The coaster is an out-and-back style with a maximum drop of 20 feet and a blazing speed of 20mph. The structure consists of 9,500 pounds of lumber and cost $5,500 dollars to build, which is actually less than I was expecting (I guess I buy wood at the wrong place).

There are various aspects from real coasters such as a motorized chain lift, lift-hill safety ratchet, and locking wheels to keep the car on the track. Watching one of the videos, it appears that the car probably doesn't have enough energy to completely circle the track, which is a bummer, but is probably easily fixed if that's the case.

There are more photos and some videos showing the roller coaster in operation at Jeremy's Backyard Coaster site.

Alright - it's no secret that I'm a huge rollercoaster and amusement ride nut (actually, I just got back yesterday from two week in Florida at Disney World and Universal Studios!) and as much as I tend to avoid exercise, this "coaster" in Japan looks really neat.

The cars are powered by the riders using a bicycle type mechanism on a fairly standard looking rollercoaster type track. The ride appears to provide a bit of thrill through the placement of several turns which overhang a steep hillside and also a few elevation changes. Of course, since the riders are positioned similar to riding a bike, the various elements of the track cannot be too extreme without making the ride unsafe.

Actually, the more I look at the "funny coaster" the more fun it looks! Head over to this site to see lots more photos of this unique amusement ride.

[Thanks to Ubergizmo]

While this design is not totally new, it's definitely not common and this is the first non test-track version I've seen.

The track is fairly standard. What is unique is the design of trains. Each rider's seat is positioned on a bar that extends out of either side of the coaster car. This gives the rider the feeling that they are suspended in free air for extra excitement.

However, the design goes another step further. Each set of seats can be rotated at various points around the track allowing the rider to be positioned so that they are diving head-first, backwards, or whatever the designer desires. This is accomplished via a smaller guide-track along which a wheel rides and is connected to the rotation mechanism on the seat bars. By varying the level of the guide-track in relation to the main track, the seat rotational position is determined.

It's a really cool idea and I hope to ride one of these someday. Below you'll find a video and you can also check-out this site for more photos.

Since a ride junkie, this idea sounds really neat to me. A 5 story grocery store in Shenyang, China has installed a rollercoaster track that travels throughout the entire store. Shoppers board a coaster car and are automatically taken around the store where they car slowly rolled by the goods on the shelves. The shoppers reach-out and grab items they want right from the ride vehicle they're seated in.

The only real disadvantage to this is that if you miss an item and really must have it, you need to ride around again. For me, this is actually not really a disadvantage, but for some, especially those in a hurry, it might be huge. However, I can imagine that walk-in/out convenience stores would get a real boost from those impatient shoppers.

This isn't breaking news by any means, but it's still pretty awesome if you like roller coasters.

I originally found-out about John Ivers and his personal coaster several years ago when a family member sent a newspaper clipping from their local paper who did a story on the Blue Flash coaster. Obviously, a printed article just doesn't cut it when you want to see it working, so when I found this video, I had to post it.

John, who has a background working on cars, applied his everyday knowledge and a pile of extra steel to build the Blue Flash "from the seat of his pants." There are a few design mistakes in the home-built coaster, such as the circular loop which are generally not used for good reason (most modern loops are a teardrop shape) but it's still impressive that he built a working ride. It goes to show that with a bit of common sense and a lifetime of building things, you can come "pretty close" to what the engineers do.

It looks very rough to ride, which you can see when the children's heads are flailing around, but possibly no rougher than when I rode the Desperado in Vegas this past summer (holy cow that was rough - I got a headache after riding that!)

More info on the Blue Flash home-built rollercoaster.

Random surfing netted me this interesting tidbit today. Some Italian artists have built themselves an indoor, full working and rideable roller-coaster. Sadly there are not that many photos and definitely no movies but you can get a pretty good idea what they've done.

Unlike many so-called roller-coasters that people build, which are either un-rideable or basically just a hill and 10 feet of track, this one is a full circuit with several hills and banked turns. It appears to be build with standard wood and possible PVC pipe for the rails, but it's hard to tell (and I don't know if PVC pipe would be a good choice to use as track). Whatever it's actually built from, they've done a pretty good job making a cool ride.

I must say that the duck shirt the guy is wearing in the close-up is pretty odd and the translation of "the cow of our grandmother" is funny - although it's much better than my Italian!

I've often thought it'd be cool to have my own indoor ride of some type. I've got a large, open basement but the ceiling is certainly not high enough to build anything that goes more than a foot or two off the ground. If only I had a spare warehouse...

Oh yeah, if you know of any other home-built amusement rides which are worth mentioning, please let me know!