coloradocoasterguy

Granted I haven't been in years but I like Goliath, my only gripe is the MCBR and it's to short. Goliath is one of the parks most popular rides by the general public, still to this day, but it really does not require a ride from me when I visit. Reason being it could have been such a monumentally better coaster and unfortunately Six Flags jumped on the "longest and fastest (coaster on) a closed-circuit roller coaster in the world" record in 2000 instead of worrying about ride quality and now we're all paying for it. Mind you this is a record they held for 4 months and two days (Taken by Millenium Force). From what I have heard they can't stop it from being "too" fast, which is why they deal with the Ghostrider come to an almost complete stop MCBR. Imagine if they would have skipped on it, waited, and went with something like a Millenium Force style ride which would have undoubtedly worked in the same area (which would have also allowed a tunnel and a rise over Colossus). I really think Intamin could have built a much better ride. But the public eats Goliath up, so the park as far as they are concerned is no worse for the wear. Goliath is the only true hyper in California. Yes, Xcelerator is 205 feet tall but it's not a "hyper coaster" because Intamin classifies it's 200 foot non-launched, closed circuit coasters as Mega Coasters because "hyper" really is a type of coaster, not just a height. So being that Goliath is the only "hyper" that 99% of Southern Californians have ever experienced to them it's an amazing ride. But for anyone who has ridden any B&M or Intamin hyper it's kinda bland.

What do you all mean by "staple"? To push the restraints in so much that the rider cannot move at all. This depends on a number of factors, and the biggest variable is of course the rider. Maybe a rider is of a size that the first locking point still leaves a lot of room. Some ride ops will push until it hits that second locking point just to be sure, and perhaps for this rider that's pushing up against them. That rider would be said to be stapled. They'll be safe, but may not enjoy the ride very much. I have been stapled before, and it's not the most pleasant thing ever for sure. But I personally would rather err on the side of safety, and generally all parks will. Stapling is the reason hydraulic restraints are so awesome. No click system, just goes down to where it should be. Ratcheting restraints are weird because some of them lock in different positions depending on the seat, which I've always found odd but understandable. Exactly.

Intamin's steel coaster track and vehicles are made by Stakotra, a Slovakian company. My understanding (which may be missing some elements) is that they acquired a portion of Intamin quite some time ago and thus have operated as Intamin's sole supplier for those fields. Zierer, Gerstlauer, Huss (prior to the bankruptcy) and Maurer Sohne also have rides fabricated by Stakotra, though not necessarily exclusively as I understand it. Intermountain Lift in Utah does the fabrication for Premier and a few of the other US firms. Think of it like this from now on: If you go to a big condo development, do you think the developer designs the building? Nah, he pays architects for that. Does he construct the building? Nah, he pays a construction company for that. The developer doesn't source the materials himself, they don't build the appliances inside the condos, they probably don't pay to have custom handles and switches and stuff and instead someone goes through catalogs and on searches to find materials. Theme park rides are no different at any - and I mean ANY - park. Even the almighty Disney had to outsource the actual design and fabrication of all their rides, mostly to Arrow (though most "disney historians" give Arrow zero credit), and they still do even now. Disney's new coasters are all Vekoma. We're all aware of this. He's referring to Disney's early years. Ed Morgan and Karl Bacon from Arrow had their hands in tons of Disney's most iconic attractions. They were interviewed at one point by Robert Reynolds and it was published in a book called Roller Coasters, Flumes and Flying Saucers. You know I'm not one to dork out too much but I highly recommend giving it a read. At the end he said "and they even still do now" and I thought he was saying Arrow still built Disney rides not the outsourcing. Opps my bad.

Intamin's steel coaster track and vehicles are made by Stakotra, a Slovakian company. My understanding (which may be missing some elements) is that they acquired a portion of Intamin quite some time ago and thus have operated as Intamin's sole supplier for those fields. Zierer, Gerstlauer, Huss (prior to the bankruptcy) and Maurer Sohne also have rides fabricated by Stakotra, though not necessarily exclusively as I understand it. Intermountain Lift in Utah does the fabrication for Premier and a few of the other US firms. Think of it like this from now on: If you go to a big condo development, do you think the developer designs the building? Nah, he pays architects for that. Does he construct the building? Nah, he pays a construction company for that. The developer doesn't source the materials himself, they don't build the appliances inside the condos, they probably don't pay to have custom handles and switches and stuff and instead someone goes through catalogs and on searches to find materials. Theme park rides are no different at any - and I mean ANY - park. Even the almighty Disney had to outsource the actual design and fabrication of all their rides, mostly to Arrow (though most "disney historians" give Arrow zero credit), and they still do even now. Disney's new coasters are all Vekoma. But I get that most companies don't actually build their own rides. I mean RMC built all of Silverwood's coasters without designing any of them (Aftershock and Corkscrew just had to be reassembled). That's probably why Tremors and Timber Terror are still so good despite being designed by crappy ass CCI. It's also where RMC cut their teeth on wooden coasters. B&M is just different then because they actually invented that track whereas Intamin just uses the track developed by Stakora which the other companies also use.

