B&M Wing Rider Coasters - Love or Hate?

[Invertalon]

I liked Gatekeeper the first half the season, but now LOVE the ride. For those who have not ridden it since about June or July, it really has gotten much better... The vests no longer lock for one and the wheel combo has been changed and the ride has much better pacing. You actually get some nice floater on the second hill and it generally hauls around the course. I was quite disappointment with it media day and the first few months, but it really opened up... My top ride in the park now. Front seat at dusk/night leaning forward in those vests... Incredible.

[GigaG]

I liked Gatekeeper the first half the season, but now LOVE the ride. For those who have not ridden it since about June or July, it really has gotten much better... The vests no longer lock for one and the wheel combo has been changed and the ride has much better pacing. You actually get some nice floater on the second hill and it generally hauls around the course. I was quite disappointment with it media day and the first few months, but it really opened up... My top ride in the park now. Front seat at dusk/night leaning forward in those vests... Incredible.

 

Not the top ride in the park, but it is much faster and has changed since media day.

[Ryan P.]

I have not been on a winged coaster so I can't comment about the force, but you have to admit they look impressive! That is what a park would want, a coaster that looks amazing to draw in crowds of people.

[gerstlaueringvar]

Flying Over the Rainforest has a surprising first drop, airtime at the last row is very nice, just like Trimming Bull and Wild Fire. Dive Loop is pretty forceful followed by a violent twist. Yes, second half is lame and bumpy, but at least it has something great, not like GateKeeper.

 

CEDAR POINT FANBOY ALERT - Gatekeeper does have a forceful part. The dive-drop-Immelmann combo. I'm not as in love with the ride as I used to be, but once they get a permanent vest fix, lighting fix, and roughness fix, the ride will be great. Yes, I sound like a troll.

 

By the way, do FOTR's vests lock?

Yes, they lock. I think at least half of the GP complain about the vest harness after a ride. Some of my classmates even asked me how to avoid it.

[GigaG]

Flying Over the Rainforest has a surprising first drop, airtime at the last row is very nice, just like Trimming Bull and Wild Fire. Dive Loop is pretty forceful followed by a violent twist. Yes, second half is lame and bumpy, but at least it has something great, not like GateKeeper.

 

CEDAR POINT FANBOY ALERT - Gatekeeper does have a forceful part. The dive-drop-Immelmann combo. I'm not as in love with the ride as I used to be, but once they get a permanent vest fix, lighting fix, and roughness fix, the ride will be great. Yes, I sound like a troll.

 

By the way, do FOTR's vests lock?

Yes, they lock. I think at least half of the GP complain about the vest harness after a ride. Some of my classmates even asked me how to avoid it.

 

Hopefully they can obtain some zip ties

[gerstlaueringvar]

Flying Over the Rainforest has a surprising first drop, airtime at the last row is very nice, just like Trimming Bull and Wild Fire. Dive Loop is pretty forceful followed by a violent twist. Yes, second half is lame and bumpy, but at least it has something great, not like GateKeeper.

 

CEDAR POINT FANBOY ALERT - Gatekeeper does have a forceful part. The dive-drop-Immelmann combo. I'm not as in love with the ride as I used to be, but once they get a permanent vest fix, lighting fix, and roughness fix, the ride will be great. Yes, I sound like a troll.

 

By the way, do FOTR's vests lock?

I've been on GateKeeper. By forceful, I mean Flying Over the Rainforest is more forceful than any part of GateKeeper. Maybe that would help people understand about the force on FOTR.

[FreeFaller]

Wing rider coasters are fun as long as the vests are not trying to kill you! IMO

[pianojohn]

Wing rider coasters are fun as long as the vests are not trying to kill you! IMO

 

Ditto

[gerstlaueringvar]

^^ For me, after I learned how to push the vest harness and stop it from killing me, I had no issue with the vest harness since GateKeeper. But the roughness of both FOTR and GateKeeper, especially GateKeeper, have me some serious headache. I really think Wing Rider business should come to a stop.

