Roughest Coaster You've Ridden

Most of us have probably ridden a fair share of rough coasters, but unfortunately, there's always that one that sticks as being the worst.

For me, it's Demon at Six Flags Great America. It has some jerky transitions, especially into the corkscrews, but I found the roughest part to be second vertical loop, where I got a good smack to the back of my head. Although, Demon as a whole honestly isn't that rough, so I guess I could be considered lucky compared to many other enthusiasts.

Well, I have ridden Gwazi, which was notorious for extreme roughness, but it was a very long time ago, long before my coaster enthusiast days began, and I don't remember much of the experience.

Steel-T2 at Kentucky Kingdom, before the mythical new trains that will not arrive this season at all. Strangely enough I didn't mind it.

Wood-It's hard for me to remember roughness enough to differentiate between levels but I think I remembered the Beast's helix being rougher than the rest of the ride before it, and possibly any other coaster I've ridden. As for consistent roughness, IDK, the Legend at Holiday World, maybe.

This one is the roughest steel coaster I have ridden. Much rougher than the TOGO Shockwave coaster.

[Paradox]

Wild Beast at CW was horrid.

Mind Eraser at SFNE was also complete trash.

Wood - Either Thunderhawk at Dorney or Rolling Thunder at SFGAdv.
Steel - Either SkyRider at Canada's Wonderland or Time Warp at Canada's Wonderland.

I say "either" because I can't really tell which of each is worse, but they all received "F - Complete Failure" grades on my coaster count.

[Paradox]

I didn't find Sky Rider that bad but that was probably because I was expecting much worse.

I agree with you on Time Warp, but all Zamperla volares are inherently bad because Zamperla still hasn't figured out how to properly build a coaster.

I think the main problem with the volares is the trains which are like small prison cage lockers and your feet aren't even restrained!

I'd say Vortex at KI last year. Haven't been down there yet but last year omg... Couldn't ride it more than twice without tapping out

[gouldy]

Stampida @ Port Aventura, since it has had these trains:

Steel-Kong at SFDK is pretty bad, probably the worst steel coaster I have ever ridden, and that includes coasters from Arrow, Schwarzkopf and giovanola.
Wood-Honestly, at the risk of pissing a lot of people off, Ghostrider, pre 2014. In its younger days, Ghostrider was among the smoothest wooden coasters I have ever ridden, but the harsh So Cal climate has aged it horribly.

Flashback and GoldRusher at SFMN.
Turbo Coaster at Brighton Pier England
Agreed! Ghostrider at Knotts has not aged well.
Knotts used to have a coaster pre 1976 similar to Pony Express where the defunct Soap box derby coaster was that almost killed me. Sorry dont remember name.

In order...
4-Gwazi(BGT-FL) - Headache inducing rattle
3-Jubilee Odyssey(Fantasy Island-UK) - First drop is amazing, if you still remember it by the end of the ride
2-Manhattan Express/NYNY Coaster(NYNY Hotel-Las Vegas NV) TOGO should be made to sign a waiver stating they will never build a Diving Loop ever again!
And Number 1....Desperado!(Buffalo Bills Resort-Primm-NV) OMG that thing looks smooth..but looks can be very very deceiving. Desperado right at the bottom of its first drop tries to remove your spine and after that it gets no better, I was actually yelping in pain throughout the entire ride, I bruised my back and knees..NEVER AGAIN!

[Dirk_Ermen]

Hmmm... Hard question with so many ridden coasters. One of the few coasters that come up in my mind is the Georgia Cyclone in 2011. I don't know what they did, but the ride was so rough that I was totally surprised on it's roughness. Definitely one of the rougher woodies I've ridden to date.
Another one that's worth mentioning is the Coaster Express in Parque Warner. Extremely rough track, very dull layout and Intamin trains. You are bouncing the entire ride up and down due the bumps in tracks.

