texcoaster

The major issues of shuffling, slamming, and jarring appear (from watching the water bottle test dummies) to have been fixed. Most of the work was done in the area between the first drop and the second big drop. That section seems quite a bit faster now, especially the crest of the second drop (where it used to slow down a lot). It should (assuming that it passed inspection) be open tomorrow. It will be easier to tell the improvements then. When we left this evening, the inspector was on his way back to the hotel to crunch the data, and the crew were cycling both trains, something they haven't done in a long time. The train with the dummies was running faster than before, the empty train was pretty sluggish. Looking forward to riding tomorrow.

bullet is testing NOW. Pulling times in the mid-60's. Not bad for first runs but not yet in the lower 60's either. It's quieter than before and trains not showing shuffle, not even the upper bay turn. G force testing being done. If it passes, it could be open tomorrow.

Easy. http://www.rcdb.com/id1965.htm

Kemah Boardwalk is my home park. Obviously, the best coaster there is Boardwalk Bullet. It's the ONLY coaster there.

I don't mind identical names for identical (or almost identical) coasters... What chuffs me, though, is having a Viper wooden cyclone, a Viper Arrow 7-looper, a Viper Schwarzkopf shuttle, a Viper TOGO heartline crapcoaster, a Viper Schwarzkopf looping star.... have I forgotten one? Not just the same name, but the same freakin logo! That's pushing it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too far, IMHO. As for folks expecting a certain ride, that can happen.... but folks will show up at Fiesta Texas and ask "where's the Batman?" and be told "oh, it's over there under the sign that says Goliath". At least with Big Thunder Mountain, you know basically what to expect when you get in line. Same with Splash Mountain. Space Mountain, while totally different from park to park is still going to be an indoor rocket-themed coaster. No problems there. But go to a SF park you're unfamiliar with and someone says "wanna go ride Viper?" and you haven't got a freaking clue what you're going to end up on. Oh, and while I'm still on my soapbox: if you're going to clone a name, at least make it a good one. "Scream!"?????? WTF?

That's really sad and everything, but what a bunch of freakin idiots. It's bozos like them that have led to excess restraints on coasters and the reduction of forces in layouts. Everyone's designing things down to the lowest common denominator of moron.

Old Bullet: First third: oh.my.God. WTF was that? Second third: This is fun, but I'm still recovering from the first third. WTF was that pop???? Final third: yawn. New Bullet (assuming it runs as fast as opening day's "rain rides") First third: oh.my.God. WTF was that? Second third: Everything is still a blur. Well, a blur with airtime. Final third: Wow. Airtime going into the brake run. How cool is that? Those rain rides were coming in at around 62-64 seconds from lift to brake. All indications from the folks working on it is that they're shooting for 60 seconds or less. If they can pull that off, this will be one of the most intense wood coasters on earth.... and one of the shortest.

Does anyone know if the amusements will be open on New Year's Day? How cool would it be to ride a coaster as my last activity of 2007 AND my first activity of 2008?

^^ I don't remember the exact year, but I remember the hand warmers! I also remember Lucy White, already in her 80s, wearing about six layers of heavy outerwear (she's from Florida and not used to such cold weather!) and a ski mask, whooping and hollering like a madwoman. She had more fun that day than just about anybody. She had planted herself in the front seat and hardly ever had to give it up, since everyone wanted to ride it with her! I am really hoping that Bullet 2.0 manages to give rides like the Giant used to. I've often said that the ride is kinda like the "flying carpet finale" on Giant, just stretched into a whole ride. I talked to Guru this afternoon and he said they are already putting the rails down. It looks like this thing could be up and running by New Year's Eve after all!

You can't believe everything you read.

It would be, yes. It wasn't still sleeting during ERT, but the tracks were all frozen and the whole thing was covered in ice. Naturally, the ice broke off the rails when the trains went around, but it was still faster than I've ever seen it go before.

OMG, I remember one year Lone Star Coasterthon happened in the middle of a sleet storm. It was so bad that after that morning's ERT, the park didn't even open. We had two hours of ERT on Giant (back when it was still a good ride) with sleet-covered track. It still ranks as some of the most intense, insane coastering I've ever done. We were all frozen, even with the free hot chocolate offered by SFOT, but we couldn't stop riding. Fantastic.

I'll save you some money here. Don't bother with Boardwalk Bullet. If you don't like fast, furious, unpredictable direction changes and hidden layouts, you wouldn't like BB at all.

Yeah, I think that was the reason... With AW closed, BB is the only coaster in the Houston area, so it gets an unfair advantage. People are always going to be a little more biased to their home park though. Not me. I'm actually much harsher on my ratings for close-to-me rides because I get to ride them more often. I'm more likely to rank something higher if I only get a couple of rides on it, and the rides are good. If I have a chance to re-ride something numerous times, the excitement of a new experience wears off and I'm more likely to see the ride's weaknesses. It's also likely to drop WAY down on my list as I become more familiar with it (and bored by it). Local bias? Hardly. It usually works the opposite way for me. I haven't had a #1 coaster within 4 hours of my house since 1990. The fact that Bullet manages to rank so highly on my list is a tribute to how much I really love that ride... I've certainly been on it often enough to see it's faults (and there are many), but I can tell you that I don't know that I've ever had so much FUN on a wood coaster before. The contrast of that first uber-intense 15 seconds with the rest of the ride is nice. The reactions of first-time riders who aren't expecting such an aggressive ride make it even better. I have a great time every time I ride it. 'nuff said. Voyage ranks above it (even after nearly 50 rides) because I usually prefer "extreme thrill" to "extreme fun". If Bullet manages to kick up the thrill factor after the tweaking, then even better.

