Deja Vu broken at SFAGAm

Wodering whats wrong with deja vu at sfgam. went there on mothers day (best day ever! no line because of weather every ride a walk on) and the trains are split apart. anyone know why its not running?

I think there was a topic about this a week ago or so. Anyways, on Sunday, May 5th, it got valleyed between the loop and cobra roll.

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When did American Eagle get more airtime than Viper?

why does that sucker keep valleying

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On the seventh day, God created coasters!

I love Deja Vu, and I want the ride to be here 20 years from now, but Vekoma and SF really need to take some action. This is ridiculous. Every time there's a TR about SFGAm or SFMM you'll almost always read that Deja Vu has valleyed, Deja Vu malfunctioned etc. If the situation is as bad as it looks, I'd rather they shut the ride down completely until MAJOR repairs are done. A suggestion would be lengthening the spikes, adding weight to the trains, adding some sort of tire booster between the Cobra Roll and loop, ANYTHING to make it work. It really is annoying to have a 1 year old ride with pitiful capacity break down 25 times while you wait for 2 hours, and then turn around and see a 20 somthing year old Arrow Looper perform flawlessly.

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Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society-Chicago Chapter

(Heavy sarcasm on) What a surprise!

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So many coasters, so little vacation time....

Ozzyhead, it isn't broken, thats the problem. You can't repair what isn't broken. It's just a poor design. They can't really lengthen the spikes, it already pulls 4.5 Gs (I'll admit, though, I felt absolutly no forces through the whole ride, because it was a sensory overload.) I thought that tire boosters would work, but it would be troublesome figuring out how to keep them out of the way of the train when they aren't needed. Maybe they should just get rid of the cable lift and mount tire drives on the whole length, making sure they run at proper speed at each point.

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When did American Eagle get more airtime than Viper?

Fixing the Deja Vu problem would be very simple with an active set of brakes between lift two and the vertical loop (notice I said *active*).

Deja Vu valleys for two reasons: lack of speed (due to several factors) and accidental early release from lift two. What needs to happen is essentially having the previously mentioned set of brakes closed at all times, only opening when A)the train passes a censor and it's moving at an appropriate speed or B)when it reaches the top of lift two. That way, if it releases prematurely, it will stop between lift two and the vertical loop (a *much* easier problem to fix than the valley between the boomerang and the vertical loop). I don't know why this type of system isn't in place...looks like the ride needs a new computer program.

-Nate

*** This post was edited by coasterdude318 on 5/15/2002. ***

Putting brakes on the bottom of lift two will NOT solve the coaster's downtime problems. The main problem lies in the cable lift design. Vekoma wanted to design an all new lift mechanism that wasnt engineered as well as it should have been. Vekoma rushed to finish the coaster design and thus overlooking obvious flaws. If Vekoma would employ their wonderfully engineered LIM system, there wouldnt be a problem whatsoever. The could have easily used the LIMS to pull the train up at a slow speed and release them or they could have placed a set of LIMS somewhere along the course to help boost the train slow speeds. The trains are also tempermental, more so than most coaster trains. They trains could have also been more aerodynamic to help maintain speeds while running. The rides operating temperature range is about 20-30 degrees lower than normal steel coasters which also posed a problem.

Poor design engineering has caused this debacle and basically SF has vowed never to buy from Vekoma again. I doubt very seriously we will see any more GIBs until major changes are made and the design can prove its efficiency.

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WCUSA-The World's largest theme park is coming!
Theme parks will NEVER be the same!

Of course putting brakes at the bottom of lift two would reduce downtime - and a heck of a lot cheaper now than installing LIMS all over! Would the ride still valley? Yes. But valleying between the vertical loop and lift two is a much smaller pain in the butt than a valley between the boomerang and the vertical loop.

I'm well aware of Six Flags' position on Vekoma (and the GIB) and the other problems with the ride. Putting brakes at the bottom of lift two would just be one (cheap) step to reduce downtime.

-Nate

Godsey, is WCUSA Water country USA,

ANyway, then need LIMs to get it goin, when it gets cold it stalls

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Veck
http://pumpingrct.topcities.com/

I agree that adding the brakes would help the valleying issue but SF needs to reduce the downtime and the only thing that will help would be a redesign of the lift mechanism or adding speed in slow spots. This ride is a PR nightmare for SF and as long as they sit back and not do anything about it, its gonna hurt them in the long run. SFOG does have Superman to help please the GP but SFGAm didnt add anything this season so people are still coming to the park to ride DejaVu. If Vekoma wasnt in so much financial trouble, I would have expected them to step up to the plate and fix the problems, but since SF has denied final payment, Vekoma has chosen to leave it as is. Every time these things valley, it makes both SF and Vekoma look bad. Now, if only someone would step up and show some initiative in getting these problems fixed.... Those slow moving LIMs like BTMRR has are pretty reasonably priced.. it wouldnt need to many of them on the second lift, but the first lift would need them pretty much all the way up. At this point, SF could afford a million or so to save face here... Look at the money spent to remedy V2s height problems....