Steel coasters is going to be a totally different story. With some visits to Japan and China. I have ridden some extremely terrible rides. The worst definitely has to be the Screamin' Squirrel coaster that's located in China. With it's terrible maintenance and adjustment on the brakes/trims, the trains were flying over those saxophones. Creating an insane ride but also extremely rough: (Best seen on the offride starting on 1:30)

These S&S rides aren't the smoothest rides due those transitions but without proper trimming it seriously goes over the top.

Another coaster that was beyond terrible was the Crazy Roller Coaster in Quanlin Resort. The cars were extremely uncomfortable and the ride made it even worse. To be honest, I can't really recall any extremely terrible or rough steel coasters from the US. Okay, many of the SLC's are in terrible shape. But I haven't ridden anything that was in such shape that I would never want to ride again.
Actually, now when I think it of it. I have ridden a coaster that was so weird and bad, we kept on re-riding it on checking how bad it actually was. We just couldn't believe it was THAT bad. I'm talking about Nitro in Dennly's parc, A coaster by Preston & Barbieri. The ride has weird shaping combined with weird suspension on the cars, which ends up in some even weirder turns and possible painful moments if you don't brace yourself.

[mkingy]

gouldy wrote:

Stampida @ Port Aventura, since it has had these trains:

I don't remember Stampedia being so bad!? NOthing compared to The Ultimate's second half bunny hills haha

Wood - Wildcat @ Lake Compounce (DAMN Every time the G's go above 1.3 it feels like your in a damn blender).
Steel - Goliath SFNE (Ever since the new trains, the ride continues to suck and I don't think it'll ever be good again).

[Coasterkidmwm]

Shockwave at SFGAm, mostly for the "plz god why" turn that I circled before the MCBR. It wasn't banked much and it kind of whipped you into it really hard. I think the difference between Shockwave and GASM was that they made the loops go in the other direction to drag the pre-mcbr turn out more. So if you've been on GASM and hated that part, imagine it taken faster. The ops used to be super serial about making people remove earrings because the ride would rip them out.

I remember getting off of Rolling Thunder on my last ride ever (I believe it was the last day it was open, or the day before) with my back feeling shattered; there's this one straight-banked transition where there's a bump so insane that people thought the train would freaking de-rail. (of course I knew better...) On some of the turns you just heard metal on metal screeching as your spine was re-arranged. I know that ride has some history but there's a reason(s) they took it down.

Coasterkidmwm wrote:

Shockwave at SFGAm, mostly for the "plz god why" turn that I circled before the MCBR. It wasn't banked much and it kind of whipped you into it really hard. I think the difference between Shockwave and GASM was that they made the loops go in the other direction to drag the pre-mcbr turn out more. So if you've been on GASM and hated that part, imagine it taken faster. The ops used to be super serial about making people remove earrings because the ride would rip them out.

Darn, that transition looks awful.

cool5 wrote:

This one is the roughest steel coaster I have ridden. Much rougher than the TOGO Shockwave coaster.

When you hear someone say Dragon Coaster looks too tame or cute, you are like "hehehe". However when you feel that helix, you'll actually get surprised at intense lateral g's like 1.5 or yellow in No Limits! I seriously thought I'd get pitched onto the ride zone!

With my limited coaster count (somewhere around 36), I think the roughest ride I've ridden is Wildcat @ Hershey. Got off that thing from the back row with a mild concussion

[TTD03]

^ Very normal for that ride.

[TallonD83]

Uhm...this...

^There's a reason they had RMC convert this! Now this coaster is one hell of a ride!

[Paradox]

Start watching from about 50 seconds.

The entire structure sways. I cannot believe they even operated it like that.

[TallonD83]

oh yeah they operated it like that. that straight rise was like that from day one back in 1991. completely unchanged. when 6 flags took over they GUTTED that ride though. THREE trim brakes and raised the first drop by 64 feet.

^My god, I wasn't sure if it was the camera glitching or the support structure. That is insane, and I'm glad RMC fixed this. It was either that or demolishing, eventually.