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Motorbike roller coaster | |
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![]() Velocity at Flamingo Land, a Vekoma Motorbike roller coaster | |
Status | In production |
First manufactured | 2004 |
No. of installations | 16 |
Manufacturers | Vekoma, Intamin and Zamperla |
Type | Steel motorbike roller coaster |
Motorbike roller coaster at RCDB |
A motorbike roller coaster or motorcycle roller coaster is a type of steel roller coaster designed with motorcycle type cars. Booster Bike at Toverland was the world's first motorbike roller coaster. Vekoma was the first company to design such a ride, although Intamin and Zamperla have since created similar designs.
A similar but unrelated Steeplechase roller coaster was Knott's Berry Farm's Motorcycle Chase by Arrow Dynamics which opened in 1974 . That attraction featured single motorbike themed vehicles racing side-by-side, each on one of four parallel tracks, launched together. It was retrofitted in 1980 as Wacky Soap Box Racers before removed in 1996.
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 Thailand
The Vekoma Motorbike Coaster concept was first demonstrated with the use of the No Limits roller coaster simulator, [1] and is included as a track style in the commercial version.
Intamin was the second company to come up with a motorbike roller coaster design. Their design utilizes drive tires to launch its trains. Currently, only four installations exist - two in Australia, one in Denmark, and one in the United States.
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 hydraulic launch system. The standard track layout is a 3-layered figure 8.
In 2008 2 MotoCoasters were installed in the United States. The prototype is at Darien Lake near Buffalo, New York.
The Pony Express at Knott's Berry Farm, Buena Park, California, in a twist on the once famous Motorcycle Chase of Indian Motorcycles on a Steeplechase roller coaster, now sports a Zamperla Motocoaster styled as horses.