Should the suspended roller coaster be resurrected?

[Sluggo77]

Never had the chance to ride one but have always loved the concept so yes I would love to see some new reimagined ones added.

[ejot]

I'd like to see a spinning suspended coaster. Each car would resemble a little frisbee ride.

[Jcoaster]

I'd like to see a spinning suspended coaster. Each car would be like a little frisbee ride.

 

Now that....That's an idea. A heinous one.

[Nrthwnd]

^ How about these on a suspended track?

[SoCalJasonland]

I still like SFMM Ninja suspended coaster but it would probably be more interesting if the car around me was missing and I could see the ground and trees flying bye below me while I floated in a seat. I like the open leg concept and there is nothing wrong with just making more tame inverted coasters as the car design is less weight and wouldn't require a thicker more expensive track and costly shocks on the ride to maintain. Adding the cab creates wind resistance so you can offer less track length for the same lift rise. The added weight of the cab that far away from the center-line of the track creates strong lateral forces requiring the costly shocks and prevent inversions. Inverts seam to offer a better view and require less in terms of cost or maintenance.

Edited August 11, 2016 by SoCalJasonland

[GCI Wooden]

^Now there's an idea I can get on board with. Those tornadoes are a ton of fun, and I can only imagine how much more fun it would be if you were to throw a coaster into the mix.

[OmnipotentSeal]

It definitely should be resurrected. To the best of my understanding, S&S took over what was left of Arrow. Maybe they have the rights and blueprints to make a 2nd gen suspended coaster.

[GCI Wooden]

It definitely should be resurrected. To the best of my understanding, S&S took over what was left of Arrow. Maybe they have the rights and blueprints to make a 2nd gen suspended coaster.

They sorta did with the

.

[Nrthwnd]

^ And that was an awesome coaster! Scary and awesome at the same time, lol.

 

Suspended in a really different kind of way. I just loved it!

Tranan. TPR 2014 Scandi Tour.

[BigBad]

I still like SFMM Ninja suspended coaster but it would probably be more interesting if the car around me was missing and I could see the ground and trees flying bye below me while I floated in a seat.

I like the idea of feet dangling, but with some of the quick turns that are fun on swinging suspended coasters, I could see that being quite painful if your feet aren't against anything to keep your legs from snapping out.

[Geauga Dog]

^ And that was an awesome coaster! Scary and awesome at the same time, lol.

 

Suspended in a really different kind of way. I just loved it!

 

What was the sensation like? I can see that the capacity is why the Free Fly never really took off even though they still offer the ride on their website.

[Sneaky]

I'd like to see a spinning suspended coaster. Each car would resemble a little frisbee ride.

 

You mean a bit like this?

Sky Rider - Skyline Park (Germany)

[Johnlloyd]

I'd like to see a spinning suspended coaster. Each car would resemble a little frisbee ride.

 

^ How about these on a suspended track?

 

Well, Caripro had designed the Gyroflyer, which had opened up at Skyline Park in Germany. It opened in 2001 as Sky Rider and is the only one of it's kind. So, a spinning suspended coaster could be done again and on a larger scale. But, I do enjoy the Arrow Dynamics' suspended swinging coaster design such as Vortex at Canada's Wonderland, which has been operating strong for 25 years now. Suspended Swinging coasters are very fun, so I would like to see Vekoma or another company to start producing them again as they're a great coaster!

 

Photo Credit: www.chris-simon.org.uk/

[ejot]

^,^^ Woah, cool! Yes, that is just like what I had in mind. Thanks for posting it.

 

Would love to ride this coaster and also think a similar model on a larger scale would be very cool. Maybe outward facing seats too or 1/2 & 1/2?

[bill_s]

I still like SFMM Ninja suspended coaster but it would probably be more interesting if the car around me was missing and I could see the ground and trees flying bye below me while I floated in a seat.

I like the idea of feet dangling, but with some of the quick turns that are fun on swinging suspended coasters, I could see that being quite painful if your feet aren't against anything to keep your legs from snapping out.

 

With suspended coasters it should be the whole car that snaps out. Your legs should swing almost precisely in tandem. There are almost no lateral forces on the rider.

