Ready for take off
in the Superbowl
For decades, I have enjoyed an occasional fairground ride. But
I’m quite selective about them. I don’t like dangly-feet rides; I want to feel
comfortably anchored all the way. I enjoy fast, spinning rides, that press me
back in my seat or bed. And, while I love being lifted into the air, I don’t
enjoy looking down from a height.
For many years, my favourite ride has been the Meteorite
(aka Cage). You stand inside an 11-metre diameter ring, with padding behind
your back. The machine rotates fast, then one side lifts up to 65 to 75
degrees. It feels like you’re lying back in a bed and being flown all around
the sky. I love the g-force; the fastest I have been in, Jonathan Mason’s
Meteorite, pulls about 3.3g. Though it does make me feel a bit dizzy
afterwards. But one thing I don’t enjoy about this ride is having to stand up,
often for many minutes, while you wait for more riders.
For me, the most enjoyable part of any fast, lifting ride is
the what I call the “take off ride.” When you’re going round and round at full
speed, but haven’t yet left the ground. In a Meteorite, it can take anything up
to a minute. I love take off, because it is exhilarating, super comfortable,
and not scary at all. (A Meteorite can be a bit scary when you’re up there, but
only if the operator takes the ride too slowly).
For some time, I had been thinking about the Superbowl as a
possible competitor to the Meteorite. This American football themed ride has 10
four-seater cars on a platform, each of which can swing back and forth
independently. It’s bigger than the Meteorite – 15 metres diameter – but not as
fast. When the ride is taking off, the cars are pointed inwards; riders are
looking at the football in the middle. The platform and the cars go round and
round, fast, then one side of the platform lifts to about 45 degrees. As the
platform rotates, the cars swing from side to side (and occasionally all the
way round, when the ride is a bit slow).
I had watched the Superbowl many times at Oxford St Giles
fair, but never summoned up the courage to take a seat. When it’s up, the ride
looks higher than it actually is, and the motions can look rather boisterous,
particularly when a car turns so far that it is facing over the edge.
This year in Oxford, I was watching the Superbowl, and
noticed that the operator seemed to be giving some cycles a really fast take
off. Everybody was right back in their seats, and it looked as if they were
flying, even while still on the ground.
I thought, I want a piece of that! So, I took a seat, which
was unusually comfy by fair ride standards. And the padding on the headrest was
soft. So far, really good.
I loved the take off ride. Though it was a lot
shorter than in the Meteorite’s; maybe 20 seconds until the lift. But the
g-force back into the seat was substantial. Wow! I thought as I lay back and
enjoyed the feeling of flying round and round. This is just as much fun as a
Meteorite take off ride, albeit with less g-force. I’m in a seat, too. None of
that standing-up palaver. This machine is worth the fare, just for the
luxurious, seated take off!
Enjoying take off
in the Superbowl
Look at the two people in the car to the right of the plinth
in the photo above. They’re flying! And really having fun. So are the two lads beyond
them (the same ones as earlier). And the people in the car to the left of the
plinth look a bit zonked; but I’m sure they’re happy, too.
After that, the ride was quite boisterous, and there were
a few slightly scary moments. Most of the time, though, the swinging motions
were pleasant, and being lifted up into the air again and again was beautiful.
So, I enjoyed my ride. And I didn’t feel dizzy when I got off.
A boisterous
moment in the Superbowl
One great thing about the Superbowl is that when you’re at
the top and pointing downwards, there’s no feeling of height, because the
football and its plinth are in the line of sight between you and the ground. So,
the only potentially scary bits were when the car swung out far enough that I
was looking over the side of the platform, or straight down when low.
I enjoyed my first ride enough to go back for a second.
This time, the cycle was different. I didn’t get the exquisite take off,
because it lifted off much earlier. On the other hand, there were far fewer
scary moments. It felt as if the second ride, overall, was going faster than
the first. Faster is comfier in this ride – just as in the Meteorite.
I contemplated (in the local Wetherspoon) whether the
Superbowl could supplant the Meteorite as my favourite ride. Particularly since
my Meteorite ride that day, while lots of fun, had left me dizzier than usual.
So, I determined to go to Nottingham Goose Fair, where I had seen the Superbowl
on previous visits. I wanted to ride it enough times to find out!
I looked at on-ride and off-ride videos, and worked out
that the main difference between cycles is the speed the ride goes at. Most
cycles rotate at around 4 seconds per revolution. But I have seen videos of the
ride going as fast as 3.8 seconds per revolution, and as slow as 4.5, 5 and
even 5.4 seconds. It’s up to the ride operator to determine whether the ride
experience is fast and exhilarating, or slower and more boisterous or even
scary.
So, I went to Nottingham (where I took these photos). In
this machine, the seats were not as comfy as at Oxford. The headrest was
harder, and the bolsters that hold you in the seat were much tighter. It was
also, for someone of my advanced age, harder to get in and out of the ride in
Nottingham than the one in Oxford. However, the staff were most helpful.
The Nottingham cycles, on the other hand, were something
else altogether. They like to keep the ride fast! The operator was obviously an
expert. Every time, she wound the machine from stationary up to full speed in
between 20 and 35 seconds. Sometimes it took off earlier, sometimes later. But
by the time the top edge of the platform cleared the top of the “Superbowl”
sign, everybody was lying back in their seats and riding at real pace.
Riding fast in
the Superbowl
The shortest cycle I watched was 2 minutes 30, the longest
4 minutes 50. The maximum speed, at which the ride went for most of the time,
was one revolution in 3.9 seconds. This represents a riding speed of 27mph, and
a back in the seat force of 2 gravities. A lovely feeling in itself. And the
operator had a clever technique for spicing up the ride a bit, without making
it too boisterous. Every so often, she would bring the speed down from its peak
for a rotation or two, then speed it up again.
I took three rides, one each on the Friday, Saturday and
Sunday. On the Friday, the ride was long, and when we were almost down,
suddenly the operator gave us another few seconds of take off ride! (Regrettably,
we didn’t go up again).
The Saturday ride was even better – a comfier seat, an
amazing 30 second take off, a 4-minute cycle. I learned how to enjoy the ride
to the best, by putting my butt all the way back in the seat, lying back into
the headrest throughout the ride, and splaying out my legs so I wasn’t tempted
to tense my calf muscles if the ride got a bit boisterous.
Coming in for
landing in the Superbowl
But the Sunday ride was the best of the three. In fact, it
was the best fairground experience in my entire life of 73 years.
I took my seat early, because I fancied a bit of a
sit-down. The head honcho himself guided me to my seat, which was the comfiest
in Nottingham so far. I had six or seven minutes of quality seat time, followed
by a truly luxurious, super-fast take off ride. We were flying before we left
the ground! This ride was fast, fast, fast all the way, and there were no scary
moments at all. I just lay back in the comfort, and let the machine swing me
back and forth then lift me into the sky, again and again.
It may seem silly to drive 180 miles each way to
Nottingham, and stay three nights in a hotel, for about 12 minutes of riding
round and round at 27mph, and three exhilarating take off rides. (And rides on a
few other machines, including the fastest Waltzer of my life). But I enjoyed my
week-end.
And yes, the Meteorite is now, for me,
oh-so-twentieth-century.
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