my hometown’s park had one of these. one day it malfunctioned and dropped. I was a kid but for some reason I went to see the aftermath. horrifying. dried blood everywhere…
In? In the Gravitron I rode, it was just sleds on the slightly-slanted walls that went up when it got up enough speed. There wasn’t really anywhere to fall into. I mean yeah, he could easily break an arm or something, but nothing that would splatter him.
Just to be serious for a mo; why the fuck would I want a sports car anyway?
Showy cars are for smoothbrained insecure chucklefucks. I don’t come from money, and I have very little, but I certainly have no psychological need to attempt to appear like I do. Even if I got a gazillion bucks tomorrow there’s no way in hell I’m going to start purchasing shiny shit to show off with.
I actually have but I felt embarrassed as hell each time.
I’m not against fine tuning and efficiency. I am against A: “LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!!!” And B: any sort of aggressive driving on public roads.
If there were such a thing a really ‘nice’ car that was ‘luxurious’ inside etc., but looked like absolutely nothing extraordinary outside, then I might buy one (in the alternative universe where I had lots of money to blow on new cars).
That’s very kind of you. I’m not starving and have a secure roof so I’m doing better than many others around the world. I am certainly not complaining in regards to that.
When I have day dreams of winning millions of dollars my first thoughts are typically “how could I help others”.
I would have to actually play the lottery though, which I’m not inclined to do.
It’s pretty funny because personally I don’t care at all about comfort and very little about looks. I just want something that’s fun to drive. If I had the money, Id get maybe a Subaru BRZ, it’s not too powerful but lightweight. But I live in France so I dont need a car either way
so there’s lot of people - kids who ate lead paint in their childhoods, victims of being dropped on their heads, FAS babies etc., who suffer from cognitive deficits but LOVE the vroom vroom. They love it so much they do illegal shit to their vehicles just so more vroom vroom smoke comes out. They love it more than they love having a livable ecosystem, more than their own children’s futures. And if you try to get the crayons out and explain it to them, it just makes them angry.
The electric requirements would stop you from putting it in your backyard.
The motor is 3 Phase around 150A. Residential areas are generally not wired to be able to offer 3P power to customers. You would likely need to rent some commercial space to be able to get the electric hookup.
Seriously. If this guy thinks his neighbors would be cool with his COLLECTION of sirens that operate on three-phase power, he’s got a wad of expanded polyethylene foam where his brain ought to reside.
I’ll have to take your word for it. The way I figure it, there’s a neighbor-to-neighbor noise spectrum on which everybody is constantly, even unconsciously evaluating everyone who lives around them.
On one end of the spectrum is the concept of “I don’t want to be that guy who calls the cops about this fucking noise, but I LITERALLY HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO SLEEP FOR THREE DAYS.” I suppose the other end of the spectrum would be something like “all these fellows have been so quiet and considerate that they could give their collectible sirens a couple of good blasts, and I’d be happy for the break in the near-oppressive silence.”
See, the thing is, everywhere I’ve ever lived, I have been just about a notch and a half below the “I’m going to call the fucking cops” end of the spectrum. Always. The whole time.
Here’s a non-exhaustive (but certainly exhausting) set of examples, off the top of my head: dogs barking over and over and over, kids screaming, people deciding they just HAVE to mow the lawn at 6:00 AM on a Saturday, people with speaker systems that literally count as earthquake simulation machines, people who think it’s hilarious to illegally modify their muscle cars’ exhaust systems to basically have no muffler, people running their wood jointer machine for so long that I can only imagine they’re operating an illegal, untaxed lumber supply racket, people interminably screaming at their spouses and significant enemies in their driveways and on the sidewalks, etc, on and on.
It’s just a ceaseless and endlessly varied cacophony of fucking sound, from these rude motherfuckers. If any one of the shitheads who has lived near me over the last 40-something years had ever started collecting sirens, I would have lost my mind in the same arguably constructive way that young Bruce Wayne lost his marbles. There would be some guy called “Decibel Dude” stalking the streets, pouring sugar in leafblower gas tanks, muzzling dogs, removing chains from chainsaws and blades from lawnmowers, and whatever else I could think of to FINALLY MAKE PEOPLE JUST A LITTLE FUCKING QUIETER, FOR FUCK’S SAKE.
