leviathandude306

Well, it sounds like chance has now forever changed the face of flat rides, with the zipper, and now, over 45 years later, they've forever changed the face of coasters. Hopefully like the zipper, LR style rides will catch on & parks everywhere will buy one.

Any1 got pics/vids of the ride yet ?

Finally got to ride one of these today. It wasn't quite as intense as I expected, however, it was a great ride for it's relatively small height (ride the 80-90' portable version). The drop itself, at least to me, feels very similar to an Intamin second gen tower, with great floater air all the way down. The only major difference I found, is due to the shorter height of the ARM tower you didn't really get that sense of falling faster, and faster, like the Intamin 2nd gens, which are almost 3x taller. Finally, unlike the Intamin towers, the restraints seen more minimal, providing a more comfortable experience on the way up. You also, at least IMO, don't get that "ejector" air people talk about. Personally, I'd actually describe the air you get on S&S double shot towers to be more the sensation I was expecting. Instead, I found the ARM towers to feel like scaled down Intaminss. Finally, I'm not saying this is a bad ride, just bery different from what I expected. My friend was commenting that he "didn't have to drive four hours to ride the closest drop zone", and personally, that sums it up. The ride, (at least the portable version), is great at delivering this sort of an experience to people and places that can't have a large Intamin tower... Allowing people to spread the joy of pretty much everywhere.

Any idea what time guardian's opening? Would be nice to know when to expect TRs & photos/vids

^That station looks awesome!... Can't wait to ride this for myself! Just noticed the restraints have shin guards. Wonder why so many née coasters are getting them lately ? Could it mean that this ride might be a little more intense than we first thought?

^Doesnt CP have the pathetic go under corkscrew?

Just come up here to Canada... Every carnival I've been to here in Ontario does this when you're the only one on the ride... Guess they're all wanna be topspin owners! When it happened to me, I was at a carnival alone, asy friend who was supposed to go was sick that day. As you might expect, the carny kicked me outa the line line (which wasn't long, but filled with partners & no single riders). After hanging around the ride for about 20 minutes or so, the crowd died down, and the carny noticed I was still waiting to ride. He got another guy running the ride with him to jump into a car with me, and the experience that followed was very similar to yours... During the consecutive flips, the sky and ground blended into a greyish-blue blur, and when it was all over, I couldn't walk straight for about 5 minutes or so afterward. Now, every time I go back to that fair, I'm garonteed a great ride experience... Most likely due to the fact I'm an enthusiast, and the ops there seem to respect that. Here's an example of what I'm talking about: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w4s8duyYJ-Q Periodically, you'll see them start and stop the ride at certain points to keep the car spinning

^From what I've seen in other vids, it seems like there are slight variations in the program between cycles. Remember seeing somewhere on another forum that it was 20 different programs it had.

I just imagine the boom stopping horizontally and lowering so the lower half of the carriages can unload/load. Then the other upper half moves and can do the same before the boom rises back up the tower and starts the ride cycle. That would actually work quite well if they could engineer it to do that somehow. If you combine that with it being duelling (I'd imagine sort of like a Kamikaze/sky flyer, the ride could actually have quite high capacity, or at least better than what they currently have. And if this never happens, at least chance has a winner on their hands with Lightning Run, a ride which, by the descriptions from riders, I would imagine packs the forces of a zipper into a coaster not much larger than an SLC... Very impressive! Actually, now I think of it, I couldn't have picked a better time to start this thread... It's *EXTREMELY* unlikely, but with all the buzz about LR, Maybe a designer at chance is reading this forum, and may see our suggestions to build a park model zipper.. If a park asks, they might consider . Like I said before, very unlikely, but with a company named "chance", maybe it's something parks will take their "chances" on building lol

Actually, in my experience, the sketchier the op, the better the ride! Seriously though, for whatever reason, at the local carnival in my town, which is run by a show that's known for its nice, re dervishes rides, and not-so-sketchy crew of carnies, the zipper always still seems to have some sketchy stoner guy running it. Haha

^Agree that the smaller towers, and even coasters occasionally, tend to have more intense drops.