 

Only one I rode was BBW and, even with the pacing issue of having a huge lift right in the middle of the ride, it was a great ride. Thing is, the track layout itself would have been a total snooze without the swinging except for the main drop. It is in one way a gimmick, or at least a trick, to make coasters more exciting. It was a natural progression to move away from it as more coaster styles appeared and design progressed. We may be running out of other possibilities so it could come back. Plus the old ones are going away.

 

One thing that could be done now is computer aided design that results in a conventional coaster car making very similar motions as a suspended ride. Actually, what inspired this thought was looking at Dominator's first overbanked turn, it takes the path of a suspended car 10-15' tall going around a flat turn and swinging out a little past 90 degrees. Further thinking came up with a wave turn similar to what RMC is doing now. I don't know if anyone's done anything where it would immediately obvious to riders that one is swinging around a virtual track. There are of course some big differences, but still seems a useful design technique. The advantage over actual suspension, as well as mechanical simplicity, is the whole coaster wouldn't have to emulate swinging, and it avoids the damping issue. The biggest limitation with actual swinging back and forth is once that starts, it doesn't want to damp out and can get more and more uncontrolled.

[julioot]

Yes! More of this please:

 

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[fraroc]

Actually, the Vekoma Family Suspended rides are still true suspended coasters. Each seat, while connected, can swing individually. Look at image 29 on this page.

 

Is it suspended the same way that the Arrow suspended were? Of course not. However, while larger rides have become less common, the ever growing lineup of Vekoma's suspended coasters have been taking off and show that there is still interest in the suspended coaster market...

 

From what I could tell, the 295m, 453m, and the 395m models appears to have a chassis that can swerve during turns. However, the 342m model doesn't have it, thus making coasters like Flying Ace Arial Chase and Silver Streak inverted coasters.

[_koppen]

From what I could tell, the 295m, 453m, and the 395m models appears to have a chassis that can swerve during turns. However, the 342m model doesn't have it, thus making coasters like Flying Ace Arial Chase and Silver Streak inverted coasters.

 

They are all inverting rides. The SFC is not suspended, what you see is only dampeners. The trains don't swing at all, the dampening isn't noticeable at all when you are on the ride. The only reason they are there is to allow a lighter construction of the train.

[bill_s]

^^-- that would be a carryover of the SLC design then, although maybe that's more a patent avoidance because those do little or nothing at all.

[Norwegian coasterfan]

From what I could tell, the 295m, 453m, and the 395m models appears to have a chassis that can swerve during turns. However, the 342m model doesn't have it, thus making coasters like Flying Ace Arial Chase and Silver Streak inverted coasters.

 

They are all inverting rides. The SFC is not suspended, what you see is only dampeners. The trains don't swing at all, the dampening isn't noticeable at all when you are on the ride. The only reason they are there is to allow a lighter construction of the train.

They do actually swing, just look at the end of this POV, the car slowly swings back when it enter the station. And I have been on this coaster and you notice the train swing when entering the station

[youtu_be]

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[_koppen]

They do actually swing, just look at the end of this POV, the car slowly swings back when it enter the station. And I have been on this coaster and you notice the train swing when entering the station

 

Yes, I have also been on that ride and as I said there is no swinging on the Vekoma SFC's. I also don't see it in the POV.

As I said earlier they are dampeners, so obviously there is some sideways movement from them, but it's not swinging.

[Norwegian coasterfan]

They do actually swing, just look at the end of this POV, the car slowly swings back when it enter the station. And I have been on this coaster and you notice the train swing when entering the station

 

Yes, I have also been on that ride and as I said there is no swinging on the Vekoma SFC's. I also don't see it in the POV.

As I said earlier they are dampeners, so obviously there is some sideways movement from them, but it's not swinging.

No i don't mean they swing freely but they do move from side to side.

[grsupercity]

The dampers are the stupidest idea they ever had. It creates a side to side vibration on the SFC's and SLC's. A whole new train design should be made to prevent the side to side movement on there coasters.

[Rill'o'beily]

The dampers are the stupidest idea they ever had. It creates a side to side vibration on the SFC's and SLC's. A whole new train design should be made to prevent the side to side movement on there coasters.

 

On the SLC maybe but i've experienced no discomfort on SFC's, however i have not ridden the older SFCs (The ones with over-shoulder restraints)

[TheJewelOfJool]

I've ridden Silver Streak, an older SFC, and I did get some headbanging on it. It needs the new trains badly.