Riding Hex was one of the things about the weekend just gone that I was really looking forward to, as I was keen to find out whether it was running any better than last year following the attention it's had over the closed season. On Sunday I was sat near to the apparatus at the end of the vault in the right front row. I could still hear a fair bit of creaking, and the clunking, knocking noises aren't entirely gone either.
I know the closed season work wasn't aimed at rectifying the drum-swing synchronisation issues, but it's still going completely pear-shaped right from the start of the ride sequence and taking ages to park at the end. It seems a bit ridiculous that Vekoma apparently don't know what's causing it, even after having supposedly changed a lot of the major mechanical components to no avail. Feng Ju Palace at Phantasialand was having similar issues when I rode that last April, so if I were a park owner running a madhouse I'd be wondering whether mine would eventually suffer the same issue. If it could happen to other installations they'd better get their heads around the issue before too long!
I'm not a fan of the new Magic Flashing Pipe of Wonder, as for me it slightly affects how believable the rest of the vault is. I'd imagine that for first time riders it used to look like the equipment wasn't operational, so it wasn't 100% guaranteed that it was going to do anything and the way it fired up was more dramatic. Now there's a pipe quickly changing through a wide range of colours as soon as you go in, so you'd know the machine's going to do something. I wouldn't mind so much if it smoothly changed from one colour to the next as John suggested; the immediate colour changes make it look more artificial and more obviously a light effect, and on the whole I think it looks a bit out of place.
I feel really bad for basically pulling apart the results of the work that the ride's had since last November, particularly as at that time I don't think anyone expected it to get any TLC whatsoever. The projector is now much better, and the sound system in the vault is fantastic. As others have said, the increased volume seems to have improved how a lot of guests respond to the experience no end. For me the biggest difference was in the chanting in the finale. I'd heard it before, but I hadn't noticed that it's being yelled compared to at the start of the sequence. All in all it's a definite improvement, but mechanically not quite to the extent that I'd hoped.
I have a question for those of you that have been riding Hex for years. The coil-bound vertical cylinder on the left of the machine has a small crown-esque arrangement on top (as you can see in the photo Mags has just conveniently posted). I think I've seen it either sparking or doing something that's meant to look like it's sparking in the past, but I keep wondering whether I've imagined it as if so it hasn't done it for ages. Am I wrong or is this a genuine but broken effect?