No, WCUSA is NOT Water Country USA, it's Wild Country USA.. if you want to find out about it, do a search on it.

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WCUSA-The World's largest theme park is coming!
Theme parks will NEVER be the same!

*** This post was edited by Chris Godsey on 5/16/2002. ***

Why don't they just add a traditional chain lift, that could possibly reduce the valleying all the time. ;)

Will Deja Vu be open on June 4th? Thats when I'm going to Great America. I'm hopeing to ride it this year. Never got to ride it last year during fright fest because lines were a mile long.

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Valleyfair Security 2002! 8Years working at Valleyfair :)! SRM Holiday World, Coastermainia CP, Kings Island June 9th, Timbers Fest. May29th-June10th less than 11days to go :)!

....still thinking that "Deja Vu" and "broken" in the same sentence is kinda redundant.....at least I got one spin on SFoG's before it became a museum piece.....;)

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coasterdude318 said:
Fixing the Deja Vu problem would be very simple with an active set of brakes between lift two and the vertical loop (notice I said *active*).

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Exactly. The proble comes down to, simply, bad software.

It will be interesting to see if anyone else is stupid enough to buy anything from Vekoma.

Cam.

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Cameron Silver

Not to sound mean or anything, cuz I am not that type of person. But, it looks like I may as well consider Deja Vu out for most of the season. This is getting a little ridiculous. They should have been working on this clear cut for a while. First the GIB's were late last year and now all of these problems. SF and Vekoma need to work something out and get to the bottom of this. Cuz it causes the parks bad comments. I am in agreement with Godsey.

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X Looks Awesome! Oh Yea!!

Great America has to be feeling quite stupid right now after pulling out a very popular attraction in exchange for a bright green statue (credit given to rollergator on that one)

Me thinks that Vekoma is in for some serious litigation. They delivered the three Deja Vu's practically an entire season too late and they don't even work. My question is didnt they engineer this thing before building it? I mean didnt they use CAD design and computer models to work out the forces and everything before putting it together and work in some buffers for extreme operating conditions?

I think that Six Flags needs to sue Vekoma big time for the cost of the coaster, cost of removal of the coaster, and any estimated losses incurred for the non-operation of the coaster.

The biggest thing I don't understand is that these coasters arent too far of a departure of technology that they have been using successfully in the past. They have been building boomerangs for years now and also invertego's so you would think some of that tech would have spilt over into the successful design on the GIB. In fact, they could have worked out the mistakes in the previous models to better create this one. It just boggles my mind the amount of stupidity involved on this project.

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Bob Hansen

A proud CoasterBuzz Member

"So you think your'e really brave, gonna see the DEMONS cave.
You silly dude, your'e only food, for the DEMON"

Well Bob, I wouldnt place all the blame on Vekoma. Mr. Story and Six Flags tend to place pressure on coaster companies when it comes to prototypes. Ask Arrow about that. SF basically hurried on the R&D for both the 4d and the GIB to get them built in the parks FAST!. By doing so, they put virtually impossible deadlines on both Vekoma and Arrow. That is why both protos have had their share of design problems. The main thing that hurt these companies was the fact that they had no working model of these designs before they built active ones. Re-engineering problems costs these companies time and money and SF wasnt obligated to pay ANY of these overruns. When SF signs a contract with a company, they put a clause in there that states that SF is not liable for any cost or project overruns that exceed the project deadline. SF also has the right to withold final payment if they dont get a 100% operating coaster that meets their level of satisfaction.

Six Flags has just as much blame in this as Vekoma does, believe me!

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WCUSA-The World's largest theme park is coming!
Theme parks will NEVER be the same!

*** This post was edited by Chris Godsey on 5/16/2002. ***

prob is vekoma filed for bankrupcy protection and they cant be sued right now. I agree it's a poor design and it was rushed. When I was on the crew we where all like ok will it work today or will we all be working other rides today???

*** This post was edited by acer on 5/16/2002. ***

The Beast, only... ummm. Nobody knows. If it's open, you're lucky. It's an awesome ride. However, you must remember, after one full day of operation this season, it valleyed and still hasn't been fixed.

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When did American Eagle get more airtime than Viper?