Zipper Rides Information and history - Flat Ride Of The Week 21 

A carnival without a Zipper can never truly be a carnival.

“I recommend you... don’t read that.” 😂 Good luck at Cedar Point!

The zipper is the best carnie ride ever invented esspecialy when you get an operator willing to give a "good" ride

Ah, my most hated nemesis at the carnival. There’s a difference between “scary” and “straight up uncomfortable”.

Most people ride them wrong because they don’t hold the bars and secure themselves the right way. I’ve always have great rides in these rides

Love the Zipper :-) 2 things: 1) the old/fast models are called 'wet models' because they had to be sprayed down with water so much (due to the puke). Apparently, some Australian showmen actually mod their Zippers to be at wet model speed. 2) The Zipper was the inspiration for X2 :-)

Zippers are my all time favorite! But! There is a way to ride them (At least the originals) The seat is super comfortable and you wanna sit pressed flush against it so your back and legs are all touching the surface. Next there are a few ways to go about not being thrown around. Either you're big enough so the top of your knees can press up against that padded door bar to hold you in place, or more commonly you press your hands up to the upper part of the door right where the door ends and the padding begins. The full inside of the pods are padded minus the screen type door. That padded lap bar helps to hold your body back, but if you plant your feet firm and hold your hands to the top padded area you easily can keep yourself from being thrown around. Also this method is great because even if the door popped open (Which was super rare and doesn't happen today with the new system) you can hold yourself in still for it to allow time for the time to be stopped. (You'll understand if you try it) I operated one myself and the ride operation is interesting but rather basic, though you can do manual things to perform tricks like keeping the cars still while the main "Wheel" turns. Definitely one of my favorite rides though as you never get the same ride twice or ever again and you can get major airtime. I always told people who are first time riders how to brace on it (In the way I described above). For those unsure about riding if describe it like a Tilt-A-Whirl spinning effect just vertically.

I saw an interview with Alan Schilke he said growing up this was his favorite ride and actually his inspiration when designing the 4D coaster with Arrow

I rode one of these back when I was in fourth grade- I was a few inches shorter than the minimum height but, my dad and I didn't realize at the time and the operator checked my height and said I was clear to get on. This was before over the shoulder restraints, so it was just the lap bar and the door. Everything was fine until the first inversion. Since I was so small, I began to slip up from the seat. My dad had to lean over and hold me in place. It was the coolest thing fourth-grade me had ever done, because I didn't realize how that could have ended much worse until several years later when I mentioned the ride and my dad told me what actually happened. Sometimes it still freaks me out that I was almost a carnival horror story.

As me and my friend call these "ferris wheel on steroids".

This is quite possibly my favorite flat ride of all time. If I see one, I HAVE to ride.

fun fact: the zipper has the most recorded instances of any ride in amusement park/fairgrounds history of one rider vomiting onto a rider in another car/gondola.

I’m sad about the new restraints.. the unkown knock arounds was the best part. My friends and I would laugh our asses off during this ride. This will always be my favorite fair ride

It looks like the cranium shaker from the diary of a wimpy kid book Roderick rules

I've actually never seen one with the extra restraints

Also, The Zipper rides arent painful at all. You just have to brace yourself! I havent been on one since 2006 and every ride I ever had was the lap bar attached to the door, always knew these were janky af! But they were the only good ride at most traveling carnivals, they deliver some incredible whip and air time, better than what most coasters can provide. I absolutely adore this ride. That said, ive ways thought I would someday hear about accidents involving this ride, but I am not going to read any reports.

Rode the Zipper today 8/4/24 at the Ohio State Fair with my older brother. Haven’t rode that in probably 25 yrs, I’m going on 50, brought back so many childhood memories! It was just as wild today as it was years ago! Thanks for going to the fair with me brother 🇺🇸

I can literally sit and watch this ride all day. I did ride it once, but just felt like I was in a washing machine.

I've ridden a zipper once, and I actually really enjoyed it. The specific one I rode was the old model with the lap bar on the door. I thought is was a very fun ride, and I didn't feel uncomfortable.

Zipper is the ultimate classic ride. Unpredictable and extremely thrilling. One of the best classic flat rides of all time!!

Rode it once back in the 90's and never again. All I remember is going full force towards the ground face first.

