DanM64

Thanks for the link, I missed this interview earlier. I did catch all of the After Dark show though. Great job in both interviews Robb!

Great job on HLN tonight, Robb!!

^I agree with that! Skyrush was hands down the best steel coaster I've ever been on. I can say it's one of only 2 coasters in which the airtime nearly made me lose my shirt! I can't wait until the next time I visit Hershey. Am I the only person that loves Wildcat? I actually preferred it to Lightning Racer! I liked it better than Lightning Racer when I visited Hershey in 2003, and I liked it better in 2012, too.

I'm hoping the Bulls can manage to stay healthy this year so they can have a decent run. They still need a big man scoring option though.

^ Correct! < Is a Cubs fan v Finds baseball boring

What are you talking about!? It's already heen discussed for about 20 pages that NTAG has hydraulic locking restraints which don't click at all. I'm so tired of people just spreading information when they have no idea what they're talking about. Saying things like this are exactly why there is so much bad information being spread by the media. For (hopefully) the LAST time- STOP TALKING ABOUT CLICKS! THIS RIDE'S RESTRAINTS DON'T HAVE ANY "CLICKS!" /RANT.

That is insane! I'm just glad the bystanders were able to get the boat tipped back up, that could have been a horrible tragedy. I hope no one was injured too seriously.

El Toro gives roughly the same amount of airtime of all other wooden coasters in the US added together. Phoenix at Knoebels gets and honorable mention. Skyrush gives an insane amount of airtime as well, definitely more than any other steelie I've ridden. Others that have decent airtime moments are Ride of Steel at Darien Lake, Phantom's Revenge at Kennywood, Magnum at CP, and Nitro at SFGAdv.

1. Kingda Ka 2. TTD 3. Storm Runner Hydraulic launches rule!! I bet Hypersonic SLC's launch was even better. Too bad I missed it. I'll have to take a Japan trip some day and try out Dodonpa.

Almost every time I've gone (once a year for 10+ years) I've stayed at the Red Roof Inn in Danville. You can find a great rate on the rooms, and it's always clean and quiet.

I completely forgot how great Phantom's night rides were the last time I was there! Phantom's Revenge is highly underrated. It's a good coaster during the day, and one of my favorite steelies at night!

Glad you enjoyed yourself! I went to the park for my first time about 3 weeks ago, and I loved it!! The log flume was running when I went, so it must have developed problems since. Let me know if you ever need company, I'd visit IB any time!

The Beast and Maverick are great at night. Phoenix and Twister at Knoebels are fantastic at night as well!

I used to do 15-20 laps a day on Shockwave at SFGAm before its demise. I have no idea how many total rides I got on it, though it had to be somewhere between 400-500! Maybe that's why I am the way I am now? The red train was the smoothest, and the blue was usually smooth, too. I avoided the yellow train if possible.

Intamin- Tie- Wicked Twister at Cedar Point and American Eagle at SFGAm. I love the impulse coasters with the "straight" rear spike (I've been on V2 at SFGAm and Steel Venom at Geauga Lake), but I find WT's double twisty spikes boring. American Eagle can give decent rides if the track is in good shape, which also allows them to turn the trims just before the helix off. When I went last week Eagle was pretty rough with lots of trimming, so it sucked. B&M- Iron Wolf at SFGAm. I don't miss it one bit, and I hope it runs better at SFA than it did here. If it no longer counts since it moved, you can insert any other B&M standup I've been on. GCI- Gwazi.

I missed Batman Knight Flight at what was Six Flags Ohio at the time. I had just sat down in the train when it broke down just before closing (the floor wouldn't drop). I never made it back to the park l, which later closed as Geauga Lake. When I get to KD for the first time at least I'll be able to get the credit as Dominator!

X Flight at SFGAm. I found the left wing to be much more fun than the right!

El Toro- SFGAdv

Funny how completely different coasters can be for different people. I just went to the park today, and had exactly opposite experiences on you on the backwards ones. Batman has always been my personal favorite in the park, and while I, too, still probably prefer it forwards, I thought it was insanely awesome backwards. I did sit in the last row like you did and didn't get dizzy at all. It did give my head a nice whack on the first corkscrew, but I had a blast! I did Viper backwards in the last row as well. It was fun, but it made me feel a pretty queazy by the time it was over. That was the first time I've gotten that feeling on a coaster EVER. For whatever reason Viper seems to be very tempermental every time I ride it. Some days it iust seems to haul through the course, and when it does it's seriously one of the better woodies around. Other days- like today, unfortunately, it seems to not be quite so quick. Still above average, but not quite at the same level. I'm sure it would've been much better if I would've been able to ride it at night. Hopefully I'll get a night ride on it later this year while it's still backwards. Beautiful pictures- great job! Thanks for sharing them!

