Also love the Cobra which I think is obsolete on the east coast I haven’t seen it since I was a kid and now in my 40s.
That’s an old 60/70s model that was updated to chain driven. The original was tire driven. But they kept the original lighting package. The diamond lighting looks so much better in my opinion
they use to i went on one of these back in the 70s at loughborough fair it was the scariest ride i have been on .but also the best ride i have ever been on closer to a roller coaster ride