I loved the Zipper back when I was a carnie. It was easy to set up, only took 3-1/2 hours with 2 of us, and if we could get someone who knew the ride to help, 2-1/2. After we got all the scenery and other things out of the possum belly, I would hang a tarp up and use it as my quarters while we were on the spot. I worked the zipper for 4 seasons and was always the test rider after we got everything together. Another thing about the Zipper, it was the ultimate shaker ride. If you had a good operator, and ours was one of the best, you could clear 20 to 30 bucks in loose change from under the boom area, as well as knives, watches and other pocket paraphernalia. The worst part was replacing those fluorescent light bulbs when they went, because you had to do it at night when you could see them well, and they had colored sleeves you had to put the bulbs into. We also had a daily R-Key check, looking for missing pins, bolts and R-Keys on the K-Frames and the tubs, that wasn't too bad, and if the crew (all 2 of us) knew what we were doing, and we did, we could complete in about 15 minutes if everything was good. edited for autocorrect correction.

I remember being terrified of this ride as a kid, for years and years I never wanted to try it... then one year I got the courage, and it immediately became my favorite.

My local county fair has one of these every year. That ride gave me a concussion last year.

Everybody gangsta till GP uses Scar's time lapse music.

this is the ride that made me a coaster enthusiast. Obviously, not a coaster- BUT it gave me a love in being inverted, intense rides, and the craziness that can come with coasters. This is what started it all for me, as a little kid!

I still believe I never came back to life after riding this when I was like 9

Ah, one of the rides on my "Never In 9 Million Years" list.

Rode a zipper for the first time today! For a while it’s been the only ride I pass by at my local fair, but I decided to give it a try today. I really liked it and will definitely ride it again. It was honestly less jerky than I expected and the flips gave some nice air time, especially after the ride operator sent the ride backwards. Definitely brace with your feet and back and hold tight to the bars in front of you and you shouldn’t have an issue with being thrown around (which had been my main fear).

I love the Zipper, have rode this ride multiple times, when I was in my teen years, me and my friend were riding it at a local school carnival and we were spinning the cart, we had figure away to sway and make it go around many times in a row before reaching the round about. I believe we had it rotate 7 or 9 times and the tension cable that creates an X between the 2 car pods snapped and they had to stop the ride and bring it down, it was fun and I still ride the ride now and then

As a kid I was always scared just standing next to the thing lol

These are really common in my state (Utah) and found at almost every carnival/ fair. It’s definitely in my top 3 favorite carnival rides however due to the no single rider rule, I don’t get to ride them quite as often as I’d like. My friends are always too afraid to go on them 😂.. They can be super crazy at times. Very forceful sometimes. You Gotta keep your arms straight to avoid hitting your face. Also sometimes you hit/ smash your head on the ceiling, especially when the cage whips and flips around at the bottom. Every ride is different, and have even experienced Tame rides. They are definitely not for everyone but if you like a good thrill I highly recommend it!

Zipper has always been my favorite fair ride, since the day I was tall enough to ride it. That being said, about half the time i’d ride it it would be amazing and the other half you’d get a litte banged up. There was one time that i’m pretty sure it gave me a concussion though... I totally remember when the accidents happened in the 90’s, didnt stop me or my friends though. At that age were dumb enough to see it as an added thrill

You don’t know true fear until you’ve ridden a zipper with the old cage and lap bar 😳

I'm in the US and there was one that the cage snapped and it fall partially. No one was seriously injured thank goodness

Rode this many times as a youth in the US in the 80's. No shoulder restraints. Just the door holding you in place. Me and my two best friends would all fit into one. We loved this ride... I do remember seeing puke sprayed from a car while waiting in line... it was blue from someone obviously feasting on blue cotton candy 😝 the carnival would come to town during the summer, around the time of the 4th of July. I had no idea it was dangerous, but it was a different time. Good memories! Thanks for the vid!!!! Ride one if you can! They were awesomely fun to ride. One of my favs, as was the tilt a whirl 😁

Years ago me and another kid rode a zipper at our local fair. It was my first time and didn't know what to expect. Needless to say it was indeed intense and unpredictable. And what made it more memorable is that the operator forgot about our cage and because of this we ended up going through 3-4 cycles. By the time we finally got off we were very disoriented.

Holy crap you're a ride enthusiast and you've never wrote a zipper?! You've got to find one to ride. I love roller coasters but the zipper will always be my all time favorite ride!

Love the zipper,its a classic at the fair where it goes abt 2 or hours or 1HR and 30 minutes away depending on the speed your going at

The first time a saw a Zipper was in RCT Touch, and it looked like a torture device. And it still does.

In my 52 years of being on rides... This is the only one where I had to call the rid op to stop and let me off. I hit the bar on the door so hard I instantly threw up. I was very embarrassed... Fortunately, the ride op was very understanding and took me over to a trash can and stayed with me while I finished. I think I was ten or 11... That said, I still think the Chance Turbo is a more 'intense' ride as far as not knowing which direction you're going to be spun next. And no, I have not ridden another Zip since my incident. heh...

