mark549

Best B&M airtime: Griffon's first drop. (I haven't been on the other dive coasters but assume they're equivalent.)

Have you been on NTAG? After my first ride on it, my first words were "that was so smooth". The iron horse treatment will make it very smooth compared to the old ride. So I don't blame them for advertising that it will be smooth. No, the only Rocky Mountain ride I've ridden is Tremors, at Silverwood. RMC has topper track on the curvy parts (the big spiral plus the turn around at the far side). It's like a small version of Voyage with the tunnels. It's smooth and intense. I think RMC originally built Tremors (they are practically next door to Silverwood) but they didn't do the design work. The only way I could tell the transition between regular and topper track was to watch from the front seat, carefully.

in no particular order Kong - SFDK Roar East - SF America Carolina Cyclone - Carowinds Nighthawk - Carowinds Ghostrider (2012 ride) - Knotts Vortex - California Great America (least favorite B&M) Grizzly - Kings Dominion (2010 ride was not good, worse than Hurler) Ninja - SF Over Georgia Wildcat - Hershey not rough - but screwed up my back Pony Express - Knotts (that is not a comfortable riding position)

I like how the headline says "ultra smooth." The Rattler must have been well named (and not inspired by snakes). I cannot remember seeing an ad for a coaster that prominently highlighted it is "smooth" -- the old version must really have been bad. (I haven't been to SFFT.)

King Kobra at Kings Dominion.

I wasn't sure whether I liked X2 or not when I rode it. I wished it had some way to hold your legs like the B&M flyers (Tatsu), I felt like a rag doll flopping around. On subsequent rides I tried to stiffen my legs and I enjoyed X2 more than the first ride.

The first drop looks a little like the shape of Skyrush's drop (although with an added twist).

I rode Voyage in May 2011, early in the season on a cool, partly rainy day and it was relatively smooth given its intensity. Very reride-able. I could see how topper track would help, though. It wouldn't surprise me if a barrel roll or three is added to it some day. It rode about as smooth as Ravine Flyer (which I rode a few days after Voyage). Not B&M smooth but acceptable. They're my #1 and #2 wood coasters. I haven't been on El Toro. I rode Mean Streak in between those two, it wasn't rough but it wasn't interesting either. That would be a prime candidate for a Rocky Mountain iron track. It could be called "i Streak." I can see how riding Voyage late in the season on a hot, dry day could be a shaky experience. Your mileage (or kilometerage) may vary.

Another sad YOLO story: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/09/19/aspiring-rapper-drunk-tweets-yolo-just-before-fatal-car-crash/

Amen (or Ramen, for FSM followers). It's been said that if a million monkeys type on a million typewriters eventually they would produce the works of Shakespeare. Thanks to the internet we now know this is not true. (I try not to read youtube comments.)

I thought Wild Eagle's incredible views were a core part of that ride. SFMM spent some money to buy some relatively large trees from landscapers for Scream, it would be nice for a modest effort to be made for more vegetation in the former parking lot around the ride. I'm not a fan of comic book theming but some greenery instead of asphalt would be greatly appreciated and wouldn't cost much to buy or maintain. Every meal I've eaten at SFMM has been in the parking lot (my picnic lunch). I trust their ride mechanics but I don't trust their food service department. Just my opinion.

Wing coasters are great for re-rides, both because they're smooth and not ultra intense but also to test all of the seats to see how they are all different. I've only ridden Wild Eagle which was great (but not a top ten coaster) and it was designed to encourage riders to try all of the different points of the train. Coasters that encourage re-rides are ideal for Return on Investment. Gatekeeper looks like it will be a little more intense than Eagle. When I rode Dollywood's "Barnstormer" Screaming Swing it reached the peak and then slowed down immediately. Cedar Point had theirs run a couple swings at peak height. I think the width of the trains probably limits how intense the forces can get. It also limits the amount of "heartlining" the ride can do. I hope Gatekeeper's air time hill is more than a mild float ... Raptor is my favorite B&M inverted, it almost has airtime on the first drop and has a nice mix of elements. (Alpengeist, Afterburn, Flight Deck, 3 Batmen, Great Bear, Talon, Silver Bullet are the others I've been on).

After riding Superman at SFDK I think FT will be a good coaster. Not what any of the folks in this discussion would have designed but probably the best given a constrained budget. Superman has the most airtime on any coaster I know of in California, it's ejector quality. After riding that I suspect the outside of the FT loop will have sustained airtime, although probably not as abrupt as at SFDK. As for the "quality" of the park, I only have gone there for the coasters, not the cheesy theming or the other aspects that make it not ideal. Several of the coasters are ones I like a lot when they're running well, but they're all second tier rides. I like how Goliath's queue is shaded from plantings, I'm sure it's appreciated on summer days.

