Waving a Union Jack flag in each hand, the colourful Conservative mayor initially gathered some speed as he flew over Victoria Park in east London, where the Games were being shown on giant screens.
"Is it a bird? Is it a plane?" an announcer said as the mayor waved to the crowds below, wearing a bright blue helmet with smart business suit.
But he ground to a halt halfway across the 320-metre zipwire - which is also open to the public - and was left hanging awkwardly over the spectators, still wielding his flags.
"Can you get me a rope? Get me a rope, ok?" he called to the crowds.
"I think we need to test it on somebody going a bit faster..."
"I think possibly what had happened was that they left a brake on or something," Mr Johnson told ITV television once he was back on the ground.
"But anyway, it was wonderful and I thoroughly recommend it."
A spokeswoman for Mr Johnson said: "Clearly the judges are likely to mark him down for artistic interpretation, and, unlike Team GB, he won't be bagging any gold medals today but he remains unbowed."
Known for his dishevelled mop of blond hair, rich vocabulary and unfailing sense of comic timing, Mr Johnson is no stranger to public clangers - he fell into a river in 2009 while launching a volunteering campaign.
But beneath the buffoonery the mayor is seen as a sharp political operator, and his public profile during the Olympics has fuelled speculation that he could succeed British Prime Minister David Cameron as Conservative leader.
The Conservative-leaning Telegraph newspaper said that the party's donors were flocking to Mr Johnson and that Mr Cameron is "on course to lose the next election, and his leadership, and he knows it."
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