Verbolten

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Manufacturer
ZIERER

Model
Elevated Seating Coaster w/ Vertical Drop Element

Hamlet
Oktoberfest (Germany)

Official Opening
May 18, 2012

Soft Opening
May 11, 2012

Tallest Drop
88ft


Top Speed
53mph

Inversion Count
0

Launch Segments
2

Riders Per Train
16

Number of Trains
5

Height Requirement
48in



Verbolten is an indoor/outdoor ZIERER Elevated Seating Coaster that features a Vertical Drop Element. It officially opened in mid-May 2012 on the site formally occupied by the Arrow Suspended Coaster, Big Bad Wolf.


Videos​

Development Documentary​

Ride Recordings​

On-Ride Videos​

Backstage Footage​

 
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I don't know why; but I still have this craving for a 60mph first launch.

I think it has something to do with the theme of the ride. For those who read my stage by stage theme; it makes sense. If the Spirit is attached to the lore of the ride, it would make sense that the entry would be rather aggressive. I just want to get yanked into the Black Forest. Once you get to the top of the launch; the Werewolf encounters should keep you clinched to your seat.

Here is a short SFX video of what I feel the Werewolf barks should be like. With the right speaker placement, I wouldn't even want to stick my hand out of the train during the near misses or first Werewolf prop that the train passes.

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MikeLovesKD said:
I don't know why; but I still have this craving for a 60mph first launch.

I think it has something to do with the theme of the ride. For those who read my stage by stage theme; it makes sense. If the Spirit is attached to the lore of the ride, it would make sense that the entry would be rather aggressive. I just want to get yanked into the Black Forest. Once you get to the top of the launch; the Werewolf encounters should keep you clinched to your seat.

Here is a short SFX video of what I feel the Werewolf barks should be like. With the right speaker placement, I wouldn't even want to stick my hand out of the train during the near misses or first Werewolf prop that the train passes.

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If that ride went even 5mph faster it would start to border on both uncomfortable and unsafe. The ride doesn't go super fast because the turns are super tight. Not to mention what a faster speed would do to the roll rate and other things.
 
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^^-- Yeah, for about 10 seconds it's like part of InvadR cranked to 11 as it is (and then the brakes start). To go 60, it would have to be changed a lot. The only way to fit it in that building would be to hit 60 at a low altitude and then climb to lose speed to be able to turn around. Instead it's more a of a lift-launch that puts you in towards the top at a lower speed. Shoves you back in your seat.
 
bill s said:
^^-- Yeah, for about 10 seconds it's like part of InvadR cranked to 11 as it is (and then the brakes start). To go 60, it would have to be changed a lot. The only way to fit it in that building would be to hit 60 at a low altitude and then climb to lose speed to be able to turn around. Instead it's more a of a lift-launch that puts you in towards the top at a lower speed. Shoves you back in your seat.
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I've told people this before, but maybe it's the wrong argument.

The Mummy at Universal Orlando use to do exactly what I am talking about. The launch use to yank you up the hill, and it did it with LIM. After the top of the hill, you head straight down into a right turn, just like Verbolten does. The Mummy's top speed back in 2005 was probably the 45 mph that's advertised or maybe 50 mph. I'm a good judge of speed when it comes to Premier rides. When I went back to ride it again in 2010, it was no where near thrilling during the launch hill. But I'm not going to tell the whole story because I've told it enough times.

As I watch the Lights on POV, I have now brought myself to question. All the theme stuff I mentioned in the last post would be cool; but where would it fit. Specifically the "Near Miss Falling Trees". Maybe the camera makes the ride look tighter, than what it is. When you ride it in person, it feels as if there is a lot of opportunity on the ground floor and helix turns, to fit some props and speakers.

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But they're not the same ride, so it's not a great comparison.

It'd be one thing to consider if the coaster itself was a clone of some other existing ride with a modification to add the drop track, but for it to be a different layout and designed/engineered/built by a completely different manufacturer (Zierer) means that it was designed to have a safe speed limit lower than your expectations.

That being said I think it's possible the park may have turned it down a little bit to either reduce wear or to address guest complaints about the laterals in the show building. However, it's also possible that they haven't changed the speed at all.
 
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Instead of rehashing why Verbolten's indoor section will never be significantly sped up, I want to go a different direction.

Is there an authoritative source for Verbolten's speed stats? The announcement fact sheet claimed a "maximum speed" of 53mph, but doesn't state where during the ride that theorized top speed was supposed to take place (end of launch 2 or bottom of the Rhine drop). I also can't find anything about the speed of launch 1 other than an entirely uncited claim on a coaster thoosie wiki.
 
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Didn't someone use their phone as a force meter on some rides - could there be an app that helps estimate it?

Thinking a few rerides by a few people over a few weeks will give enough data points to get an extremely close estimate
 
I would think a phone can only calculate the speed over GPS, which would work fairly decent going down the interstate for 2 miles and calculating the average speed. Going circles inside a building I doubt that would provide useful speed data.

Acceleration and forces maybe, but I don't think it would be able to tell the acceleration due to the train accelerating and the acceleration based on the g-forces apart.
 
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I mean, you can just record the acceleration using your phone's gyroscope/accelerometer, and then integrate the acceleration curve with respect to time and limits based around the section you are interested in. That is pretty easy calculus and should give you a decent estimate on velocity.

That said, I finished grad school. Fuck if I ever want to do calculus again.
 
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OK, I guess it can be done.

I would not call it "pretty easy" though:

A roller coaster viewed through motion tracker data

This paper is written on Balder, which is considered a "special case" by the author and "easier to analyze than [...] many other roller coasters".
I assume that is due to it being a wooden coaster that mainly goes up and down in curves and turns around on flat radii.
1634067201813.png
 
The analysis for Balder is made considerably easier by the fact that it seems to have been recorded on a dedicated, hard mounted motion tracker, not a mobile phone. (Which is a good thing, because in 2005 your phone wasn't gonna attempt that sort of task anyway.)

What's the current analytical state of the art when seeking accurate measurements with a device that swings and bounces around in your pocket?
 
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Though I haven't looked I wouldn't be surprised someone's translated the math into a usable app.
 
Can't speak for the accuracy of it because Android gang or die, but there is an iPhone app out there called RideForces that appears to have gained a decent following. The dev(s) have also made an apple watch app so you can track using that IMU; MUCH easier to hold in a stable position than a phone in your pocket. People post G-force graphs on their subreddit as well, which the dev is quite active on.
 
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Thanks @Brambo . Checking out the resulting plots on the subreddit, I have to say I’m impressed with the features they seem to be reliably picking up.

This is, in my view, the first and only killer app for the Apple watch.
 
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Jonesta6 said:
Didn't someone use their phone as a force meter on some rides - could there be an app that helps estimate it?

Thinking a few rerides by a few people over a few weeks will give enough data points to get an extremely close estimate
Click to expand...
Yep, this was me (and my husband)! Can't remember the Android app we used unfortunately. I do remember that it didn't have a speed estimate, but I was fairly impressed with the G-force data! I wouldn't be surprised if gyro technology has gotten more sensitive since then, and TBH the RideForces/Apple Watch combo seems like the way to go.
 
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The first entry in this thread is a WikiPost. As such, it can be edited by anyone with the appropriate permissions.
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