Help Conneaut open this year.

Not sure if either is bad. I'm not at all afraid to admit that I'm a huge Simpsons fan. When I was younger I lived on a steady diet of that show and because of that, I know the lines to pretty much all the epsiodes from the first six or seven seasons like the back of my hand ;)

RR needs a Zipper. Who needs crack with a Zipper around?

BTW I successfully found AND rode a Zipper at Saxonburg VFD carnival last night (GASP, he said the "C-WORD") .. and the same company will be at the Big Butler Fair end of the month. It actually looked very well mainained (all of their stuff did)... and their employees were friendly, had on uniform polo shirts, and looked groomed and such.

The carnival company was "Powers Great American Midway"

It was obviously a newer model, it was white as opposed to the old standard yellow, and the front door panel was a one-piece stainless steel mesh...which made it harder to grasp the padded "jail bars" to hold onto... damn thing still needs auxillary seat belts botled to the floor in my opinion though.. you can tell me the old latch problems have been fixed, there still is nothing to hold you in that car if the door flies open. *** Edited 6/15/2007 7:51:33 PM UTC by Chooch249*** *** Edited 6/15/2007 7:52:58 PM UTC by Chooch249***

Was what I said in a post a while back about it being on steroids correct? :)

*** Edited 6/16/2007 12:04:56 AM UTC by Ex_Westview and KW_worker***

It didn't seem any different than any other one speed wise that I can remember... but I haven't been on one in about 15 years or so.

Anyhoo......ALL Zippers are on Steroids! :) !!!!!!!!!!

My son's first ride on it ever, and our cage flipped 7 and a half times at the top of the ride when the car stopped to unload. Priceless!

Did your son like it?

I think the reason you dont see them in parks are,takes too long to load/unload,and I hear they are a maintenance nightmare.

That loading issue is also one of the reasons why the traditional Big Eli type Ferris wheels are usually not found in major parks any more (but are still found in many small parks and carnivals). The gondola wheels, besides being more spectacular in appearance, load several cars at a time instead of just one.

Double wheels of various types were another response to the loading problem but are not as common in parks as they used to be either.

Many of the old wheels with their cable drives were tricky to operate (as were similarly designed rides such as Rock-O-Planes). They had to be balanced more carefully than the tire and rim drive wheels that are more common now.

That is true,double wheels(skywheels) are rare in parks anymore.

I rode my first one at West View when I was very young,man was I scared.

Yeah, he liked it. It's in his blood! :)

Now, the contraption I didn't care for was the Sizzler. It's a Scrambler on steroids. Hurt my neck the first time just to hold my head up. 2nd time my son comes zooming into my rib cage full tilt. The cars are hard fiberglass. They light up real nice and have cute little 50's style tailfins.... and fragments of my rib cage now. Discomfort is the most polite word I can find to describe that ride.

The Orbiter was cool. Kind of a modern day Troika. For whatever reason, he didn't want to try the Ring of Fire. Just as well... I didn't feel like losing whatever keys/change was left in my pocket after the Zipper. I caught about 80 cents worth of loose change in the face like buckshot on the mighty Z. My lighter was politely retrieved by the ride op.

I must say, I was duely impressed by the ride ops. Uniformed and polite, not your stereotypical bathless, toothless carnival horror-story employees by a long shot. And everything appeared to be in safe and working order. And they were proud of their company, noting that they would be bringing the "full regime" to the Big Butler Fair, and naming some other cool-sounding flats that I honestly haven't heard of. They seemed to know what they were talking about. (Yay)! Sorry, this got a little off topic. It was fun. Really.

The Sizzler does haul butt!

The only flat ride that ever got me close to being sick was a "Cobra" that was on super hyper mode.

"Powers" does have some nice rides in their collection and some good operators too.

If you go to the Butler Fair be sure to ride the "Claw" its right up there with the Zipper in being intense.

If you want to go to a HUGE fair check out the Canfield fair(its near Youngstown) around Labor Day.

Canfield is a nice ride, and not too far, either. I have been to antique car shows there but never the fair.

That ride is partially the same way we used to go to Idora when I was a teengager... via rt 51, 14, 7..... I may shed a tear or two on that route!!! :(

Most Sky Wheels weere found in traveling carnivals rather than parks. The Long Beach Pike used to have one and I believe that Cedar Point had one for a while. The first double wheel, I believe, was the Giant Seesaw that was at Tilliyou's Steeplechase Park on Coney Island.

Gondola double wheels were also found at parks in the past. One example was the Zodiac at KI. GAm in Gurnee (in the pre Six Flags days) once had a triple wheel.

Conneaut and Cedar Point both had double wheels.Conneauts was only there about a year or two,it was down by the Beach Club.

I remember the double wheel being more toward the front of the park in the 70's, like between where the putt putt course and waterpark changing areas are now.

Here is a postcard of Cedar Point's Sky Wheel that was located at the current location of the front Sky Ride platform I belive.

Not having more details in front of me in the form of a park map, I believe the double Sky Wheel at Cedar Point was somewhere between the current carousel at the front of the park and Demon Drop, as the sky ride was in existance at that time (circa 1980-1982 when I remember going there as a kid...)

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Jason Hammond said:
Here is a postcard of Cedar Point's Sky Wheel that was located at the current location of the front Sky Ride platform I belive.

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I stand corrected. It was more in the location of the Carousel.

http://www.rollercoasterfreak.com/CP_Brochures/1980_inside.jpg

More news...

http://www.meadvilletribune.com/local/local_story_169231950.html

and

http://www.meadvilletribune.com/local/local_story_169231657.html

The drama continues...

Absolutely amazing...it appears that no one involved with the "trust" or operation over the last 10 years has any idea what they're doing...

For the full skinny, start at page one and read thru page 110(as it stands now.)

http://community.cnhi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/17610168/m/497104665/p/1 *** Edited 6/20/2007 12:29:01 PM UTC by FLYINGSCOOTER***