The only zipper I’ve seen in person had BAD ASS ZIPPER written on each carriage (it was a travelling ride in Australia)

Rode this about 100 times over my teen years in the mid-80s and up to 1991.. never got bored or injured with the lap bar. Only felt slightly nauseated once after just eating.

Summers of ‘67 and ‘68, I worked part time at Joyland Park in Wichita. One weekend in ‘68, Chance brought a Zipper to the park to field test. Not only do I love to ride the Zipper, I love to run it. It literally RAINS money under the ride, as its random tumbling shakes it out of riders pockets. I picked up over $8 in change that weekend. The Zipper has much going for it. It sets up and tears down faster than most rides on the midway, and it racks on a single trailer. Traveling shows love them for that. Operators love them because they are so easy to run. A cable mounted control box you can drag around with you, contains just 4 buttons, 2 for the boom, 2 for the cable. Super easy!

I’ve been riding this for literally decades. Folks if you brace yourself it’s fine and enormously fun!! Always have ridden it with the old bar, never seen the over the shoulder restraints ever. Just hold the bars that are in front of your face and push yourself back into the seat this way, bracing yourself. Fantastic ride.

Also, those new harnesses look secure, but it takes away the fun of being able to rock and flip your own cart. I was able to count 76 flips during one of my best rides.

You forgot to mention that Michael Jackson holds the world record for the longest time on a zipper.

It was one of my favorites rides....until one summer day at Coney island during the 70's, I was a single rider, and the operator seem to be experimenting with the speed and and the amount of time...which was about 3x longer than usual.....I was terrified...

When I first saw a Zipper I was in Seattle and I was instantly fascinated. Thanks for the history. I don't think it would be trivial to build one of these unless you had the design schematics.

Common in US AND Canada. Every fair ive been to since I’ve been a kid and I’m 36 had had a zipper ride here in Canada.

My days of riding The Zipper are long gone. I just watch now and listen to the screams.

I'm shocked to hear you two have NEVER ridden this ride, w the exception of the cohost telling us his one and only experience. Even more flabbergasted to hear that these ridws aren't popular overseas, like, I'm thinking back to all the thrill ride videos I've watched and am realizing I never did see one pop up during my viewing of foreign thrill rides..It's cool. Good job, guys.

Our light man and I got on a zipper when the band I was in was doing a carnival. The sax player told the operator to give us a long ride so he kept us on for 3 cycles. I was glad to get off.

The zipper is one of those rides that is more of a workout to run than it is to set up or tear down. The doors on those things are beasts. Opening and closing them all day can get rough.

I was a zipper operator.. chance states that every year the spring latches must be replaced ,the lever latch must be inspected daily and the R keys on the door must always be in place and inspected daily .. I’m not sure if the newer zippers still have it, but there was a wired remote control that let an operator jog the seats around the boom making it a 2 man ride .. the remote was horrible as the buttons would always get stuck..we would do the running start hell ride which we would offset the seats on the boom, then get the boom moving up to full speed before engaging the full run button..the first seats to go over the ends would get the most flips.. also the operator doesn’t need to flip the tubs,aka seats to have a good ride.. anybody that wants to flip the seats,brace your feet ,grab the bars on the door, and rock back and forth from the waist.if done right , you can do a ton of flips

The Zipper remains the only flat ride I cannot muster the courage to ride. 34 years old and I just can't get myself to sit in one of those cages.

I was on a Zipper when I was younger, at the Vancouver PNE. My friend and I rode it many many times. The last time I rode it (ever), the ride operator was working really fast to get riders "secured" and didn't fully latch our door fully. Our cage went up a few spots before he heard us screaming about the door being open and they called our cage back down to lock it. We rode it but that was the last time!

This ride was my intro to inverted rides. This and the version that rolled over on the other axis. This is the first I've heard about no solo riders as I never had anybody else ride with me.. Then again this was in like, the late 80s.

I wish we had them here in Germany. I never saw anything like that here. Hopefully I will be able to ride one when I make vacation in the USA.

Interesting to hear how popular and common these are in the US. As Alex says, they're sparse this side of the Atlantic. I think I've only seen one in the UK, years and years ago at a huge fair in Cambridge. I think the only similar ride I've ridden is a small Ferris Wheel with egg-like cages that spin like crazy (and also has crappy restraints that allow you to get bashed about).