I’m just saying. Your world of “we’re all respectfully quiet, around here” is an utterly alien utopia, from where I’m sitting.
It’s illegal for us to set the sirens off willy nilly in most places, as it would cause a panic. Most of us (myself included) wait until the city tests their main sirens to set ours off, or on special occasions like New Years and Fourth of July/Canada Day. We’re very aware of how our hobby affects others and those who don’t learn very quickly when the neighbours get pissed.
I can only imagine they’re operating an illegal, untaxed lumber supply racket
my wife is a woodworker. she thought it ‘wasn’t that noisy for the neighbors if the garage door was closed’ lololol
that and neighborhood kids running around blasting bluetooth speakers at 2 in the fucking morning (like, 10 year olds!) I’m right there with you man, I want a quiet street and the world is conspiring against it.
And re: the vroom vroom fuckwits - oh my fucking god. About a half mile from my house is a main thoroughfare and some nights the fuckwits all try to see who can dump the most unburned gas out of their turbocharged shitmobiles generating 100+db because at my house it’s still fucking ear-splitting and they’re all the way over there with half a subdivision between.
meanwhile the world burns more each day, vroom vroom
The vroom vroom motherfuckers are absolutely the worst. Years ago, a feral cat had her kittens on our back porch. I was present to witness the litter of kittens emerging from the nest the mother cat had made, behind an outdoor shelving unit and a garden hose. These little fuckers had NEVER SEEN THE WORLD OUTSIDE THAT SPACE. They were all emerging at once, six little innocent balls of fluff, cuter than anyone could adequately describe. They had made it about ten inches into the outside world when some shithead started blasting his fucking engine, on the road past my fence.
The poor little fuckers jumped in unison and squeezed themselves back into the den, in a complete state of panic. They didn’t come out again for another day, at least.
So yeah, Mr. Big Masculine High Displacement Fuckoff Engine, out there…was he pulling chicks with that shit? Was he impressing ANYONE, at all, of any species? Nah. What he was doing was scaring the shit out of 14-day-old kittens. Fucking congratulations to his ass.
VFDs are definitely the way to go, that’s what most enthusiasts used. When we did SirenCon over at Camp Tesumas in Wisconsin, we had a giant generator that we had to use to run the bigger sirens, especially the Cyclone 125 which has a 50 horsepower motor. It nearly killed the generator!
Or you just have 3 phase power at home (laughs in Germany).
aside from running carney rides, and maybe a shed with a gigantic cnc or end mill - what are the reasons for pushing 3p to the domicile level? I have no doubt there must be, DE knows engineering so…
Usually it’s the meter and the cabling that needs changing, like an extra phase needs to be introduced but it should be available at street level if any commercial place is around.
Your shop might have had the cables already and just needed the meter change.
Within 20 years I bet we’ll have small fusion reactors that just sit onsite and generate all the power you want. If we survive WW3 that is. A toaster-sized generator will be able to run a gravitron no problem.
If you didn’t run the lights, it’s only 33kW motor, less in newer Starships
Assuming you had 208V 3ph, that’s under 100A. Much less if you are in commercial area with 240V 3ph
If you don’t plan to spin 48 people, you could replace motor with a 120V single phase motor 5hp and remove a lot of weight from the ride (cut holes in every other fiberglass panel)
A decently small generator (relative to a full trailer carnival ride)… could power this. There are many tow behind 50kVA diesel generators. (Another $8k)
BTW the reason these UFO/gravs are for sale is because they are all rotting, the fiberglass panels that hold it together are like paper now and too expensive to repair.
Look what I really pay them for is for them to know and for me not having to. They say 3p, 3p it is, whatever gets the monkeyfunkin’ GRAVITRON spinning!!
I don’t know much anything about electric motors but could you use the same motor and just spin the thing up more slowly? Or would you need a different motor for that?
They did? The dude in the middle just sat there smoking meth every time I was on one of these. I stood up on the wall once, with my whole body perpendicular to the floor. It was awesome!
It’s pretty crazy! The farther from the wall your head is, the more you can feel the spinning forces. It definitely felt like I was in a blender by the time I was standing up.