[tooooobbe]

I really enjoyed The Swarm at thorpe park. I wouldn't say wing riders are my favourite rides but the variation makes it alot fun.

 

First of all, the feeling flying forward (sitting) is great.

 

2nd since you can sit on both right and left side the wing cloaster bring alot more joy in re-rides (with seat switching).

 

3rd Forceless? Only been on the swarm but compared to othee rides I've been on it was not forceless at all.

[TPDave]

^The swarm is nicely themed, there's a lot of attention to detail in the ride area and the interactions are decent but the ride itself is pretty forceless.

 

I've been on a few of these now and I can't say I'm overly impressed. They offer the opportunity for great theming but that's about it for me, the restraints have absolutely killed me on occasion and I didn't really feel like I was getting a good experience for the pain!

[JWAddington]

From media day rides on GateKeeper, then compared to the rides i had at their Halloweekend event (awesome event btw) GateKeeper was a better ride. The unlocked vests really make the difference, along with whatever wheel combination they were using.

 

I never expected GateKeeper to deliver airtime or extreme forces, i just expected a completely different experience from any other ride in the park and that is what it delivered! Its a very good ride that i know will keep the line moving with how its a "people eater"(insert music here)

 

The feeling of it being rough, in my experience, towards the back of the train, it felt like the train was fighting itself if that makes sense. Kind of a jerky, quick back and forth motion, maybe add in a bad wheel, but it wasn't every time. Each train probably travels the course a little differently, everyone usually has their favorite.

[rcjp]

Flying Over the Rainforest has a surprising first drop, airtime at the last row is very nice, just like Trimming Bull and Wild Fire. Dive Loop is pretty forceful followed by a violent twist. Yes, second half is lame and bumpy, but at least it has something great, not like GateKeeper.

 

CEDAR POINT FANBOY ALERT - Gatekeeper does have a forceful part. The dive-drop-Immelmann combo. I'm not as in love with the ride as I used to be, but once they get a permanent vest fix, lighting fix, and roughness fix, the ride will be great. Yes, I sound like a troll.

They may be able to sort out the restraints issue as well as the lights but I'm not sure what they can do about the roughness as it looks like a design flaw. Hopefully future ones won't suffer from this problem but with the rides already built it might not be that simple.

[gerstlaueringvar]

Flying Over the Rainforest has a surprising first drop, airtime at the last row is very nice, just like Trimming Bull and Wild Fire. Dive Loop is pretty forceful followed by a violent twist. Yes, second half is lame and bumpy, but at least it has something great, not like GateKeeper.

 

CEDAR POINT FANBOY ALERT - Gatekeeper does have a forceful part. The dive-drop-Immelmann combo. I'm not as in love with the ride as I used to be, but once they get a permanent vest fix, lighting fix, and roughness fix, the ride will be great. Yes, I sound like a troll.

They may be able to sort out the restraints issue as well as the lights but I'm not sure what they can do about the roughness as it looks like a design flaw. Hopefully future ones won't suffer from this problem but with the rides already built it might not be that simple.

X-Flight is glass smooth but the newer wing riders are getting very rough. Maybe the trains are not okay to deal with higher speed?

[rcjp]

^That is one possible explanation as FOTR and GK are the fastest.

[GigaG]

This might be a stupid theory, but consider that Wing Coaster trains are heavy and tend to have a lot more twists in their layout than Dive Machines. This could stress and deform the wheels (like B&M tries to avoid using wheeled transfer tracks) and cause a fast-travelling train to bump around a lot.

 

On another note, I've heard people say new Asian B&Ms are more forceful because American parks purposely buy forceless coasters for the paranoid GP. I hate this theory, but is there any truth in it?

[rcjp]

^Well, given that FOTR is more forceful than other wing coasters and both hair raiser and starry night ripper/sky scraper/whatever were pretty good in that area compared to other new B&Ms (according to what I've read and heard) it doesn't sound so ridiculous.

