Philadelphia - skybike

Greetings one and all.

Just came back from a recent trip to Philly and spent about 2 days in the Franklin Institute with Mother Fluxer and Preflux.

There was an attraction there called "Skybike" or "Skycycle" or something similar.

I had never seen anything like it before. It basically looks like a zipline with a bike on top of it. The main line is surrended by high quality netting, as it runs from the third floor above the snack bar, gift shop and entrance to the King Tut Exhibit (Which by the way was fantastic). The bike itself looked like it had a criss-crossing seatbelt system. It was about 20 - 40 feet long and was an upcharge of 2 bucks per, so I got two tickets...one for me and one for pre.

When we got up to the launching area the view from the third floor was impressive, but I noticed that there was a height restriction, which wasn't posted downstairs. The attendent told me to return to the ticket booth, and when I did I was promptly given back the 4 bucks.

Have any of you ever seen it or something like it?

By the way, I am a George Rhoads fan, so any place that has one of his ball-tower sculptures is worthy of five stars, except for the one at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City, which is always dirty, broken and neglected.

All in all - a nice side trip during the off-season!

Here are some pics

http://www.fi.edu/tfi/info/skybike.html

I think it would be more interesting if one was strung between two New York Skyscrapers :)

There common in Science Centers. Cosi in Colombus had one and we rode it 3 times when we had a field trip back in 5th grade.

The one at COSI Columbus is better. It doesn't have netting all over it, and it's just a unicycle.

I rode it at the Franklin Institute back when it was outside years ago. I didn't like it because it felt like you were going to tip over even though I knew you couldn't.

It was at the COSI in Toledo years ago in 1998.

The Museum of Science & Industry in Los Angeles has one too.

Science City in KC at Union Station has one. They are pretty cool.

Krazy City at the Palisades Center mall in Nyack, NY has one also.

I did the one at the Franklin Institute a few years ago. Because of the big weight under the cable, you can rock the bike from side to side without it falling off the cable. I got to about horizontal when I rocked it back and forth. It’s really fun.

When did Palisades get theirs? I didn't see it when I was there last February.

^I think that it went in when the coaster was moved downstairs and the new arcade opened as Krazy City in July 2006.

Looks like fun. Looks like even more fun to fall into the net!