Wow. Things must have really changed after I left (summer 1999). We would never ever use our feet. You can't pull back and make sure it's good.

Nor quoting anybody in particular here but is this why most of the Intamin, Mack, Gerstlauer, and Zierer coasters built in the last decade or so all have such similar looking track styles? Someone else is building the track for these companies?

Granted I haven't been in years but I like Goliath, my only gripe is the MCBR and it's to short.

My experience working at Knott's away back when is that they require at least two clicks. If we didn't get that second click you couldn't ride. We would force it so you could ride.

/\ Intamin claims B&M got their start there.

What do you all mean by "staple"?

You must have real skinny legs. I always had to sit at an angle with my knees pointed inward. That makes a rough coaster even worse,

Giovanola was a the main track fabricator and subcontractor for those guys for a long time before going under. At the last stages of this companies life they built 3 rides, anaconda , Titan and Goliath. Case closed. Okay, so that explains why Giovanola track looks like B&M. They were already making the track so that's what they used. But that doesn't explain why the track design didn't stay with Intamin.

The track design of older Intamin coasters like Flashback (Z-Force) and Shockwave and as well as that of the three coasters Giovanola built all look like modern B&M track. I know the "B" and "M" behind B&M used to work for Intamin but how were they able to take that track design with them? And how the heck did Giovanola get a hold of it?

Between the legs support posts on lap restraints are more comfortable than side mounted ones.

If you are ever in western Colorado check out Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Glenwood Springs, Colorado 40 mins north of Aspen right on I-70. Bear in mind the park is on top of Iron Mountain so you must pay to ride a gondola to the top then each attraction including the alpine coaster is extra, but it's totally fun. This video shows actual speed. It's actually more fun than it looks, and is open in winter! [youtu_be]https://youtu.be/4oiHiO-2yU8[/youtu_be] Oh and they also have a couple roller coasters. This one holds the official records for being the highest roller coasters in the world as it's on top of a 7,160 foot mountain. [youtu_be] [/youtu_be] I tried really hard to find a non-Coaster Farce video but this was the best one since there are no TPR videos. Sorry. [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

I did not know that. Probably doesn't hurt that admission is free

I think he means if it opened now in 2016 with those attractions would it survive, not would it still be around.

How would I know? Is there a list somewhere?

Tempasta: The Ride [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

I'm liking that new Vekoma track.

Xcelerator is surprisingly smooth, but the smoothest are Riddler's Revenge and Silver Bullet.

All those things you list that you liked so much are precisely why it became so deteriorated. They were rough on the structure. As an employee I actually got to be one of the very first riders before it originally opened to the public back in 1998. It was never a very smooth ride, though smooth as a B&M compared to when I rode it last March (2015). Owww. I'm curious to experience the refurb. Unfortunately it probably won't be until next Spring.

But guy was told DOWNTOWN Buena Park, not Buena Park DOWNTOWN. I just didn't want the confused and go looking for the wrong one.

Stop parroting, "we have found no fault with our trains", and answer the damn question. What could have happened if that part failed? "We have found no fault with our trains". Well you are doing a recall so what are supposed to take from that? "We have found no fault with our trains". Uhg I hate corporate double speak.

You shouldn't need a Fast Lane if you're going for two days. Hotels become nicer and more expensive the closer you are to Disneyland, so keep that in mind, there is the Knott's hotel adjacent to the park though. In my opinion, GhostRider is the only must-do-at-night ride, but Xcelerator can be fun at night too. Mrs. Knott's is good food, but there are some other options down the road at Downtown Buena Park, but no must-eat-at restaurants. Just to clarify, Buena Park does not have an actual downtown. The closest area that would qualify is about three miles north of the park at Beach Blvd and the I-5 freeway where you find all the civic buildings. There are not many restaurants in that area. There is, however, a shopping mall called Buena Park Downtown a couple blocks east of the park on La Palma Ave but it is not downtown Buena Park. There are number of restaurants at the mall, but honestly you'll find plenty of restaurants within a two mile radius from the park. My favorite is a place at the corner of Orangethorpe and Knott Ave called Black Bear Diner (and so you are't confused, Knott Ave is not actually near to Knott's Berry Farm, even though it is named for the park's founder Walter Knott, but instead is actually a couple miles to the west. BBD is then north of there. It's totally worth the search. Mmm good.