I've been on about 60 wooden coasters and 214 total. After my favorite and a few runner ups there's no way I could rank them. I like I-305, Skyrush and Maverick more than any wood coasters. Voyage is my favorite woodie. I haven't been on El Toro. Ravine Flyer, Tremors, Terminator/Apocalypse, Thunderhead, Raven, Phoenix and Twister, Texas Cyclone, Riverside Cyclone (when it was new) and Hercules (also when it was new). I couldn't precisely rank and rate them. They might fit in that order. Or not. Lightning Racer, Viper and American Eagle, Legend, Beast were fun but not top ten. Some that I wanted to like but didn't: Ghost Rider, Colossus SFMM, Roar West and East, Wild One (better when it was in Massachusetts), Grizzly Virginia, Georgia Cyclone (w/o topper track), Hershey Wildcat.

Complete speculation: Screaming Swing or giant frisbee.

Or a gigantic queue since Gatekeeper will likely have long lines, given it's the new hotness and at the park entrance. I think it will be the most popular ride in the park for a long time and I look forward to watching Lake Erie rotate upside down.

I think these folks will be first in line for the new Yolo Coaster.

I like the idea of a Rocky Mountain redesign of Colossus but while riding Goliath I fantasize that Intamin would be asked to change the layout after the mid course brake to include some Skyrush type hills. My favorite coasters with inversions are Maverick, Storm Runner and Griffon. They all do other things than only go upside down and aren't trying to set records for "most inversions."

I recall last year a discussion, perhaps here, that the reason Six Flags was staging the opening of their 2012 rides was perhaps they have an engineering crew that finalizes the projects and they had to be rotated from park to park. I can't recall the exact sequence of their 2012 openings, but Drop of Doom was last in the queue. Since they have the longest operating season (all year) a July opening was less of a problem for Magic Mountain than Goliath (aka Deja Vu) would be for SF New England. With only two big coasters in 2013 perhaps Six Flags Engineering Department will have a smaller work load, especially as Iron Rattler is well into its construction. I like Magic Mountain for the diversity of coaster experiences. None of them are my favorites but it is a nice coaster museum and I appreciate it for that. I've never been in the summer, it's strictly a winter and early spring experience for me. I'm guessing the finale of the new coaster whose name cannot be uttered here will be a big airtime experience on the outside of the loop, ensuring no one could ever again say there's no airtime at SFMM.

This has a lot of potential. They could have the "Great Flood" wave pool as part of the attractions. I hope they will have dinosaur rides. That would be much more interesting than Cedar Fair's Dinosaurs Alive exhibit. The late, great comedian Bill Hicks had a skit about this. If they want to present all sides, I hope their cafeteria includes ramen noodles so followers of Flying Spaghetti Monsterism can feel welcome.

It would be interesting to know how much time (and money) is spent to prepare for the construction versus installation. How much does track manufacture cost versus putting it in place? How long does it take for the engineers to design the ride and for the factory to make the track? As for a big Lego, what if Legoland is making a coaster (out of Lego?). I love the facebook comments about the new ride. It has me wondering how someone can be smart enough to use a computer and then post those things. A small technical question about the lift hill: I don't understand why they didn't add the railings for the lift stairs while the piece was on the ground. Would the railings be in the way of assembly? Surely adding the railing when it's 50 meters in the air will be more complicated.

I watched the Volume 7 steel and wood videos on a 27" iMac screen and the resolution was excellent. Perhaps for the "bad" coasters (White Canyon, Bandit) there could be a disclaimer: "we rode them so you don't have to!" I also appreciated the finale of the wood coaster video. Fun tip: set your viewer to double speed (fast forward) to watch the videos. Formula Rossa looks especially fast with ejector airtime surpassing Skyrush. (joke)

Skyrush definitely gets the award for strongest negative g-force. My favorite first drop is still Griffon, it has a better "weightless" feel than any other I've been on.

SOB was SBNO when I visited. But Flight Deck was excellent, the best Arrow swinging coaster I've been on. Its pacing was better than Ninja at SFMM, although I like that one, too. (Ninja, of course, suffers from the longer lift being the finale of the ride, but otherwise is a great little ride.) I'd be sad if and when Flight Deck comes to the end of its life. Vortex, on the other hand, reminded me why computer aided design is better than coat hangers. It wasn't a "one and done," it was a "two and done." Front seat and back seat, then back to Diamondback for most of the rest of the day. SOB had one useful purpose when it was SBNO - it provided a "near miss" section of the Flight Deck ride. The only thing I didn't like about Flight Deck was their maintenance crew was doing full scale industrial lawnmowing underneath the lift at one point. Grass Pollen: The Ride. Surely they could have a more natural landscaping that didn't require super-sized lawn mowing that blew grass and soot into the rider's faces? Sneezing at 50 mph (80 kph) was a new experience.

I hope Skyrush won't be added to this list. I'm glad I rode it this year. First ride was in the very last seat, more intense than I was expecting (and I was expecting it to be intense).