Ed Farmer

/\ So is Conneaut Lake Park.

Any Second Gen Intamin Drop Tower. For some reason Intamin gyro-drops seems to be lacking something those second-gens have. S&S Towers aren't even in the discussion.

lol@hoodie benching Welker for the first series for his golden press conference. I would have extended his contract. That presser was as pure as it gets.

Glad I overestimated Seattle. This city is going to be insane all week.

I actually approached the park about this too. The response was: They are confident that if you pony up the cash, they will deliver a top notch event! If Jay Thomas was still there and in charge, I'd believe that statement. With this new regime in place, I'm skeptical. Why? How much time has the new band been together to make you feel strongly one way or the other? Jay left this past fall I think. You could always see him anywhere in the park on any day smiling, laughing and speaking with his customers. The park has changed significantly since then and not for the better. I've been at the past several WCB's and the ERT included all rides! That's a tremendous commitment to us if nothing else in staffing costs. I've been to the park this year 3 times and tomorrow will make 4. Things are not equal to or better than last season. I've never been to the park, hell, I've never been west of Iowa. I've been reading Coasterbuzz and TPR for 10 years now and it's pretty remarkable how the general opinion of SFMM and Six Flags as a whole has changed for the better since then. It's entirely possible, but I just have trouble believing that a company would actively engage in (keeping in mind their past, and especially in these times and in a sector as fickle as the amusement industry) the dismanteling of all the positives a previous (successful) regime has made. Now isn't the time to redecorate- something they should recognize. That said, It's just the offseason and it's just a private event. It's still too early to draw conclusions on this new management.

I actually approached the park about this too. The response was: They are confident that if you pony up the cash, they will deliver a top notch event! If Jay Thomas was still there and in charge, I'd believe that statement. With this new regime in place, I'm skeptical. Why? How much time has the new band been together to make you feel strongly one way or the other?

Good game in Pittsburgh. Could have gone either way. The last offensive series by Baltimore was just all around bad. With plenty of time and excellent field position that was just horrible play calling. The curse of the bye week strikes again in Atlanta. Hope it doesn't happen to the Bears...

1. Blueberries* 2. Grapefruit 3. Grapes 4. Orange 5. Apple 6. Pineapple 7. Watermelon 8. Kiwi 9. Bananna 10. Red/Blackberries Strawberries and Cherries are good too but are more hit or miss. *Handpicked. I guess this goes for any fruit that handpicked is better than store-bought, but the packaged blueberries at stores are exceptionally worse than blueberries you could pick for yourself at a farm. Growing up, my family would go to southwest Michigan 4 or 5 times a summer to pick buckets of fresh blueberries right from the bush. Nothing like it. I will not eat store bought blueberries, ever.

IIRC the pre-drop's functioning purpose was for the train to disengage the chain lift. They've since found ways around it, and I think their rides are less exciting as a result. The lack of the little "kicker" at the top of the lift is a bummer. They really added to a first drop. In some cases I think it was a rides saving grace. Take away the first drop on Raging Bull (one of the best anywhere I'd say), and you're left with mediocrity. I'd imagine a kicker taken by a second-gen hyper train would manage to somehow turn out even better than that. The lack of this element on their newer coasters definitely tempers my excitement for their future installations.

It's great to see the range of opinions on Gwazi in this thread alone. Some people are ecstatic, while I'm crossing my fingers hoping it doesn't tame the strong ride it was capable of delivering.

No. Whats more, I can easily see them coming here to Chicago and winning. I was telling anyone who would listen that Seattle would win that one. A combination of New Orleans' injuries, underperformances by reigning Super Bowl winners the following year (not named the Patriots), the overall parity in the league this year, going out west to play at Qwest Field, and really, The Saints just probably taking the 7-9 Seahawks lightly was as sure a bet as I could imagine for Seattle. Seattle has been playing playoff football since before the regular season ended. I don't gamble, but that game made me wish I did. Lots of unrealized profit left on the table. I didn't post any picks for last week but here is what I had: Seahawks Packers Colts Ravens I felt good about all of them. I thought Peyton would manage to overcome his team's injuries. Here is who I tentatively have this week: Patriots over Jets Ravens over Steelers Seahawks over Bears* Packers over Falcons I'm comfortable with Packer and Patriots taking care of things (GB/NE is my Super Bowl pick going into the postseason). *I still have to ruminate a bit over CHI/SEA. Chicago *should* win, but the bye week and their general history have me uncertain. Bears also finished with a better record away from home and had one of the healthiest teams I can remember in recent history. Tremendously fortunate for them in that regard. Seattle probably thinks it could beat anyone at the moment. Like I said earlier, they've been in win or go home mode since the end of the regular season. This is particularly why I don't like the Bears sitting idle this past weekend. PIT/BAL could simply go either way. Ben Roethlisberger is an awful human being so I'd like to see Ravens pull it off (and I think BAL would give a better game against NE), but I don't know that they will yet. *Edit* re: Ratings for Seattle in NFC Championship or Super Bowl. The New Jersey Nets could be one of the teams in the Super Bowl and everyone would still watch it. The NFL will never have to worry about ratings for playoff football. Besides, if the Seahawks do make it deep (for the opportunity to be extinguished by the Pats) they will have already become a great story by the NFC Championship game. They would have come from the worst division to "stun" the reigning Champs and knock off the second seed. The only way they can finish the season above .500 is to win out- this all during Pete Carroll's first year back from the college game. That would be something to see.