How about back-to-back "dueling" zippers? It needs to happen. ^This, along with the post above about a bigger park model with chaos style seats, that'd be awesome...Back to back duelling park model zippers. Not quite sure how the lowering boom would work though.

Ya. Exactly.. Theyre so unpredictable! The fact you can get airte is probably the thing that shocked me the most... Airtime better than many coasters, at that.

That seems to make sense.. Also explains why, although the actual airtime isn't as forcefull on the Intamin towers compaired to the S&S rides, the Intamins are so much more intense.

Ya, around the time Impulse was being announced, everyone thought the new ride would be an updated zipper.

Ejector. It's absolutely ejector which kind of defies the laws of physics but... it's ejector. But the thing that makes them awesome is that the ride doesn't slow down and you don't return to your seat until you're almost on the ground. No matter how many times you ride it you don't feel like you're going to be able to stop in time. Despite the fact that it's a drop tower with ejector airtime that stops on a dime it's actually a very comfortable stop though. That's awesome to hear. Wonder how that's even possible. I know the Fabri towers, like Thorpe's Detonator, work kind of like S&S turbo drops, and launch you down, giving a similar effect, but as far as I know, the ARM towers just drop. Also seems kind of nerve racking having those onings over you that prevent you from seeing the top.

I agree that an update probably isn't needed for the portable version, but an updated version for parks, similar to what Larson did for the ring of fire, adding open cars to make the fireball, would be cool. Wish they'd make said update & create a park model... Have a feeling it would catch on for some of the smaller parks.

Did a quick search, and I guess there's no topic on this yet. So, anyone here on the forums rode a Chance Zipper? Personally, I love the ride, and it ranks as my #1 flat ' ride, with only the Mondial tops can coming close to dethroning it from the top of my list. It's just so intense, and has pretty much everything you want in a ride forces wise.. Floater air, ejector air, and amazing positive Gs. Your thoughts?

Or an S&S tower before it launches, or a chance zipper just as it starts up... Yes, i just went into a whole other realm of coaster/ride nerd-dom there

For someone who's done one of these, any idea what the airtime like?.. Obviously it's there, and it's amazing, but would you call it floater, ejector, a weird combo of the two (only experienced the later on a chance zipper once... It was weird yet awesome at the same time ). The only other towers I've done are S&S towers & Intamin 2nd gens. Also heard somewhere in another thread that the portable versions (what I hope to ride soon) aren't that good.. Any truth to this from other readers?

Yes! I can also tell which park a commercial was filmed in. It annoys me when I see multiple rides from different parks merged into one commercial. Lies! Absolute worst was when I saw footage from a CF park in a Six Flags commercial.. No idea how that would've happened. The worst was, the CF park happened to be my home park, Canada's Wonderland... Kinda embarrassing *facepalm* Another one I have is if you can tell what rides are in the background of a video just by listening to the background noise and listening for the sounds specific ride types make, and not having been to that park before. Finally, not really a coaster nerd thing, more just being a nerd in general. If you know your flat rides as well as your coasters.. Can tell the make/midel/ride type just at a glance... Even for ghetto@$$ fair rides

First of all, I just want to apologize for bumping such an old thread. Anyway, personally find vids for mdrop towers, or any other really intense rides/coasters I've done will usually give me a similar feeling to what you guys are talking about.

^^Well, still looking forward to it, even if the portable versions aren't quite as good (have still heard very good things about them). How intense would you rank them (the portable ones) compaired with other towers?

^^Have also heard very good things about the ARM/Larson towers. I know the fabri ones (Detinator at Thorpe for ex.), work basically like the S&S turbo drops done right, & launch the car down, giving the ride it's intensity, but haven't heard anything like this for the ARM towers.. Anyone have an idea how they work? Also, how would you describe the airtime on the ARM towers? Is it similar to the strong floater air on the Intamin 2nd gen/gyro towers, or more like the ejector air you get on a double shot?... My local fair has one, and I'm so pumped to ride it later this week, but have no idea what I'm in for, as I've only rode S&S & Intamin towers.

Well, a B&M family coastercdoesnt really surprise me... Their rides were getting less intense for the past 10-15 years or so... Other manufacturers have taken over the intense "thrill" ride scene now I guess.