Bat Promotional Video Posted

[coasterdad]

First off they did reprofile it several times rebanking it but it just went to fast and the transitions were to close. I did get to ride it (8 times) the last day it operated, and as my personal feeling it was great for it's time. I just wish everyone could have gotten to ride it. Yes Robb anybody can make anything look good on video. In fact KI asked Arrow to fix it and they refused. For the Rider issue It was a very popular as the lines always were down to and past racer que and end was about where the King Cobra bridge was.

[MagnumForce]

 

If a ride is problematic, yet a success, more often than not a park will put money into it to fix the problem. Let's face it, Vortex was probably 100 times more popular with the parks demographic for that time than Bat was.

 

--Robb

 

 

Well King's Island didn't pay a dime for Vortex, Arrow replaced The Bat with Vortex at no charge.

 

This was in Arrow's court, not PKI's. This is also why the park built Top Gun.

 

The Bat was unfixable. No banking was a big part of it, but also note the brake fins were on the bottom of the cars.

 

To "fix" the Bat woudl have required replacement of no less then most of the track aside from the lift, all the brake runs and all 3 trains.

 

You can see why Arrow cut their losses and tried again later, and you can also see why the next two Suspendeds were so tame in comparison (BBW was actually a Schwarzkopf design that Arrow completed.)

[pvcoasterguy]

Iron Dragon wasn't that bad of a ride- I found it pretty fun. While it may not be the most exciting or intense ride out there, it's just fun. The finale is pretty good, and you swing quite a bit in the last car during the final portions of the ride, after the second lift.

[KrakenKing]

Did anyone else notice the person who seemed to be flicking off the camera towards the end of the video?

[gnewton34]

I remember my dad forced me to ride this thing when I was really little. I was 5 or 6 and it scared me sooooo bad. It's actually the first roller coaster I remember riding followed by The Beastie. I was lucky I didn't get turned off to coasters for life, that was how bad it scared me. I had never been on anything remotely that big and fast before.

[DATman]

^^^Go ride any other Arrow Suspended and you will be shocked to see just how absolutely terrible Iron Dragon is. I mean, the whole thing was slow and just a waste of track. The only redeeming thing about it was the ending, and even that was lackluster compared to the edings of Top Gun, Big Bad Wold, and Ninja...

[AllenA07]

Did anybody else catch the Z-Force (Flashback) ad on that site?

[Calvin]

In my personal opinion of the Bat, I will say that it looks like loads of fun, and pretty wild as well, mostly because of the quick twists and turns that are practically nonstop throughout the ride. Honestly, compare this to Ninja or pretty much any "new" suspended, they're all very graceful and whatnot, while the Bat was...foom.

[rosscoe]

I remember seeing this on the news when it opened, for some reason nearly all the early coasters at King Island made it on to the news broadcasts in Australia. ( There was a huge story on the opening of "The Beast" )

 

What i loved about that video was the chessey 1970's soundtrack ( was it not also used in a couple of porn flicks? )

[supertrooper]

I remember my dad forced me to ride this thing when I was really little. I was 5 or 6 and it scared me sooooo bad. It's actually the first roller coaster I remember riding followed by The Beastie. I was lucky I didn't get turned off to coasters for life, that was how bad it scared me. I had never been on anything remotely that big and fast before.

 

The Bat was my first "big" coaster too, after The Beastie...although I was about 8, and I loved it....it got me hooked. I don't recall it being an unpopular ride, as Rob stated. In fact, I remember waiting for quite a long time to ride it, and almost chickening out a few times. Maybe by today's standards, The Bat wouldn't seem so amazing, but at the time, I thought it was incredible.

[coasterguy618]

Even if it is really bad, I still wanna ride this thing. IMHO, it looks great. So, why was it torn down?

[saxman47]

Even if it is really bad, I still wanna ride this thing. IMHO, it looks great. So, why was it torn down?

 

www.coasterglobe.com/features/lostlegends-thebat/index.cfm

 

here's a good page to read on the bat, it goes into the reasons for it's early demise.

[DRACHEN_FIRE_FAN-BOY]

hey Robb! Big Bad Wolf makes my top 30! XLR-8 at AstroWorld in in my 30 as well

 

Ninja is a lil rough, and Iron Dragon sucks in comparison to Big Bad Wolf. it's a slow, mundane, sub-par, suspended coaster.

 

Bat looks cool, and they should have done more to save it. I really wish it was still around, it looks like fun. But there always has to be a flop in design, before they get it right.

 

but oh well, nothing we can really do about it now.