If you forgot arm day while working out just ride the zipper. My arms are always so sore afterwards. For me, are usually push myself all the way to the back of the car, and then hold the bars on the window. That gives me the most control so that I can hold myself still if I am getting too dizzy. The reason my arms hurt is because in doing so I am pushing my body backward into the seat. I still love it though, it’s my favorite ride at the carnival

I way I hear it, While working with Blue Grass Shows ... They were named the "zipper" because once you got off the ride, that's all you saw for the next 10 minutes, your zipper!

I can distinctly remember being in the cage and watching the operators snapping the safety pin into the door lock. TRAPPED!

I’ve done it twice!! I think that’s enough for me though... I’m not a huge fan of having to brace yourself to enjoy a ride.

This is the most scary, amazing, majestic ride EVER! If you don’t have this at your county fair. WHO ARE YOU

I rode the zipper for the first time back in like 2003 with the classic lap bar style. I was just barely talk enough. It's not enough. Kids if you want to ride this one I'd wait until you're taller. This ride is no joke. It was the first and only ride to cut my arms. The leather on the lapbar was worn and cracked and I was gripping that thing like my life depended on it. I feel bad for the young man I shared a seat with because I was terrified and the operator stopped the ride just so I could get off. Riding it as a teen and adult however was a lot more fun. I've yet to find one with shoulder straps but I bet it still hurts. Especially if they aren't keeping the fabric moisturized.

Not as painful as Green Lantern First Flight at Magic Mountain was. Glad that's gone. Hopefully La Ronde does it justice

iI love Zipper rides! I grew up on them when fairs would come around the San Antonio area. They did terrify me, but the rush was worth it!

My favorite fair/carnival ride ever. I can't remember a county fair without one.

Flipping the cars is the best part about riding the zipper (about a week ago, older type.) Once you flip the cages, you won't stop flipping lol.

They are popular in North America for operators because the can be set up very fast like in 2-3 hours as they are mounted off the back of the trailer/lorry and just fold backwards on its back side to transport. The gondolas/cages stay mounted and slightly fold in to the width of the trailer for transport. There's just the two frames that fold out on each side and two on the back side mounted to the trailer for stability. The loading platform can be simply the ground, a rubber mat or if you want to get fancy a steel plated queue line can be laid down.

I love them however it's very difficult for me to find someone to ride with. So it's probably been 10 years since I have ridden one. Would love to again sometime.

Zipper is my all time favorite ride. It comes here every year and I have probably ridden it fifty times in my life. I got to take my son on it for the first time last weekend and it took a bit of coaxing but in the end he loved it so much we went four times

We collected a lot of change after closing from the ground under this ride lol.

I missed many Zipper rides due to the "no single riders" rule, but found that the Chance Chaos was usually a good consolation prize for head-over-heels flipping. But unfortunately those are almost all gone.

Me and my friend Larry were 12 years old and we used to go to carnivals all the time. We went to the one on Archer and 39th. Right across the street from the old Tropicana fish place. We rode the zipper all the time there was a record of someone flipping 66 times around before the ride ended. So when we got in there we told the guy can you grab the top and start turning us right now so we had already started spinning and we knew how to keep our weight backward and forward to keep it spinning by the time the ride ended we flipped 238 times which is probably still all time record.

There’s the Zipper, but there’s also a ride called the Salt And Pepper Shaker that’s similar

I've ridden these dozens of times. You only get a few good whips but its fun. Idk what that guy was talking about, I rode it at 12yo and had a blast. You just put your hands on that bar and its fine. You're so locked in theres nowhere to go

God, I can’t even imagine what it must be like for someone to puke in one of those 🤢

The whip and flip at the top is what makes this ride popular.

I love this ride - rode my first one in the 1970s on the Ocean City Maryland boardwalk with my dad, its was AWESOME but scared the crap out of me. I have riden it several other times at various places and always have butterflys in my stomach while waiting to board - actually remember riding one in the late 70s that still had the cotter pin as the lock mechanism, scary stuff thinking back on it all these years later. GREAT ride, the best!

My mom amd my stepdad used to ride this every time we went to the fair and be disappointed if there wasn't a zipper in sight. I thought they were insane. They loved the Zipper that much.

