Bicycle Powered Ferris Wheel


This is pretty cool- the art collective The Miss Rockaway Armada in association with the Philadelphia Art Alliance have created a bicycle powered ferris wheel. This unique human powered carnival ride has three seats each with it’s own set of pedals and chains.

If I’m interpreting the mechanics of this correctly, each seat is being pedaled and the two chains (one under the seat and one along the side) work together to pull the rider around each seat’s individual mounted axis in the same direction the entire wheel is spinning giving momentum to the entire ferris wheel. And with that statement my high school physics teacher just rolled over in his grave. Pictures are fun but how about some video? We got that too:

Now that looks like a lot of fun. The only question is, how the heck do you stop it?