Postby CP2013 » Thu Jul 26, 2012 4:37 pm
The Bat was a state-of-the-art coaster that was only open sporadically. After SBNO (Standing But Not Operating) for an extensive period of time, park officials announced on November 9, 1984 that the ride would be dismantled. Over the next two years the ride was removed.
Early on in its life the Bat began to have multiple problems. The shock absorbers located on the train's connecting struts began to wear out and break well before their expiration. Soon enough, maintenance crews had to replace many of the shocks on a daily basis. Another problem the Bat ran into was the discovery by track inspectors of an alignment problem in the coaster's structure at a steel joint. Steel stress tests were performed and the inspectors found cracks. The inspectors also found steel stress on the track and on the train struts. Arrow engineers started making repairs to the ride, but suspected the track's design as a possible cause of the structural problems. After further inspection, the Arrow Engineers determined that the design flaw was giving the entire responsibility of the damping the lateral forces of the turns to the swinging cars. These excess forces on the struts were the reason the shock absorbers wore out so quickly. Additional stress to the struts also occurred due to the ride's brakes which were located on the bottom of the cars. Kings Island and Arrow engineers worked constantly trying to fix it, but after four seasons of being mostly closed the Bat was dismantled after the 1984 season. This brought rise to a new roller coaster designed by Arrow Dynamics called Vortex, which was a record breaking roller coaster for its time.