[CPSFMMCW]

I'm fine with wing coasters. I don't think they're anything special, but I like that the majority have near miss elements. Thats what I really like about them. Its what makes me like them more. And I don't dislike them, but I do dislike that the restraints tighten. As long as they don't, then it makes it a better ride.

[XII]

I've only been on one Wingrider. Raptor @ Gardaland. While I won't say I hate the ride as I did find it to be a lot of fun (particularly the water effects), I pretty much have the same complaints about Wingriders. They're not too intense and are far more floaty and graceful than I prefer. But I still enjoyed it and the GP seems to be eating them up. So really, my only real complaint are the horrible continous-locking restraints.

[CedarPoint27]

I personally like wing riders, i had a great time on gatekeeper and right now its on of my favorite coasters.

[VF15]

I think it depends on where you sit. I rode X-Flight in the last row, and it was relatively intense. Not "out-of-this-world" intense, but still intense enough to make it a very fun ride. X-Flight is the only one I've been on, so I can't exactly speak for every wing rider, but I'm guessing the back is generally more intense.

Edited December 25, 2014 by VF15

[Goooose]

They all have different things going for them, but the benefits are very limited. The load/uload situation on x-flight is pure misery. There are physiological limits to coaster intensity, so no matter what kind of train it is, they can only make you feel so much. That being said, if the benefits of riding on a wing are the lateral Gs, then really push it to the limits. I feel like on gatekeeper there is all the speed but no real advantage taken of the format.

 

X-flight is really cool because it takes advantage of the disorienting effects not only of wing riding, with a lot of inversions, but it also is doubly disorienting because of the direction changes. literally every time the coaster enters an element, it comes out facing another direction and very likely went upside down as well. You never get your bearings. Its really dizzy while gatekeeper hits all its elements facing one direction its like ohh heres the corkscrew here's the hill here's the chopper. You can see everything coming toward you.

 

The downside of X-flight is that while it does feel really fast given its size, it isn't as fast as gatekeeper. Still shocking that the pace is as good as it is considering its size. Front left row is amazing because you feel negatives, positives, and the direction changes are really disorienting. but i get sooo pissed when I'm on B&M's and the helix is just sobering. Id rather hit a break run than the final helix on Diamondback for example. Best B&M helixe sare on batman the ride. Your face melts right off.

[gerstlaueringvar]

I really don't like B&M adding helix at the end of their rides. GateKeeper and X-Flight's helixes are boring but FOTR's beats the cr@p out of you and makes you bored.

[Dr. M]

I'm not the first person to say this, but the real problem with wing coasters (remember, wing riders are made by Intamin, not B&M) is not intensity, it's lack of creativity in the layouts. With the exception of the wing over drop, every wing coaster is just a string of elements from B&M's tired bag of tricks, only this time, ooh, you're next to the track instead of above or below it! How innovative. "Ehh you got your loops, your rolls, your helices, what more do you want?"

 

Intamin built a ride with not one, not two, but three separate launches, Premiere built a ride that was basically a giant loop with a top hat over it, RMC... well, you know what RMC is doing. There's a lot of creativity and imagination in the industry today, and B&M isn't at the forefront, they're not even in the middle, they've placed themselves squarely at the back of the pack.

[_koppen]

On another note, I've heard people say new Asian B&Ms are more forceful because American parks purposely buy forceless coasters for the paranoid GP. I hate this theory, but is there any truth in it?

 

I doubt it, parks who buy a B&M coaster don't really think they are buying a forceless ride, they are thinking they are buying a top notch thrill machine, and I would be very surprised if parks are the reason why B&M have gone to the more forceless designs.

 

FOTR has to be more intense than the other wing riders based on the layout. Regarding Hair Raiser and Sky Scrapper, We won't know until someone in the western world buys a floorless or a flyer again, as B&M seems to have changed up the way they design their rides lately.