A Warm Question: X-Flight or Gatekeeper

[robbalvey]

X-Flight is far from my favorite coaster but I still find it pretty fun. Nothing too thrilling but it's smooth and has cool elements. I ride it a few times a month during the season as long as the lines aren't too bad. I've never been on Gatekeeper though and I don't plan on riding it anytime soon.

Same here! Wing riders aren't the best coasters out there, but I think they're far from the worse.

 

Seriously. I've been on both and I thought they were pretty fun. Yeah they're not causing crazy forces, but if that's all you want in a coaster go marathon Batman The Ride or Raptor and be a curmudgeon about everything else. I would hate to be so jaded about coasters that I couldn't derive a single bit of enjoyment from one.

What f*ck was that about? I'm not jaded I just didn't like them. You like them? You go ride them. No need to be rude and obnoxious to other people just because I had a different opinion.

Edited December 7, 2013 by robbalvey

[Intaman]

Both coasters are, indeed, boring. I typically dread new B&M installations. Now, give me an Intamin or RMC and I am .

[SFOGdude25]

I've only ridden GateKeeper, and I'll be riding X-Flight this coming summer. I did enjoy GateKeeper, though. It certainly is a unique experience being out there on the side of the track. The front seat is especially fun visually since there's basically nothing around you. The only thing that kept me from fully enjoying the ride were the restraints as they were digging into my collarbone, and I couldn't breathe by the end of the ride, but since those have apparently been fixed, I'll have to try it again to fully form an opinion on it. As others have said, wing coasters may not be the best rides, but they are far from being truly bad.

[robbalvey]

Ok, let me just issue this warning to everyone as I've now had to ban people and remove posts.

 

You are welcome to have a difference of opinion. You are NOT welcome to have a difference of opinion AND be rude & obnoxious while doing it!

 

There are plenty of posts in this thread where members have had differences of opinions without being rude, without being aggressive. We welcome that. If you cannot control yourself with how you express your opinion, you WILL be banned.

 

TPR is not a "public site where you can say whatever you want" (as people have claimed), it is a privately owned forum with rules and standards. If you can't play nice, you will not be allowed to be part of the forum.

 

I hope I've made myself perfectly clear. I really should not have had to post this in the first place.

 

Thank you.

 

--Robb

Edited December 8, 2013 by robbalvey

[DanTheBooker]

Can we agree that the wing rider concept has potential, it's just that B&M missed it. The thought of no track above or below you is kind of neat. How is the Intamin wing rider? I believe there is just one, correct me if I'm wrong.

[GoBears]

Can we agree that the wing rider concept has potential, it's just that B&M missed it. The thought of no track above or below you is kind of neat. How is the Intamin wing rider? I believe there is just one, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I've heard pretty good things about Furius Baco as far as intensity goes.

[rcjp]

^^Some consider skyrush a "sort of wing rider" due to the winged seats. For me it's only really furius baco, although that U shaped roller coaster at Victory Kingdom in China has wing rider trains. I really enjoyed furius baco, yes it is pretty rough but the fact that it goes close to the ground all the time enhances the wing experience. It also has a great pacing and it's one of those rides that just makes me want to ride over and over again so badly! I do wish intamin made more of those, maybe with slightly different trains from baco (a little smoother) and with different restraints (maybe lap bars).

^ Yes it is pretty intense, I mean, if you look at the Gs (think it is 4.7) it's not that much but it delivers a massive punch.

[robbalvey]

How is the Intamin wing rider? I believe there is just one, correct me if I'm wrong.

Furius Baco absolutely has some HOLYSHITOMG moments with the launch, the airtime hill, the barrel roll, and the monkeys in the pre-show! The downside to the ride is that the outside seats were rough, especially towards the back. I didn't find the ride anywhere NEAR as rough as my roughest rides on the S&S 4D coasters, however.

 

I really liked Baco a lot. Bummed that parks never ordered any more for them to improve the concept.

Edited December 8, 2013 by robbalvey

[booink]

None of these coasters were extremely existing or had any mind-blowing elements, but they were quite fun. However, I prefered X-Flight because it vibrated 10 times less than Gatekeeper did. I got off Gatekeeper with a headache the second time (but I'm pretty sensible to that). X-Flight was very smooth in comparison.

 

Sadly, none of these two rides are in my top 10 list. They are fun, but they really miss *something* to make them awesome and re-ride worthy.

[Woodie Warrior]

I think the reason more parks didn't go for an Intamin Wing Rider is because they are shorter and more expensive. Furious Baco cost the park around 15 million euros (or 20 million US dollars). I think that could've had to do with the park's elaborate theming for the ride, but maybe the roller coaster just costs that much by itself. Furious Baco looks awesome, though.

[GigaG]

I've only been on GK. I find it fun, although somewhat forceless and unexpectedly bumpy. However, it is definitely one of the most beautiful coasters ever.

[coasterlover420]

I feel like if there was a coaster that combined the risk of Intamin and the comfort of B&m, it would easily be top of the charts. I do love the technology B&M offers to smooth their coasters (comfortable seats, comfortable restraints, shock absorbers, reliable wheels, upkeep of the track, etc...) but it just doesn't live up to the ballsy layouts Intamin offers. The old layouts B&M had were just the best, but I feel like they tried to keep that alive, and the result was too many clones and cookie-cutter layouts. The new actually unique layouts B&M offers are just lame.

 

For those who don't know, the shock absorbers on B&M's can be seen here

The large black ring inside the axle is actually made of rubber, and absorbs a lot of shock from the track. Photo credit to Skycoastin' Steve.

[PKI Jizzman]

X Flight. Of all the B&M wing coasters, I had my worst rides on Gatekeeper. The last row was godawful. One of the worst rides in recent memory. I had some decent rides in other rows, but still the overall wasn't as good as X Flight. X Flight had some really good effects that worked well! Gatekeeper had a great view and all, but I enjoyed X Flight more.

[Ed Farmer]

X-Flight is the better ride- it isn't even the worst B&M coaster at the park it's at; that would be Superman Ultimate Fluff. Despite that, I would go with Gatekeeper as the better of the two, purely because the more compact layout of X-Flight lends itself better to being cloned and strewn about/littering the (SF) chain.

[rcjp]

 

For those who don't know, the shock absorbers on B&M's can be seen here

The large black ring inside the axle is actually made of rubber, and absorbs a lot of shock from the track. Photo credit to Skycoastin' Steve.

 

That's interesting, I didn't know how they worked. I noticed the wheels have different thickness, are they used simultaneously?

[Randomman295]

X-flight. Even though Gatekeeper had a better view and layout (minus the lackluster finish), X-flight made much better use of theming, space, and the dive drop.

[Vtafro]

Gatekeeper, although enjoyed wild eagle more than both.

[mightypotato]

Most definitely Gatekeeper. I didn't care for X-Flight when I rode it this summer. It felt sluggish and was pretty boring. Even the keyhole didn't do much for me. Gatekeeper I found a bit more exciting with a better layout.

 

That said, neither of them is really high up on my list, but whatever.

[coasterlover420]

That's interesting, I didn't know how they worked. I noticed the wheels have different thickness, are they used simultaneously?

They use any combination of the urethane (orange slower wheels) and nylon (white faster wheels) in order to get the train to travel the exact speed they want it to. The nylon damage the track a bit more than the urethane, so it's rare that the nylon are the only ones used.