Haha I did that too if it’s the same machine. It had an open top and you just stick to the side as it spins and hinges 90 degrees. There was a chain but you had clearance to flip yourself.
Yes, I’ve been there. You can turn around facing backwards, but you would slide down even if you could fit sideways between the bars in the cage. …com.au/…/round-up-ride-lge.jpg
Only in UFO/graviton do people spin upside down because of the centrifugal forces and angle of the wall.
All I can say is I did this on a ride similar to this, perhaps it’s not that machine, but it looks very similar to the post you linked but it was more a solid outside rather than the individual bays in the image.
It was the centrifugal forces I believe as we would literally be stuck to the back wall but with enough strength you could flip yourself 180 and just get dizzy and a head rush.
I literally have no reason to make this up my guy.
The Gravitron wasn’t the open top kind with the chain. That was the Round Up, and it would lift up after getting g up to speed and go almost vertical.
The Gravitron was enclosed and had angled walls. I think the walls were padded and would slide up a bit when the machine was up to speed. Heavier people would have their section slide up sooner than others.
Sure, most girls aren’t likely to respond in a positive way, if you say something like: “hey, if you ride my dick in that thing, are you on top? Or are you technically to the side?”
Most girls are gonna be like “eew, no. Just no.”
But the thing is…a few girls who hear that shit will respond with something like “LET’S FIND OUT!”
They are the real ones. You don’t just want to hang out with them for sex. You want to hang out with them, in general.
The more I think about it, the more I figure…if you had one at your house, you could become the fucking Rodney Mullen of that thing. Like, forget just being able to stand up and walk around. A few hundred hours of practice, and you could jump rope, juggle, have a whole tea party without spilling anything, sleep in it to see if it gives you superpowers and/or immortality. The possibilities are endless.
No, that was the Matterhorn. Who designs a tight circular track and then not only spin people forwards, but stop mid way through and spin them backwards? I think that was the 3rd hardest I've ever puked in my life.
OK, well the 2nd hardest I puked was at a cottage with some buddies not long after college. I didn't have much experience drinking, and I thought it would be a great idea to drink a magnum of red wine on the first night. I was doing good for most of the night, even ate dinner and was having a great time. And then...I didn't feel so good. And then I really didn't feel so good. I ran to the railing with a bright red spray, as my buddies laughed their asses off because they thought I sounded like Donald Duck when he's angry. I thought that was funny and started laughing while puking, which just made me sound more like Donald Duck when he's angry. They called me Donald for the rest of that week. I've had a love/hate relationship with red wine ever since.
The hardest I've ever puked though was during my year of hell, when I was going through my Crohn's diagnosis. I had hit a pretty major flare and my bowels were practically swollen shut. My doctor wanted to do a scope, which meant I had to be cleaned out first. And for that, they give you powerful laxatives. They told me to drink Gatorade with the water to help hydrate me since it blasted all the water through your bowels. What they didn't tell me was to avoid red Gatorade. So I've downed the laxatives mixed into a bottle of water, and I'm sipping on Gatorade on the couch when my stomach starts hurting. My stomach was already hurting, but this is a stretching kind of pain. The laxatives are working, I think. But then I got that feeling at the top of my stomach, and I knew what was about to happen. I ran to the bathroom, got to the door and couldn't hold back anymore. I projectile puked 6 feet and hit the toilet. An almost perfect red arc, but some got in the bowl. And then...I felt the other end. I barely made it to the puke covered seat and began shitting my brains out while still puking hard into the bathtub. I was crying and sobbing by the end of it while still puking. My bathroom looked like a murder scene. I'm covered in red puke. And I still had 3 more bottles of laxative to get through. I'll be honest, I contemplated my continuing existence in that moment.
I was still trying to find what I liked. Beer was and is disgusting. Hard liquor required mixing to make it taste good, which I wasn't good at. Coolers aren't bad, which I drank for the rest of that week. But red wine was tasty. Really tasty. Deceptively tasty. It also contains a lot of tannins, which I found out the hard way later can cause stomach cramps and nausea in some people such as those with Crohn's that I didn't know about at the time. So does tea for that matter. It's all part of the journey. I know what to avoid for the most part now.
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