Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit experiencing technical difficulties

Universal Studio’s 2009 Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit has closed indefinitely:

“Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, the year-old roller coaster at Universal Studios that shut down last week for repairs, will remain closed longer than initially expected.

Universal Orlando said Monday it decided to perform annual maintenance now that the thrill ride is already offline. “We added annual maintenance to the work schedule for efficiency,” spokesman Tom Schroder said. “The ride has been operating for about a year and had a busy summer season. For us, it makes sense to take advantage of the fact that it is already closed for maintenance and perform additional annual maintenance.”

Just why Rockit closed in the first place remains a mystery. Earlier this month, the German company that built it issued an alert warning that stress testing of its “X-Car” ride vehicles had found that the coupling bars holding the trains together might not be “fatigue endurable.” Coaster manufacturer Maurer Sohne instructed clients to immediately shut down any rides using X-Cars for further safety testing.

Universal dismissed the Sept. 2 bulletin, saying any issues it raised would have been resolved already.”

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