Eh. I liked it just the way it was. It wasn't the smoothest ride by any stretch but that didn't bother me at all. Of the 8 GCI's I've been on it was behind only Prowler for me. Hope this doesn't change the ride experience too much. I wish they did something about the crew operating the ride instead.

/\ Yeah, I mentioned it was lack of air pressure in the hose. For the system the 3 ROS coasters use, the hose is an integral part in ensuring they function. Magnetic brakes aren't going to fail if they're in the position they ought to be. In this case they weren't. Dave writes in the link I provided earlier that MF has fixed brakes to trim the train down, and only the block brake has the moving calipers (with a reinforced air hose to boot). That makes it sound like they improved the design, but both coasters were built the same year...

Back in 2001 two trains on SFNE's Bizarro (S:ROS at the time) collided in the station. http://capital2.capital.edu/admin-staff/dalthoff/sros.html That page is a bit dated, but has some good info as to what happened. A punctured air hose left the calipers "open" due to lack of pressure.

As much as I was underwhelmed by Led Zep, it just makes too much sense. A bargain-priced, impressive looking, people eating sit-down looper would be a smart play for someone looking to re-spark interest in a park that has been closed for a few years. There certainley isn't anything similar in the area. Only downside is I bet some people will probably think its just Chang with a new name- which is a better problem to have than the gaping hole you would have had otherwise.

I get it... You don't like the new video.

FWIW rcdb has this as rumored only.

I think it opened as a much more pleasurable riding experience after the lapbar retrofit. The removal of the zero-g rolls was IMO horrible. Was Chiller scrapped or is it sitting around somewhere (hopefully not just rusting away)?

So does anyone know if BGW still has the "If it rains, you get the next day free" policy? Anyone taken advantage of it? Just how rainy does it have to be? I was the beneficiary of this at Busch Tampa during the winter of '99. Nice and sunny upon entering the park in the morning, hopped on Gwazi, and it's pouring by the time we got off the ride. All the rides were closed for the rest of the day but we took in the exhibits and what not. Upon exiting for the day we asked about a rain check and to our surprise it was no problem. Really nice of the park to do, especially being in Florida and all where rain just kinda happens. A lot. Coming from a family of 5 children, that visit wasn't cheap. It endeared Busch to my family, especially the guy with the wallet. Luckily now I have a summer (winter?) townhouse in Seminole and if it rains- no biggie, my passport lets me come back whenever.

*Awesome* to see a new B&M standup, even if it isn't one I'll ever try out. With so many interesting projects going in overseas, this one just became the one I'm most interested in. I love B&M standups.

I've ridden Batman (SFGam, SFGAdv, SFOG, SFStl), Raptor, Montu, Dueling Dragons, Alpengeist, Talon, and Patriot. All are fun, no doubt. The only one that I thought was clearly better than the rest was Batman (pick any one, they were all outstanding). The only other two on my list that I've ridden frequently are Montu and Raptor. I've had blissful rides on Montu and I've had "what happened?" rides as well, while Raptor seemed fairly consistent each time. Having only visited IOA, BGW, Dorney, and WOF once, I don't think I've ridden those inverts enough to get a good feel for them. Batman Montu Raptor DDIce Alpengeist DDFire Talon Patriot I'm pretty sure if I ever got out to CGA, their Top Gun would rank just below Batman.

Well done. Really want to get out to Kennywood. Phantom's Revenge has been at the top of my to-do list since it was built.

/\ The trims installed were magnetic (permanent). *Most* magnetic brakes aren't adjustable like friction brakes.

The pull-through is very necessary on this coaster. It has a lot more to do with a completely new ride system than it does with arms reaching out.

Never really had a problem with Vekoma. The GIBs (and while less thrilling, Invertigos) are excellent. I also really dig SFoG's Ninja. I think the thing with Vekoma is that their mediocre boomerang and SLC models are everywhere. You can get away with that if you're cloning the epitome of inverted coasters (Batman: The Ride), but even then you get "been there, done that" reactions from well-traveled riders. Do it to a mediocre coaster (afore-mentioned SLC/Boomerang) and you'll see those same riders either altogether pass the coaster up, or ride it just for a credit (never understood that) and then complain about it. In the end, it will all boil down to personal preference. There are coasters I enjoy that others would ride once and never look back (Iron Wolf, SFGAm) and there are those that I don't understand all the fuss about (Kraken, SWO or B&M's Superman flyers) that are viewed as outstanding.