Can someone explain my VelociCoaster experience?

[MakoMania]

Hey all, I had an experience on VelociCoaster a few days ago that legitimately made me fear for my safety for the first time ever in my 10+ years of being an enthusiast, but I was wondering if anyone perhaps with more technical knowledge of the new Intamin LSM trains could put my mind at ease?

Essentially what happened is that after dispatch, but before the launch I was repositioning myself in my seat slightly for comfort as my belt was digging against me, and as I was moving/squirming in the seat the restraint seemingly gave way somewhat against the pressure I was putting on it. By no means did it pop open, but as a regular VelociCoaster rider I know what the restraints feel like and how much give they normally have, and this was significantly more than normal and was enough to make me very concerned. I could push the restraint upwards to the extent that it left a tiny gap between itself and my body despite me being stapled at dispatch, and it was nothing like I had ever experienced on VelociCoaster or any similar ride previously. The whole ride was a terrifying ordeal but upon hitting the final brake run the restraint was back to being stapled against my body as if nothing had happened, and as usual wouldn't give an inch.

Can anyone explain this?

 

[Hutch]

Sounds like that would've been an awesome ride. Tiny gap you say? Couple inches is nothing to worry about for lap bars. A lot of us prefer it actually.

If it concerned you why didn't you just push it back down before the launch?

 

[Hyde]

If the lapbar was able to re-staple itself during the ride, gratefully nothing to worry about. I believe Intamin trains use a double-pneumatic cylinder system as part of their restraint redundancy. So what you could have experienced (spit-balling here) is one cylinder being a smidge ahead of the other, causing the sliver of wiggle room, which righted itself once the restraints were put under pressure. Low likelihood on this one, that never would have actually put you in danger, given there are multiple, other lock-outs in the restraints to ensure proper redundancy.

I gladly defer to the coaster engineers in the room.

 

[MakoMania]

Sounds like that would've been an awesome ride. Tiny gap you say? Couple inches is nothing to worry about for lap bars. A lot of us prefer it actually.

If it concerned you why didn't you just push it back down before the launch?

I did try to return it to the position it was in at dispatch, but it would pop back up to the new position. Only towards the end of the ride did I get it to lock down again.

I was worried in the moment for sure, but I am not for a moment suggesting something was inherently unsafe, just something I had never experienced before on a ride that I ride very often.

 

[jp30]

Hey all, I had an experience on VelociCoaster a few days ago that legitimately made me fear for my safety for the first time ever in my 10+ years of being an enthusiast, but I was wondering if anyone perhaps with more technical knowledge of the new Intamin LSM trains could put my mind at ease?

Essentially what happened is that after dispatch, but before the launch I was repositioning myself in my seat slightly for comfort as my belt was digging against me, and as I was moving/squirming in the seat the restraint seemingly gave way somewhat against the pressure I was putting on it. By no means did it pop open, but as a regular VelociCoaster rider I know what the restraints feel like and how much give they normally have, and this was significantly more than normal and was enough to make me very concerned. I could push the restraint upwards to the extent that it left a tiny gap between itself and my body despite me being stapled at dispatch, and it was nothing like I had ever experienced on VelociCoaster or any similar ride previously. The whole ride was a terrifying ordeal but upon hitting the final brake run the restraint was back to being stapled against my body as if nothing had happened, and as usual wouldn't give an inch.

Can anyone explain this?

Hi there, i've come across your message whilst looking into velocicoaster as i'm intetested in the working of rides specifically and have recently rode veloci 5 times with each time drastically different. It comes as abit of a concern as even though it is my favourite coaster, i've spotted some concerning issues with the restraints maintenance. (I'm an engineer in mechatronics / mechanical and electrical).

Each time i've ridden the ride, the restraint has felt different. Sometimes tight and secure, to locked but some unbeliveable slop in the restraint bar (e.g. centimeters of shake side to side). This was very concerning for me as i know for a fact that this isn't correct and some engineer has either missed out a bushing, damaged bushing, collapsed bearing, not noticed damage or worse a loose restraint system that hasnt been checked and proof marked. In this case, the check valve hydraulic cylinders, despite the fail safes, wont do anything if the rest isnt properly maintained. There was an occasion specifically in the station where the harness was able to be pushed up a couple centimeters but then locked once all checks had been done and the computer dispatched and stayed tight a little like your issue. It did scare a little but have come to the conclusion that veloci uses active cylinder monitoring where it will randomly lock just one cylinder and then later, the other to ensure all is working before it dispatches. Veloci being a coaster with onboard power, may have the monitoring throughout the ride but i wouldn't expect this to adjust.

Another ride that does this is the smiler at alton towers, but this operates consistantly at the end where the first cylinder unlocks (harness raises slightly) then the second unlocks (harness fully opens).

In my opinion, the ride is excellent, but harnesses should never have as much slop as they did whilst i was on unless designed to.