About the only way I can see a true suspended coaster inversion is to use the little trough that sits under the lift hill to keep the cars from swinging as they get pulled up the lift. So you'd bang and bash into the little trough as you enter the lift. Up you go, swinging not allowed. The trough would continue up and over the lift, and the cars would STILL be in the trough on the way down the drop and all the way through the loop (or whatever inversion). After the inversion, you could end the trough and let the cars swing. I think the idea is still corta crappy, though. Leave the inversions to the inverted.

That's one of the main reasons why the Bat had to be removed. That kind of wild swinging, while exciting, was murder on the trains and structure. I think that if the curves had been banked properly for the speeds it was hitting, The Bat might still be flying today (and we wouldn't have had to endure Vortex). Incidentally, the problems with the Bat were the reason that SFAW's XLR-8 was so tame. Not only did they bank the turns, but they went with a really conservative layout. Yawn. Luckily, a little later that same year, BGW opened Big Bad Wolf and proved that a more aggressive suspended layout actually could work well.

Even though the ride was running well below what it was designed to do, and even though it didn't open until September, it still managed to rank #21 in the world on Mitch Hawker's poll. It was a good ride... it's going to be a great ride (hopefully).

One more time, in case you haven't seen it posted before... Bullet was a problem child during construction due to a seriously rainy spring/summer. The opening was delayed by MONTHS. When the track was laid down, some things weren't right. The structure had gotten wet/dry/wet numerous times and some things had shifted as construction crawled along at a snail's pace. The first few test runs didn't even complete the course (which isn't unusual for a woodie, but nobody expected this one to valley). Once it was running without stalling, it was already Labor Day weekend. The summer had pretty much been lost. It was decided that even though it wasn't running as designed yet, they would open it and salvage what warm weather was left, and schedule the tweaking to the track in the off season. That's what's happening now. The trackwork isn't being done to repair worn sections, it's being retrofitted to bring it to the original specs so it will run as it was designed to. Once it's done, it should be smoother and quite a bit faster.

...as is evidenced by the next-to-last shot of the worker in the sleeveless shirt.

even more pics! He was right! "Wait... you want a cool picture? Stand over here and point up" Custom-built track bender designed by M&V mag brakes have all been adjusted. No more stopping, then crawling to the station. No more "the pop". It's all smoothed out and rounded now. They promise floater air here, so maybe I won't miss the pop much! waiting for the steel rails

still more pics Coming out from under the station. No trackwork was needed here. Looking back from the top of the bay turn The infamous "triple slam" of the upper bay turn has been smoothed out The train used to slam this pretty hard and lose a lot of speed. It's got all new track now, moved nearly 6 inches to one side from where it was before Heading back into the daylight

more pics The zig-zag. This part is taken at more than 50mph Continuing around the turn Beginning the curve after the drop Bottom of the first drop Midway down the first drop: You can see the old hole compared to where the brace is now.

Went down to Kemah this afternoon and got to chat with a couple of the crew during their break. There are three main points that seemed to run constantly throughout the conversation: [1] Work is progressing nicely due to the good weather, and they are hoping to have it running by new year's eve [2] Even though a rather long section of track is being reworked, the issue is tweaking it (a few inches here, a few there) to get it exactly right. It is not an issue of repairing anything. [3] It's going to be "a lot faster" (!) Here are some pictures: Trackwork begins right where that steel crossbeam is. Lotsa wood on site Working on the zig-zag

I don't know what they do for new years' down there. It would be cool to be ON the Bullet at midnight, but the local restrictions on running it at night would prevent it. I'm heading down in a bit to see how the progress is coming. I haven't seen it since they started work, so I'll take a few pics and post them when I get back.

I was lucky enough to get a few rain rides when the cycle time was around 62 seconds. This is just a tad slower than the cycle time they're hoping to achieve after this work has been done. I can tell you that when it's running that fast, it is quite a bit smoother, it doesn't "hunt for center" on the turns, and most of the shuffle is gone... that said, it's not less aggressive at those speeds, it's MORE aggressive. The ride (even the back half) is basically just a blur. There is airtime all over the place, laterals that pin you to the side of the train, and the sensation of sustained speed is just wicked. I'm going to say this cautiously... if they get the Bullet to run every day like it ran on those rain rides, I might just have a new #1 coaster. I'm not going to say that for certain until I ride it, but I remember thinking "OMFG, could this be my new #1 coaster?" after those rain rides.... the next day, when it ran more sluggishly, I had dropped it several spots. Time will tell. All I can say is that I'm cautiously optimistic about the trackwork. While I am enthusiastic about it being smoother and faster, I'm going to miss "the pop" and any of the other quirky things they might take out of it.