I am finally going to the park either today or Sunday, all depending on what time I get off work this morning. I haven't been to ghe park since 2011, despite living only 65 miles away, so I'm pretty excited to finally get my X-Flight credit- which happens to be my 150th overall credit!

Awesome! Looks like they did a nice job on the rehab- it looks really good!!

My favorite steel and wooden coasters can both be found in this picture: Steel: Kingda Ka, Six Flags Great Adventure Wood: El Toro, Six Flags Great Adventure A few right others at the top of my list include Top Thrill Dragster, Maverick, and Millenium Force at Cedar Point, Skyrush at Hersheypark, The Voyage at Holiday World, Phoenix at Knoebels, and Thunderbolt at Kennywood. Coasters highest on my wish list include Bizarro at SFNE, iSpeed at Mirabilandia, Expedition GeForce at Holiday Park, Kawasemi at Tobu Zoo, Nemesis at Alton Towers, Balder at Liseberg, Colossos at Heide Park, Boulder Dash at Lake Compounce, and T Express at Everland. It's no coincidence that most are Intamin. Yay, Intamin!!

I agree completely there!! All of the newer B&M hypers haven't been "twisters" like RB is, so by design probably are smoother. I actually don't find RB rough at all, just a little rattle-y. Nothing uncomfortable. I've always found the layout to be sort of dull (even if the trims didn't exist) but that's another story. The only reason I tend to believe the fact that the holding brake being disabled on our V2 was true is because the Vertical Velocity at SFDK also runs with its holding brake turned off. The question as to why Possessed and Steel Venom both still use theirs is one I have been wondering for a long time. I would think it would've made much more sense to just add the trims- after seeing that I don't knkw why they didn't. Thanks for the pic! I remember seeing cranes on the first loop a few times before the park would open, and some type of work being done. If you look closely at pics of Great American Scream Machine and Viper you can see the vertical loops had additional crossmembers which Shockwave's did not have. This leads me to believe that there was something going on with it. Why they didn't ever add trims or add the additional bracing does leave me guessing, though. You have a lot of interesting knowledge which I hope you continue to share. Thanks!

I can't speak for how it has been running in 2013 and 2012, but from 2000 until 2011 I went to the park about 5 times a year, riding Bull at least 2 or 3 times each visit. I'd say we have an equal number of rides (100+), and at least it appears that I consistantly have had harder trims in the later years most of the time. I agree 100% that no matter how hard the trims go on, every ride equals out to be the same average speed, it's just my opinion that the average speed is now slower than it used to be. I don't know about unrideable. I can name plenty of steel coasters that are rougher now than when they were newer. I'm not trying to attack SF either- plenty of other park's coasters have had trim adjustments to them as well, both wood and steel. Maybe the height and speed difference between them have a different effect? True, but they adjusted Eagle's as needed, so what's to say they didn't do the same for Bull, if they saw a need to do it? Maintenence personnel. I worked in the park for a season when I was laid off from my regular job. I never worked Bull, so I have no more knowledge of it than anyone else does. I did work Batman, and asked a maintenence worker one day when they came to work on Batman what V2's holding brake's story was, and I was told it was disabled because it was putting a lot of stress on the rear spike. They previously added additional supports to both spikes after V2's first couple seasons due to the stress placed on them. Note- V2 is VERY safe. Don't read into this as me saying the structure was in any way weakened. From what I know, turning the holding brake off was just to prevent a need for constant track work later in its life, work that Shockwave's first loop constantly needed towards the end- which, ironically, was needed to prevent damage because trims were never installed. Yes, they would ABSOLUTELY install trims if it was determined they were needed. For whatever reason, Batman and Superman haven't developed the rattle Bull has. IMO, they learned a lot from Shockwave. From what I have heard, that ride got constant structural attention in the later years of its life, which was all a direct result of it not having trims going into the first loop. The amount of money they were putting into it had just as much to do with its demise as anything else did. I don't see you coming across as arrogant or anything, and I hope you don't think I have, either. I'm simply stating my opinion, as well as a few things I have been told and believe to be fact. You have a lot of valid points, and discussions like this are what forums exist for in the first place.