Tanks4me05

B&M: On most of your coasters, I noticed that the connection between the track and the supports is not a straight weld to the flange piece, but the track/support flange piece is a completely separate component, and is connected by gusset plates and bolts; that appears to me to unnecessarily increase the component count of the ride and unnecessarily direct shear force to the bolts when they otherwise needn't have that force directed towards them. What advantage does this build style have over most other companies' designs where the track/support flange is directly welded to the track? Yeah, I know what you're thinking, Robb. Nerdy even for us enthusiasts. But it's been bugging me for years.

Could you describe the main factors that determine a roller coaster's speed based upon the temperature? What design techniques could be used to possibly combat these issues and what would be the trade-offs?

Why should women date engineers more often? Because they're really good at doing ∫ex indefinitely.

My highlight was probably all of New Hotness in general. That was epic. But sadly as I don't have my mechanical engineering degree yet, it'll probably be my last TPR tour for a few years thanks to the monetary requirements.

I don't get why people keep thinking that Knott's has the land to make a giga coaster. I may have never been there, but I have Google Earth and Bing Maps. Knott's is landlocked. And it's not a large park either. Just look at it on Bing Maps: http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&cp=33.844124~-117.999913&style=h&lvl=17&sp=aN.33.844124_-117.999913_Knott's+Berry+Farm&encType=1 It is really freaking cramped for space. Hopefully some of you guys will be able to appreciate Silver Bullet more now because with that lack of land available for it, the designs that B&M could pull off have been extremely limited thanks to what land they can work with. There are several glaring problems with building a giga coaster: Theoretically, this could be built in the park, however, the ride would have to intertwine with virtually everything in the whole park, supports would have to be crazy in order to work, and the atmosphere of the whole park would be ruined (which looks like that they are finally trying to preserve it.) The only real way for a giga coaster to fit in the park would be if the supports were connected to the roofs of the buildings, but since these buildings aren't meant to support such crazy loads, that would mean that a very large portion of the buildings in the park would have to be heavily modified in order to withstand all that steel on top of them. And this would be hard and expensive enough in a place like the Northeast. But this is California, and it's only about an hour or so of a drive away from the San Andreas fault line, so the supports would have to be even beefier so it doesn't collapse during an earthquake (which if this thing collapsed during an earthquake, that would mean an absolute disaster for the park because not only would their largest and most expensive investment be destroyed, all those track pieces that would come crashing down would also destroy a crap ton in the park, because you're basically letting a semi trailer fall up to 300+ feet onto whatever is under it, and since so many of the supports would be attached to the buildings, then a lot of the buildings would be destroyed. Face it: unless Knott's is willing to take out a large portion of their older buildings or rides or somehow is able to buy out the parking lot on the other side of Western Avenue (on the other side of the road that Coast Rider will border) I simply cannot see a giga (or even anything remotely close to that size) coming into the park. And even if that plot of land would be purchased, it would be a very difficult fit and you would still run into a lot of the same problems, added onto requiring land for a SFKK style pedestrian bridge.

Hmmmmmmm... that's actually very interesting. My first thought would be the anti rollback and/or chain dog being pushed back down after experiencing airtime, but that's more of a clank sound, not a continuous roar like that.

^Hey, at least there's a clone of it operating in India.

I can't believe I totally forgot this. I rode in the second to last row, and I found the ride to be really great; loads of headchoppers, an aesthetically beautiful ride (seriously; all the curves makes it a modern art sculpture in my eyes) and actually quite intense. And in the seat that I rode, it wasn't too rough.

-Every Boomerang I've gone on (six so far.) Yeah, they're a LITTLE rough, but if you quit being a pansy you'll realize that they are actually very intense. -Shockwave, KD: A little punchy in the lead in to the helix, but otherwise it was actually really smooth, and had a lot of airtime and pretty good G's. Just make sure to ride a not-wheel-seat and you are good. -Wild Beast (CW), Minebuster, Predator, HP Wildcat, Gwazi: They are rough, but I'd call it very very bouncy, not painful like Coney Island Cyclone. And they also deliver exciting rides in my opinion (they are not my number one rides, but I still thoroughly enjoy them nonetheless and will make sure to ride them every visit.)

I haven't been on too many, but my two favorites are RotM in Orlando and KD's FoF. RotM had really good theming and a far better ride than I expected. FoF in itself was a really good ride, but was sadly kept from it's insane potential with the trims bringing it to a stop.

Just looked up the weather history for Bristol on October 13th, 2012 (yesterday.) It was only 45 degrees out. The lubricants are going to be mad viscous at that temperature, thus slowing down the train dramatically. Today is in the mid 60's though. Most coasters seem to run at peak performance once it gets past 65 or so.

^^I'm not positive about this, but if I remember correctly, the origin was during Maverick's construction, as it was rumored to be an Aquatrax, and the joke just stuck after that.

