New Vekoma trains: Dragster for the very poor

If you could fault Vekoma for anything it'd be their lack of a sincere R&D effort back in the day. They churned out SLC's and boomerangs one after another and didn't really offer anything new. In the past few years they're obviously trying to correct that, and to their credit they did sell a couple of launched coasters, and Disney isn't a bad client to have in your portfolio.

A lack of R&D effort that forced the company to rely upon Arrow technology that was at least a decade old. I'm sure that it was fine when the company was churning out their own variations of the standard corkscrew coaster, but once they started with really twisted custom designs and SLCs, the old Arrow technology proved insufficient.

I'm curious to see what kind of track system the new Animal Kingdom coaster is going to use, as I'm sure it will be the basis for many of Vekoma's future models.

Does anyone else think the disc-o looks painful? :) *** Edited 1/26/2004 9:28:36 PM UTC by RCT_MASTER***

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RCT_MASTER said:
Does anyone else think the disc-o looks painful? *** Edited 1/26/2004 9:28:36 PM UTC by RCT_MASTER***

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Well that was certainly random... and on topic!

Ha - Disk'O is FAR from painful.

Josh

It's great to see Vekoma get some positive comments. I've always enjoyed their rides, and can't wait to try out some of their new concepts.

It's definitely a step in the right direction but it won't help much if they still intend to use the same track configuration.

The problem lies in the fact that the trains had to be engineered to fit the track type being used for the ride & as a result you've got a poorly banked/engineered track & the resulting vehicle design will suffer as well.

Notice how Togo & Premiere both used outside rail fully contacted guide wheels in their design & yet the rides were still rough? it was due to the bad transitions...especially when banking around curves that produced the rough ride experience.

Premiere has solved that problem mostly be redesigning the restraint system so as not to require a horsecollar to keep riders secure & has since switched to lap bars thus making the ride more enjoyable.

With vekoma on the other hand(most notably their SLC's) you simply must have a harness in order to keep riders safely in the train & that of course leads to some head banging,now if they were to redesign the padding on the harness & actually get rid of the ear guards there wouldn't be as much ...if not anything to slam your head into,so that should be the next design flaw that they should try to fix first & foremost.

I'll stick behind those designers building the inversions around the rider. Intamin's and and B&M's inversions are so perfect you dont feel really "thrown around" in them as compared to a Vekoma or Arrow inversions. I guess a classic example would be X-Flight's inlines compared to say Colossos's inlines at Thorpe Park. I am glad they are taking steps in the right direction though! Does anybody else think those trains look like a carnival ride death trap?

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Rob Ascough said:

I wonder if the Vekoma coasters at Disneyland Paris (Space Mtn and BTMRR) are smooth, too?

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I thought Space Mtn was one of the rougher coasters I have ridden. Perhaps if I were able to get a front seat ride, my opinion may have changed but the two back seat rides I took on Space Mountain were pretty brutal. BTMRR was a blast to ride. It was smooth and offered a lot of surprises. Rock-N-Rollercoaster was a bit rough but nothing horrible.

Indiana Jones on the other hand......

I think some of the roughness involved with Vekoma coasters is the trains. I have ridden Boomerangs with newer trains (not the brand new trains) and found them to be smooth. The older Vekoma trains provided a rougher ride from what I could tell but that might just vary from coaster to coaster.

There is no doubt in my mind that the roughness found on Goudurix is because the transitions. You could tell how bad they were just by looking at them from the line. I am curious to see if these new Vekoma trains would have any effect on that ride.

-Sean *** Edited 1/27/2004 1:21:47 AM UTC by Sean Flaharty***

Space Mountain at DLP? The original trains were not adapted for the ride. A little known fact about it is that the mountain (building if you prefer) was supposed to be 10% larger, giving a ride with wider turns and straight track to burn some speed off.

Fast forward to the final version, there's like only one straight track in all the ride (before the sidewinder) and the turns are sharper. Result is, the trains could not handle it and in 2000, they replaced the chassis and wheels supports of all 6 trains to something that whould last... hopefully. The original trains were supposed to do 20 years, instead they did 5.

The parts of the ride that cause problems are the exits of the inversions. The Sidewinder in 2001 was unbelievably smooth and had more flow then many inversions on a lot of B&M! The 3/4 helix that followed shaked a lot. Same with the flat spin/corkscrew (again, got more in common with a good BTR like flat spin than the usual boring Vekoma/Incredible Hulk Coaster corkscrew) and the inclined turn (not inclined enough, like the 3/4 helix its seems) after is rough. The exit out of the Tongue loop can be violent on bad days.

Now... rumor talk that 2005 whould be a year of a huge Space Mountain rehab.

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Peabody said:
What do you suppose is improved about the wheel assembly? Have they decided tto make solid contact like the Swiss coasters?

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Reading that just reminded me of something. I remember Elissa White being able to fit her hand in the space between the upstops and the track in the station of one of the Deja Vu's. Then there was a witty comment about Vekoma's engineering.

I've only ridden three (soon to be four) Vekomas, two of which I found to be rough. Reptar at PC has vibrating trains. Ninja at SFOG has the rough transitions. Deja Vu was a smooth ride that I really enjoyed. The roughness thing seems to vary from ride to ride like someone stated above. I've read people's comments about the Vekoma flyers saying that they were rough. Word has it that Former Stealth's trains were sent back to Vekoma for some modifications. Maybe they will include the features of the trains mentioned in the original post.

Speaking of the Borg...does anyone know the progress of it as of now?

Rock-n-Rollercoaster is probably the smoothest coaster I've ever ridden. At least if your head decides to go walkabout (which it does on just about every coaster out there, including B&Ms), it lands on these really nice soft things that it's actually a pleasure to bounce off :). I found the thing more comfortable than anything else in Florida (including the six B&Ms). This leads me to believe that there's nothing wrong at all with Vekoma's track and transitions and whatnot, it's just in the trains, which Disney have the resources to keep in tip-top shape.

I'd say just about every new coaster they've come up with since 1990 has a track that you can't complain about in terms of transition and heartline-centredness. It's those horrible things you plonk yourself in that do the damage.

I mean, on an SLC, for starters you've got these earpads that led Moh to redesign his harness scale. Then you've got these trains with wheels that are loosely fitted around the rails, and made of some overly hard compound that doesn't have the dampening ability of other manufacturer's wheels (but they almost never need replacing, so it's good for the park). There's no suspension, aside from these two dampeners which allow the trains some lateral give and only add to the roughness. Combine that with a rapid-fire layout that could work, but because of the flimsy nature of the train, ends up just tossing them from side to side.

The train does look nicer (in terms of comfort, not appearance), but they've gone for the same restraints as on their junior suspended coasters, which I didn't think were that great - better, but still could be improved (certainly in terms of softness). I hope they've made some improvements to the restraint since the junior suspendeds, I'd at least like to think that they're a bit larger. As for the look of the train, it's just hideous, but the results will be in the form of uninjured riders, not happy coaster fashion critics. :)

So I'm not the only one who finds the inlines on the vekoma flyer to be rough? of course the element speaks for itself in that department.

What is it with vekoma's & shakiness anyhow?ME & Batwing shake quite a bit these days...is it in the track or the trains that causes this to happen?

Two face is about the only vekoma that I've ridden that doesn't shake or vibrate nearly half as much as the other two in the park.