People Powered Coaster

Of course, if the hamsters were only propelling themselves over the hill, it wouldn't take nearly as much power.

^good idea.

How about we put a rhino in a treadmill to power it? It could even be sposored by RhinoLinings.

Seriously, I think a Rhino could out horsepower any hamster or guinea pig. But could a rhino out horsepower a horse?

We may never have the answers to these question.
:)

Well, you can replace a hamster easier than you can replace a Rhino. Then again, the sponsorship deal would be cool.

Heck, why not put a cheetah in there? Have Cat sponsor the ride!

^Cat in the Hat: The Ride!
Could be fun.

Already exists at IOA.

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dannerman said:
It doesn't count as a coaster...

...it's powered! :)

*groan*

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Just because its powered doesn't mean its not a coaster. It only means that its powered it has nothing to do with whether its a roller coaster or not.

Powering a coaster with a rhinoceros is a ridiculous idea. Don't you know that rhinos are endangered? Just the paperwork to get one of those things imported would be a deal breaker.

No, hamsters really have the advantage. They're safe, docile, and they take to a capacitator-charging wheel almost instinctively. Plus, they very seldom gore people. The main advantage though, and this applies over both rhinos and cheetahs (or any of your other really big fauna) is that hamsters are tiny. That is to say, hamsters are very, very small. Each hamster is so small, in fact, it represents only an insignificant fraction of the amount of energy required to get a car over a TTD-like hill (even if said car itself only carried hamsters, obviously). Therefore, if one of the hamsters breaks down, or wants to take a nap in its little plastic house, the whole ride doesn't go down. You simply go get another hamster and drop it in. And when I say drop it in, I literally mean, drop it in. It's almost a no-brainer.

One final thought. If this, admittedly theoretical, roller coaster carried hamsters, and was itself proportional to hamster stature, do you realize it would only stand approximately 17 feet tall. (This calculation assumes for simplicity that humans average around 6 feet tall, and that hamsters would sit bipedally -- that is to say, in people fashion -- in which case they should top out around 3 inches tall or so.)

^I would love to see the size of the hamster house that CP would have to build in order to get TTD in side of it. But, if you plan to go proportionate to the actual size, and make up of hamsters, then I guess the hamster house really wouldn't be all that big.

Then again, this whole thing was suppose to go no further than a people powered version of TTD, since this thread was about a people powered coaster to begin with.

Also, could we trade out the cycles for those individual handpedal carts that Idlewild, and (I think) Lakemont have. Imagine the arm strength one would need to pull off that feat. 65,000 RPM's per second(Just guessing here).

Rhino facts: Up to 8,800 lbs., speeds of up to 35 mph.

Yeah, I'd say that's *considerably* more than a horsepower...even without acceleration figures handy. :)

Not sure why I had to look that up... ;)

^ Yeah, but can you imagine the size of the playball they would need to roll around in? ;)

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Mamoosh said:
"Steps...why did it have to be steps?"

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Actually Moosh, the better quote is:
"Look...stairs..." from National Treasure.

Anyway, I'd definitely ride one of these if they were at a park I was visiting...it's a good way to get some exercize. Can you increase/decrease the speed on one of these things? or can you only get up to a set/max speed?

And I'd actually put kids in an oversized hamster ball being chased by a 3-D Michael Jackson to propel TTD...but thats just me...