^I wouldn't be surprised that they would only run one train. This is not peak season for most northern parks. The UB marching band (I'm one of the contras) marches/plays there in the morning and gets to ride stuff all day next Saturday. What rides were closed? (I have never gone during Fright Fest before.)

I am perfectly fine with RoS. The only part that I dislike is the straight section after the first helix, but otherwise it has just as much air and G's as most of the other Intamin hypers, it just has fewer hills. And the helices are plenty forceful. As I have stated before, you have to factor in both the intensity and the duration of the G's. Since RoS is going so fast, they had to keep the diameter that large because they wanted a roughly 540 degree helix. This thing will most likely remain in service for an incredibly long time. If anything, I might see the trains replaced 10 or 20 years from now with new trains as it appears that Intamin's new trains have the same heartline. Obviously like any coaster it will come to a point when it will become cost prohibitive to continually refurbish it, but that point will not be for an incredibly long time thanks to the fact that 1: It's the star attraction at the park, so ridership will be very high for a long time, thus making investments in repair much more worth it and 2: It isn't THAT old and was built by modern construction and design techniques that are still in use today.

^^Wha...? Replace RoS? That one guy last year was a complete idiot. Yes, people still talk about it today, but it doesn't stop them from riding it. And virtually everyone but us enthusiasts still remember that first accident when it opened. Ridership is still massively huge, and will be for an incredibly long time; they will not take out the park's signature attraction when that one accident was purely from (egregious) ride operator and rider error. They fixed that issue by making the "DO NOT RIDE IF..." signs all around the park very very huge and apparently they go over the rules with the staff at the start of every shift. It is still safe and the ride functioned perfectly, but simply was not designed to restrain a man with one third of one leg. No way is it going anywhere. New paint scheme and new name? Most likely, but primarily because the paint is famously faded and the ride just flat out needs a new name.

NEW FOR KINGS ISLAND IN 2014! Great Grandson's Wife's Uncle's Estranged Cousin Twice Removed of Beast.

^I doubt that would work, because that would mean that the boat ride would go under Skycoaster, which would probably be a major problem in the event that the cable breaks, which could mean that the fatalities of such accident could potentially double if the three falling bodies land on a boat. Plus, I don't understand why one would want to do that as it wouldn't free up any real room anyway. EDIT: In reference to moving the boat dock. I too hope that they will put lights on both sides of the giant wheel, especially seeing as there is park property on the other side.

Now there's an idea for the old building. Put the Scrambler inside the Galaxy Theater, add lights, pulsating dance music and fog and you'd have a new attraction - the "Technodome". I say they put Scrambler in that building that had the sea lion show, give Scrambler a glow in the dark paint job, add black lighting and fog, and add animatronic aliens and call the ride "Alien Invasion". That would be a complete waste of space. why have something that can fit a wild mouse house only a scrambler? If Scrambler were to be brought back and have the enclosed building, laser show package done to it, it would be better to just make a new building for it.

Hifiman RE 262. I guess I'd be a new audiophile. They're $150, but they are worth every penny. Gorgeous sound, you can hear individual parts very easily, even in speed metal. Pretty durable, and they also come with three different extension cords (one switches Left and Right speakers, one has normal left and right, and one is a mono mode) five different ear insert sizes, wire clips, ten replacement earpiece filters, and it all comes in a very nice, if large, case.

^Which further affirms my theory that they will put lights on it out of necessity. Parks really need lighting packages like these, especially LED's with long programs. They are beautiful.

I don't. But, as logic would put it, if they are giving the whole new area--Giant Wheel included--a new theme, then it only makes sense to put new lights on it this year, especially if it's been naked since what, 2009?

^^^^New management. HFE decides to actually build up hype during the off season. ^*7: It's apparently Alabama Adventure's Space Shot. Sure, the enthusiast in me would prefer the Intamin due to its superior intensity, however, I will gladly take an S&S drop tower any day. Plus, the whole area between where this is going, the sky coaster, and the Giant Wheel is getting rethemed to a 1950's NY beachfront boardwalk according to the site, which will likely mean, from simple logic, that the Giant Wheel will FINALLY get the LED lighting package. I haven't been this excited in years.

Sweet! Sure, Intamins are more intense, but something that will FINALLY change the skyline!

^^^Actually, using B:TE for fright fest props would be pretty cool; intentionally rip up and bend some of the track and trains, grind down the sharp edges, and strew them around and you have a scene for a post apocalyptic amusement park themed haunt, or at least a portion of it. Then maybe some of the steel could be fashioned so that scare actors can hide inside or play dead in and around it, and scare them by either yelling at passerby or even jumping out on occasion.

Also, in reality, I just checked up how much scrap steel is worth, and it looks like that they probably wouldn't get much more than $100,000 if they're lucky (about $200 per ton, I'm assuming 400 tons for the whole coaster, so about $80k) it's enough to pay for a fair amount of fixing up that needs to be done, but barely enough for even a kiddie ride.