Over-The-Shoulder restraints (here Dave goes again...)
Dave Althoff
What was that?
I think I actually heard someone defending the Arrow horsecollars! In
fact, I think it was someone with a ".de" at the end of his address.
That's ".de" as in home of Mr. Anton "No Horsecollars Here" Schwarzkopf!
I think maybe it is time for me to tell my carnival ride story again!
About a year ago, I was at a carnival. Which one is not important; in
fact, I can hardly remember myself. What I do remember were two big
inverting rides. One was an LMC Super Loop, the other was a Fabrifarbi
Kamikaze. Both have the same action, run at about the same speed, around
about the same diameter, though the Kamikaze is quieter and carries more
people...not to mention has more lights on it.
The Kamikaze consists of a large gondola, seating about 20 people in a
single gondola suspended at the end of an arm. The people sit two-abreast
in molded plastic seats, held in place by an over-the-shoulder U-bar. The
gondola swings fore- and aft with ever-increasing amplitude, until it
reaches a fully inverted position, hangs upside down for a few moments,
and either backs up, or continues on around.
When you hang upside-down in this thing, you naturally fall out of your
seat (due to the absence of any centrifugal force). The restraint lies
over your shoulders and across your chest, but not into your lap...much
like the Arrow restraint. You fall, as I said, until your shoulders
finally meet the bar with extreme force. Then, as the pendulum action
starts up again, centrifugal force (and at the bottom, gravity) drags you
back into the seat (again with some great force), then later you get
dropped into the restraint again. By the time it was over, I had an idea
of why it was called the 'kamikaze'. My shoulders and neck hurt for a week!
From one ride!
The LMC Super Loop, which I rode at another carnival, does basically the
same thing. In it, you sit two-abreast on a narrow, upholstered bench
seat (undivided). The seat sports a thick pad. When the door is closed,
a padded bar is dropped into your lap. This bar is nonadjustable, but the
pad is about 5" thick and fairly soft, so it features a de-facto
self-adjustment. What you initially thought to be a soft headrest turns
out to be the lap-bar for the seat behind you. It is, in fact, a
low-backed seat.
The action of the Super Loop is exactly the same as the action of the
Kamikaze, except that the vehicle is a train running around the inside of
a large circular loop. The lack of support for your back is noticable.
But when you are stopped at the top of the loop, you are held in place by
the lap bar. Due to its design, you may drop slightly from your seat, as
in the Kamikaze, but you are held in place by the largest and strongest
bones in your body...the upper halves of your legs. As a result, you do
not end up screaming in pain; instead, if it weren't for the blood rushing
to your face, you could probably hang there comfortably all day. And you
can ride this ride all you want with no resulting injuries.
Okay, so why not take this as an object lesson and extend it to coasters?
In fact, coasters are easier than typical fairground loopers, since a
coaster traversing a loop will have enough centrifugal force to keep
riders in their seats through the looping elements, so the restraints
needn't be as tight or as well padded. To prevent injuries to the back,
the riders should be upright in the loops. So why not use an individual
ratcheting lap bar designed much like the retrofit bars on the Snake River
Falls boats at Cedar Point? Here's more-or-less what I am thinking, in ASCII:
| ...So the lap-bar keeps the rider from leaning forward
| without trying to hold him in by his comparatively
| fragile shoulders. The vertical portion of the bar
^ | needn't be particularly high, and it could pivot a few
O {| degrees to accommodate varying sizes of rider.
O |
/ | I have never ridden a coaster which actually needs
/ _______| over-the-shoulder restraints. The only reason for them
/ ^seat^ I can think of which makes any sense at all is that they
/ are almost entirely escape-proof. But then, so is a
o/ <-bar ratcheting lap bar.
-------------------
My personal opinion is that such an arrangement could be used on Arrow
loopers, particularly the ones with the new-style (Drachen Fire) cars. A
variation, based on the lap bars used on 'Sky Glider' chairlift-style
skyrides and on the Huss Breakdance, would work on B&M inverted coasters.
Imagine...a B&M coaster where you can actually look sideways!
Any opinions, arguments, etc? I figure that this kind of setup would
eliminate ear-bashing, and could make the Arrow Corkscrews and Sidewinders
(which are elements with lots of lateral force) actually rideable!
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Brian A. Plencner
In responce to what David said, I agree that all is needed to hold one
in place on a looping coaster is a lap bar. Take the old Tidal Wave
shuttle loop coaster from Six Flags Great America, for an example. That
ride went through a 60 foot veritcal loop twice, (once in reverse), and
all that held you in was a lap bar. The centrifical force of the ride
is enough to keep you in your seat, so the lap bar is all you need.
In theory, you need no restraint at all to keep you in. An example of
this is the Orbit (and rides like it) at Six Flags Great America. For
those of you unfamilar with the ride, you sit in cabins, one in front of
the other. The cabins are connected like cabins on a ferrise wheel, but
on it's side. The ride starts out by spinning around, building up
centrifical force, then it lifts up, till you do one or two complete 360
degree loops. There is nothing holding you in your seat, minus the roof
of the cabin.
In my own experiences, I haven't had a problem with the
Horse-collars, but I do see Dave's and other peoples reasons for
removing them. With a over-the-shoulder harness, it's hard to put your
hands up, and if you have wide shoulders, (like my father, who can't
ride the Demon at SFGA becuase of therestrant system) it makes the ride
very unconfortable.
That's my views on the subject. Again, comments and questions
can be posted or e-mailed to me.
Brian A. Plencner
mu...@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu
GregLeg
Andreas Schildbach <p70...@sun1.lrz-muenchen.de> wrote:
>The only "positive" thing I said about shoulder restraints is that
>certain rides need 'em. Have you ever been on the Steel Phantom at
>Kennywood? A ride on it without shoulder restraints is suicide in my
>opinion. Another example is Flashback at Magic Mountain. But these
>rides would be bad without shoulder restraints anyway.
I've ridden the Phantom every year since it's opened. How would riding
it without those damn horsecollars be "suicide"? A well designed, padded
lapbar/seatbelt combo would suffice, IMHO. I'd LOVE to ride the Phantom
with Magnum-style trains.
The horsecollars might make Mr GQ Public feel more secure, and they might
be a bit more idiot-proof (although I've seen a bunch of people get
confused by the "pull down then push up" release). For the most part,
though, I just find them annoying -- you have to remember to remove
earrings (minor, but a pain), and I've gotten nasty headaches from them
more than once.
--
Greg Legowski gleg...@pit.legent.com (work)
gre...@telerama.lm.com (play) g.leg...@genie.geis.com (other)
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