busch gardens-gladiators gauntlet

Does anybody remember the Gladiators Gauntlet in the fiesta italia section of the park. It was I believe a Huss ride, looked similar to a top spin but completely different. Anybody ghave any info. like the rides manufacturer or if there are any still in existence. I was told that the ride was originally meant to invert riders but was reprogrammed by busch to give a tamer ride.

Can't help with the technical mubo-jumbo, but I can tell you it was one meeean looking ride (This was before the days of all these crazy flats we have now). However, as you say, the actual riding experience was rather... lame. Wouldn't surprise me if Busch had not been running it to full wicked capacity.

Believe it or not, Gladiator's Gauntlet was made by Vekoma. The generic name of the ride was Canyon Trip. It resembled a giant taffy pull, but it looked much worse than it actually was.

Ray P.

A good friend of mine used to work that ride back in the early 90's and said it indeed was meant to invert, hence the otsr's. I saw it once on a Travel Channel show and it looked insane flipping riders upside down, don't recall what park it was at though.

I rode the Canyon Trip at the piers in Wildwood. I don't remember though which pier it was on.

I use to love riding GG...I remember the noises the ride made and everything. It's such a shame they removed it after only a few years at the park.

I bet it would have been great had they went with the original looping ride program.

I believe the Canyon Trip was always meant to be a non-inverting ride. Vekoma made various rides similar to it including the non-inverting Waikiki Wave (which I believe was what SFKK's Quake was) and a Waikiki Wave Super Flip, which DID invert riders and may have been the ride shown on the Travel Channel special.

Then again, I could be completely wrong!

Ray P.

ProgRay said:
I believe the Canyon Trip was always meant to be a non-inverting ride. Vekoma made various rides similar to it including the non-inverting Waikiki Wave (which I believe was what SFKK's Quake was) and a Waikiki Wave Super Flip, which DID invert riders and may have been the ride shown on the Travel Channel special.

Then again, I could be completely wrong!

Ray P.

The wipeout at dreamworld Australia is one of the only Waikiki wave super flips left in the world you can check it out on google.

Lotte World in South Korea also got a Waikiki Wave still operating. Its in the outdoor section and is one of the few non Intamin attraction in the park. Here's a video of the ride operating: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsJHgW4dSjo

For the curious, there are a few pics of the attraction floating around in the inner tubes: here and here.

I rode it back in the day at BGW. From what I can recall, it was really boring. I didn't know that it was supposed to loop. If it would have looped when I rode it, it might have been more fun.

You face the riders on the other side, like a swinging ship, and it bobs up and down in a circular pattern, and the people on the other side get closer and then further away. It looked cool from the ground, but there was not much excitement once one was on the ride, imho.

It is capable of doing flips if running the right program. The one at Six Flags Mexico was crazy and we got three of four complete flips. But that's the only one I've ever seen run that way.

I went to the Six Flags Mexico Site and the one that they show is not a Canyon Trip. It may be a Waikiki wave super flip but I actually have to doubt that also. I was able to ride both US installations of the Canyon Trip and KK Waikiki Wave. They were cool to watch but not that great to ride. I have a brochure from Vekoma and on it they do not say that the canyon trip invertes.

Whatever is is/was at Six Flage Mexico all I know is this: the arms were able to rotate in different directions and the carriage was able to flip.

I rode Gladiator Gauntlet way back when. I agree that it looked more impressive than it actually was. It was fun to watch though.

GG was originally designed to invert and during testing did.. However Busch wanted a family type ride so they removed that out of the element programming as they felt the invert was a bit too intense for younger riders.

It was removed in 93 due to very low ridership (shock), and very high maintenance costs.. Similar balance that led to BBW removal..

After my first ride on GG I told a friend that I think they should add squirt guns to shoot the rider on the other half as they move closer to or further away from you. That may have been the only way to make the ride interesting as it was definately a ride whose looks were decieving. Looked beyond cool, rode boring to tears.

Different ride, but close in concept:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7uLHeG4jeY&feature=related

Seems like this one takes full advantage of programming! Insert old-time quote "this group is obviously having a great time!"