Back before I got sick Zipper was me and my sister's favorite ride. We hyped it up for the younger family members for years. When I finally took my oldest cousin on one for the first time she was 11-12, skinny as a rail. The lap bar was waaaay looser on her than me(I'm quite fat) and she kept sliding up and down. She was crying and telling me she loved me and her moms and the whole nine yards because she was sure we weren't going to make it and I felt so bad. She's 15 now and it's her favorite ride. She gave the younger cousins their first ride when they were tall enough. 😊😭

Hi there, I use to ride the zipper up side down doing a hand stand in the car & I have not been able to fins a rush like it since then a couple of years later was operating it until the boss sold it for a space roller, this was an Australian made zipper made by Ferrari & is one of two that they made & were named the Mean Mother Zipper & the 4 American made ones are named the Mean Machine Zipper. Best job I ever had was operating the Zipper, setting it up & packing it up as well

I been riding them for a long time and i have never moved inside those cages.

You can watch the next episode here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nTziABjtBss.html

I would have been 13-14 the first time I ever rode a zipper, the first carnival ride I had ever been on in my life. Been in love with that thrill ever since. Only ever rode it two more years after that before it was retired and I imagine they didn't want to import another one. This gives me so much nostalgia.

Zipper has got to be my absolute favourite carnival ride♥️♥️ I will admit the 1st Zipper ride for me a cried like a baby🤔 weighing a big 65lbs in gr.6 I flew all around that cage! By gr.9 was just fine! Wow I’m old lol

The zipper is uncomfortable? I don’t know, I’ve never had that problem. There’s not that much room, so it’s really easy to brace yourself. And if you want to rock so you flip better you’ll be bracing yourself anyways. It’s definitely one of the most fun flat rides out there. There’s not much else that’s anywhere near as intense. Just grab on tight for the ride of your life

That patriotic zipper is so beautiful

Zipper the KING of Carnival rides

When I was a kid, this was by far my favorite ride!

In 2023 VA, there was a zipper. However, there are only lap bars. There are no over the shoulder restraints

MY ALL-TIME FAVE! 😍

This ride got me into thrill rides when I was a little kid... I'm so glad I rode it cause it gave me a love for amusement rides and it probably made me a coaster enthusiast haha

They aren’t usually painful to ride. They are amazing rides. You can easily brace yourself inside them. I was 150 pounds and could ride with no hands just by straightening my legs. You did fail to mention that the original models had a rim/tire drive for the boom, and now they utilize a chain drive. They have also reconfigured the drive for the conveyer that runs the cars around the boom. I believe they were not rim driven before, but used a motor on the boom that went to a gear box to run the conveyer wheels from their axle. That’s probably the most significant change to them over the years until the more recent seating/restraint configuration. If you want to talk about lighting packages, the original zipper design (you even included a photo of it in your video) had mostly fluorescent lighting. That was later changed to the chevron design with incandescent lights, most of which have no been upgraded to LED, and finally we have the newer light package which you had in most of the footage in this video with the zig zag light patterns and LEDs. I believe those are the main three generations of light packages that have come from the factory.

I rode one of these with my dad when I was a wee lad. He said he used to love it! I hated it, but to be fair it was only my second real flat ride with the first being one of the swinging boat rides. I ended up throwing up about an hour later, I think I would have been ok, but we went on the swinging boat ride again after the zipper and the power went out mid-ride so we just kept going back and forth for a long while. That just aggravated my mild nausea and led to a bad experience. This was probably 15 years ago now, and to this day, I’ve been on maybe 5 flat rides. I’ve since discovered that I can handle “intense” roller coasters (all of the ones at MI adventure). I plan on riding the zipper again the next chance I get because now that I can handle roller coasters, I think I could handle the zipper

I rode the Zipper a few times in Perth in the late 90s (mostly at the Royal Show). I remember one time having one of the ride operators shoved in beside me to fill the cage. I loved it, he was terrified. I always felt that the Zipper was a superior alternative to the Tumbler. But the best ride of it's sort was the Super Turbo that was a mainstay at the Royal Show in the 90s. I've never seen another ride like the Super Turbo since.

twice I had the handles that lock you down come partly unlocked. The first time I was too short to be on the ride (they didn't check, and I didn't know about height requirements- I was only 7). I was on it alone, there wasn't a lap belt, and I was clinging to the wiggling restraint, that I would slip right through even if it was secured, for dear life. The operator looked really guilty when he pulled me out and realized he hadn't put the bar down all the way. The second time, I was also alone, but there was a lap belt to tie me down- so I just hurt my neck from the tossing. Even if I could go on rides again (I have a nervous system disorder that makes me pass out when my pulse goes up, so poor me can't have fun), I would not touch that one.

I rode one of these back in 2009 or 10. I am, and always was, a pretty small person but I really don't remember it being painful at all. But that may have been because I had never ridden anything like it before and was pretty terrified so I was probably tensed up and that myself in place lol. Hey man, love this series. Have fun back at work!