Mechanical Bull Rodeo Style Safety Concept – Seat Sensor Shut Off Innovation

In retirement I’ve traveled to every single city in the United States with over a 10,000 population. Now, don’t get me wrong I did not avoid the little cities, I went to so many I can’t even count them, although I didn’t get to all of them, it took me seven years traveling by motorhome just to ensure that I got to every town of over 10,000 or more people. Two areas I really enjoyed were West Texas and South Texas. The people are very nice there, and cowboy-ism is alive and well. Perhaps the most fun place to visit is a Texas two-step bar and grill establishment, and there are quite a few.

That’s where all the fun and action is, and as long as you are not trying to pretend to be something you aren’t, or shooting your mouth off, you can have a lot of fun even as an outsider. One of the coolest things are the mechanical bull rides, and you might think they are safer than a regular bull, and maybe they are, but they aren’t as safe, at least not all of them as you think they might be. Most of them have automatic shutoffs once the rider is dejected. But in some of the older bars, they have the older style mechanical bull rodeo style set up without the automatic shut off.

If you get thrown off of one of these you hope you get thrown off a decent distance because if you try to stand back up the thing is liable to come back and kick you in the butt, and knock you on your rear end. Not only is it embarrassing, but let me tell you; it hurts. Just because some of the locals can ride the mechanical bull on the higher setting, doesn’t mean you’ll be able too, and it might be fun for a few seconds, but often it ends with a hard landing even on the mats, and you had better get out of the way quick.

It seems that those with the automatic shut off are based on weight, and when there is no more weight on the mechanical bull the spring pops up and shuts it off. Still, on some it takes a little while for it to wind down and therefore perhaps these systems need a seat sensor shut off using a fiber-optic wire under the saddle. Immediately shutting off the power and completely stopping the system. This might add cost to the mechanical bull, but it might also help the bar and grill with their insurance policy, even though every rider signs a waiver to ride the bull at their own risk. Please consider all this and think on it.