Woo! Hoo!
I'm not really an engineer. I didn't use any math or anything.
I just went for it.
My name is John Ivers. I live out the country by Bruceville, Indiana.
I'm a retired welder, factory worker. I've always loved building stuff.
I like to build wind chimes, wind spinners, picnic tables (laughs)
But the Coolest Thing I've Ever Made
was my backyard roller coasters.
Woo hoo!!!
Oh my goodness, now that's how you have fun!
I have the "Blue Flash" and the "Blue Too."
The Blue Flash is just kind of a name that just came up...
and I had blue paint so I was just you know painting it blue.
Here we go!
See ya!
There's been lots of homemade roller coasters.
Well I think it's the only one with a loop, with a full loop in it.
4 G's right about here, negative G's right here.
You know I made that loop by the seat of my pants,
so yeah it's a little quirky through the loop
No, no one's ever got sick on it believe it or not.
All right!
After realizing that the "Blue Flash" was an adult ride...
At the time, my grandkids were just toddlers, so I had to build the "Blue Too" so they could ride.
Alright, here we go!
I probably rode my first one when I was about six
and I loved it.
But I never got a chance to go ride very many.
So I thought well how cool would it be to build my own?
I built a couple of straight ten foot sections on saw horses in my shop
and built the car on that.
I did all the welding and all the forming the track
and laying the tracks all myself
The "Blue Flash" ended up costing me about $1,500.
It has three quarter horse electric motor.
I had to experiment with the gear ratios a little bit to get it to work right
It was all trial and error kind of thing.
I'm not really an engineer. I didn't use any math or anything
I didn't work anything out mathematically or anything. I just went for it.
I just kind of copied off of other coasters that I had seen.
I knew they had a chain drive that pulled them up over the hill.
I knew that they were gravity fed after that .
and kind of banked them like I thought
well that looks like a good bank that'll work pretty good
that'll be leaning this way
and one part led to another part next thing you know it's done working.
And then a gentlemen come by one day and wanted to know
if he could take pictures of it and put them on his website.
And I thought will that be alright that'd be kind of neat.
And next thing you know it's on the internet and it's snowballed from there.
It's been on several TV shows, it's been in books and magazines.
I've done radio interviews about it
We are in Bruceville Indiana about to ride a homemade rollercoaster.
There's been people here from all over the world
that's wanted to ride it and film it.
There's been several roller coaster enthusiasts here.
That's a good clean fun man. Good clean living fun I think
That's way to live and the way to have fun.
Wooo! Hooo!
Hahahaha!
Yeee! Hah!
I'm 66 years old
when I'm on a coaster I probably feel 25.
The only thing better than this on Saturday afternoon
would be a nice cold beverage.
This is my wife Sharon and I love her more than anything in the world.
We've been married 46 years.
I don't think I could do this without my wife's support
and you know she's she's been a big help to me too in lots of ways.
She may not realize it but she has been.
When John started building rollercoasters
I thought it sounded dangerous.
I didn't think that it was something that would actually work, you know.
But he proved that wasn't the case he made it work
and so it's always been a positive thing
It has been up and running for 18 years,
they are starting to show a little wear and tear.
This could come to end some day.
I feel like we lived a simple life.
You know, I never made that much money or haven't been world travellers or anything like that you know
but in a way we've kind of brought some of the world here to us
over this roller coaster deal and how sweet that is.
I mean I don't know how to describe it any better.
My homemade roller coasters are the Coolest Things I've Ever Made.
Peace.