Motorbike roller coaster
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A motorbike roller coaster is a type of roller coaster designed with motorcycle type cars. Vekoma was the first company to design such a ride, though other companies have attempted to imitate the design. Intamin AG has completed building their version of the Motorbike Coaster at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast, Australia. In May 2008, Zamperla's first motorbike coaster, Orange County Choppers MotoCoaster, will open at Darien Lake in Darien, New York.
An unrelated, similar ride, was the Arrow Dynamics designed Cycle Chase at Knott's Berry Farm, opened in 1976. The ride consisted of four parallel tracks with single motorbike themed vehicles racing. The ride was later retrofitted to become Wacky Soap Box Racers until its closure in 1996
Contents |
[edit] Design and operation
[edit] Vekoma
The Vekoma Motorbike Coaster consists of a train with nine cars, each consisting of two motorcycle seats. Each seat was designed to replicate the seating on a motorcycle, and allows free upper body movement.
After dispatching from the station, the train is hydraulically launched into a twisting layout. The first Motorbike coaster was the Booster Bike at Toverland in The Netherlands, opened in 2004. A second, Velocity opened at Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo in the United Kingdom. A third, identical to the Booster Bike, opened at Chimelong Paradise in China.
The Vekoma Motorbike Coaster concept was demonstrated with the use of the No Limits roller coaster simulator, and is included as a track style in the commercial version.
[edit] Zamperla
The Zamperla Motocoaster consists of a train of six cars instead of nine, but they are set up similarly, two seats side by side per car.
Zamperla's coaster uses a flywheel launch instead of a hyrdraulic launch system. The standard track layout is a 3-layered figure 8. In 2008 2 MotoCoasters will be installed in the United States, One prototype at Darien Lake near Buffalo, New York and a specially designed coaster with the motorcycle cars styled as horses at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California.
[edit] External links
|
|||||||||||
 |
This article about an amusement park, amusement ride, or roller coaster is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
