2 Lifts on Suspended Coasters... Why?

Many of the suspended coasters have 2 chain lifts during the course of the ride. And I know that many of us think this destroys the pacing of these rides, including me.

Does anyone know if there is a reason why these coasters were designed this way?

Why wasnt a bigger first hill created that would allow for the train to have enough momentum for the entire ride?

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"Looks like you've been missing quite a bit of work lately"
"Well, I wouldn't say I've been MISSING it, Bob."

Well the first suspended coaster had 2 lifts. (The Bat at PKI)

Dont know why they have to lifts, guess so they could make it a longer, yet slower speed ride.

I hate 2 lifts ( sans The Beast )... I like Top Gun brcause it only has 1.. and is real fast. I dont see why they didnt do 1 lift on all of um.

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Women was god's second mistake.

You know I was just thinking about Big Bad Wolf. It doesnt have any real uphill moments, unless it is an upward curving helix. Once they start going down, they continue that way until they hit another lift hill.

Perhaps the downside to the trains ability to swing freely is that they cant experience negative Gs

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"Looks like you've been missing quite a bit of work lately"
"Well, I wouldn't say I've been MISSING it, Bob."

I don't really have a problem with it. I mean you can have the ride be really short....or you can add a lift and increase the length. I don't see what the big deal is, I'd rather have the longer ride.

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If the shoe fits, find another one.

jdancisin said:

Perhaps the downside to the trains ability to swing freely is that they cant experience negative Gs

Not quite. The swinging trains have nothing to do with it. There is an excellent negative G on the first drop of BBW and Top Gun in the back seats.

And by the way DLDude, "sans" means "without."

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If the shoe fits, find another one.

*** This post was edited by ravenguy98 on 4/22/2002. ***

i for one, enjoy the second lift...ive only ridden Big Bad Wolf(which ive heard is the best suspended:)), and i love how the first half you jolt and twist around....then that long pause before that breathtaking drop!! to me, it just builds up this anticipation that something crazy is about to happen....as far as having one lift, i dont know how Top GUn is, but to me one lift would mean you would have to sacrifice either high speed, or length of track.....just my thoughts.....

Tim (who, God willing, will sample both Iron Dragon at CP and Top Gun at PKI this july :))

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Well, the Beast has two lifts and I don't hear too many complain about that.

I've heard that the shock absorbers on the suspended coasters cause the ride to lose speed very quickly. That is why they have two lifts, to get it through the rest of the ride. Not sure if that's true, but I think I might have heard that somewhere.

Top Gun has some serious uphill movement on the big turn over teh lift after the first drop and it has plenty of speed flying into the brakes, a retzel could be easily added at the end I always thought. Top Gun is very tasty but entirely too short. Draggin Iron has the potential to be great but there is just not enough swinging. If it was about 10 MPH faster it would be the perfect invert but alas.

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The Beast and Night, They go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly

ravenguy98 said:
"I don't really have a problem with it. I mean you can have the ride be really short....or you can add a lift and increase the length. I don't see what the big deal is, I'd rather have the longer ride. "

Of course no one will complain with a longer ride, but why wasnt this accomplished by increasing the height of the first lift. The first lift on Big Bad Wolf is very short. It seems a higher lift could have been built and resulted in a continuous ride without the second lift hill.

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"Looks like you've been missing quite a bit of work lately"
"Well, I wouldn't say I've been MISSING it, Bob."

jdancisin said:

but why wasnt this accomplished by increasing the height of the first lift.

Perhaps that's just the way the parks wanted it.

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If the shoe fits, find another one.

i think it would be that fact that the swing of the trains takes away some of the energy that the initial lift hill supplies and so another one is needed to make it round the circuit. think about it, with the swing of the cars pulling on the track, you are gonna get more friction and so more speed reduction sooner.

I think it is probably because the suspended cars don't retain there speed too well. It would be interesting to see if the new Vekoma trains are any different.

Maybe it is because they didnt want a tall lift hill on the BBW. It wouldnt really fit the theming with a tall hill sticking out of a Bavarian town. Plus, if it went much faster, you wouldnt be able to enjoy the scenery!

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Different Parks this year: 12+ Different Coasters: 80+

I've ridden Ninja at SFMM and it just really isn't all that exciting. Are other Arrow inverted coasters, the ones like Ninja, more exciting?

Top Gun is pretty exciting, much more so then Draggin' Iron which is a lot like Ninja. BBW I here is quite exciting as well.

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The Beast and Night, They go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly

NickNickNick...

IMO, Ninja and TopGun at PKI are about even for 2nd place behind BBW, the "king of the suspendeds". They're just family coasters, and are never really what you might call thrilling. Of course, we'll have to see if any other parks decide to go with the "Vampirization", as that seems to be a big improvement based on the early reports...

Two lifts I think have a lot to do with the swinging....it means you lose speed quickly, so two lifts become necessary for a longer ride. A really tall initial lift might resolve that, but at the cost of the "family coaster" concept they were designed for in the first place....

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I think it's becuase the effect of the swinging is bettered by being closer to the ground, and thus a large lift hill would not be appropriate. I think tight turns in a low area is better than large,sweeping turns high up. I also think that the second lift is just to make the ride longer, while still being close to the ground.

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You guys definentaly haven't heard of or ridden Haya Busa 2000. Arrow finally got the layout straight on this one. The ride feature the best swinging and intensity of all the suspended coasters, and except for a lack on the theming count it is the best suspended out there. Soaring down the step curve of the first drop couldn't of made me feel more like flying than a jet. The whole ride, or what there is of it, is simple the best and features great aritime at three points. Just like Top Gun though, the ride is a little short but that furst drop beat BBW's trimmed drop any day.

*** This post was edited by Vertigo on 4/23/2002. ***