Design To Not Bang Heads

I found this picture on Coaster Gallery which shows well one the design details for producing a coaster that doesn't bang heads with OTSRs. The coaster is Medusa at SFGAadv. Notice that the track briefly turns right as it starts to bank left for the left turn. The effect is to keep your head going in a nearly straight line then let it gradually move into the turn. Without the turn to the right, the OTSR would move to the left and hit your head while your head tried to keep going in a straight line. It's this kind of detail that is the difference between this smooth B&M and a less well designed coaster that bangs heads.

http://www.coastergallery.com/1999/GA29.html

Cool!!! I could never figure out what the little elongated straight/turn piece on this picture of "Georgia Scorcher" was, now i do..lol
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"Sadda Tay On The Tippy Tie"

You are so right.
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Chris

Just another reason why B&M rocks.......
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Please disregard anything said by me that is incomprehensible, incoherent, or just dumb. I am and will be drained from the arduous school year, thank you!

I'm not sure if that really is supposed to work like that. I think many banked turns have a slight move to the other direction before the turn. I can't find a picture, but I think MF does that at the turn by the exit.

I think I figured it out. Pretend there is a banked turn to the left such as this one. In order for the right rail to move upwards for the bank, the left rail would have to move downwards. And since the right rail is moving upward and to the left, the left rail moves downward and to the right. This gives the illusion that the track is making a quick turn the the right. A good example is on Mantis. At the top of the hill, the track looks pretty freaky from the front seat.

*** This post was edited by force312 on 10/6/2001. ***

Both Intamin and B&M use this method of turning on all of their coasters. It does in fact work as described. Arrow and Vekoma don't use this method at all, and thus the headbanging.

Generally speaking, Arrow's development process for a coaster hasn't evolved much since they developed the steel coaster design. It's very primitive and has yet to take advantage of the massive computing power that's now available for complex calculations.

Another factor is if the coaster wheels are completely encapsulated on the rails...B&M and Intamin wheels do this, Arrow and Vekoma do not...
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If you look caregfully, you will see that the right rail not only moves up but also curves to the right. This is required so that the rotation occurs roughly around the axis of motion of your head.

It's sort of the same with SFMW's Medusa's mid-course brake drop.
http://www.coastergallery.com/SF/SFMW32.html

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