kenshinmac

I would love to see something about the maintenance of coasters and rides in general. I mean the daily/weekly/monthly/annual tasks that go into keeping a ride running. I would love to know how often ride wheels need replacing and what sort of things they look for. Even more amazing would be the Intamin hydraulic launch rides as those look completely insane mechanically. It would also be cool to see a train teardown. Maybe a bit on safety mechanisms as many people seem worried about them. Obviously all of this could be considered proprietary information which could make it hard to cover. I still think it would be fascinating.

Actually one thing that would be cool would be testing methods to defeat sickness from spinning rides. Possibly not just coasters but there are plenty of different kinds of spinning coasters too. I personally try to focus on a set point outside the ride most of the time. Also I have heard so many people say that ride has so many loops it will make me sick. Yet I am sure that if you are prone to motion sickness you are more likely to have issues with airtime heavy rides and rides with lots of rapid direction changes.

I always remember the whole if you spit directly down at the top of a loop it will come back and hit you in the face story. It makes sense and was always funny to tell people. There is also the classic where people think that if the restraints fail they will fall out in inversions... One thing I would be interested in personally is does a ride get smoother during the day as the ride heats up. I have heard people say that and I usually dismiss it as I know it should get faster but maybe it reduces the impact of most common variations in the track. Apologies that I don't have anything better.

You can easily turn off the auto-awesome stuff. That said I am beginning to hate Facebook as it feels like a creepy stalker. Every time something gets updated they ask for more personal information and beyond that they keep adding more freaking ads. Definitely loving Twitter right now but Google+ would be better than Facebook any day.

Yeah there is a 4chan URL on it now... References to /b/ and stuff. That is really not good. This is why the internet can't have nice things...

Ah crap I think 4chan found it...

Oh NO! It stopped typing. Did we break it?

Oh man some of the related videos are even better. I saw that on Gizmodo earlier and I really hope that they get there sometime.

This... If you skip Silver Dollar City you are missing one of the best parks in the US bar none. It doesn't have as many coasters but you would almost certainly enjoy it more than either Six Flags Texas park. Honestly Texas is a huge state without many coasters that are must not miss. The two RMCs look impressive (accident cost Texas/Midwest tour those rides) but otherwise a lot of it you will ride other similar rides in other Six Flags parks. Beyond that Texas is miserably hot in the summer. Trust me when I say that you probably will not be ready for the heat and humidity.

I'll just say I rode X-flight and Gatekeeper this summer and couldn't be less impressed by them. Honestly both were complete snoozes in the inside seats and surprisingly bumpy in the outside ones. I really didn't like them...

They are amazing... I think the only thing that would make them better is more airtime.

This might be a dumb question but does anyone know if any of these rides windseeker or starflyer has had the ability to modify the height the ride rises to? I mean doesn't the wind higher off the ground become more of an issue? So I would think an adjustable height might allow the ride to run (admittedly less excitingly) more often. Of course this is all assuming that the tower itself doesn't become a problem in higher winds.

The arm guards are there for a very good reason. But in all honesty, why do people care so much about what the trains look like? I didn't know that affected people's ride experience so highly. My comment was more targeted towards it being strange that they were clearly added fairly late in the game. Clearly the train was not designed with them so I am honestly curious what is the reason they are there. I obviously haven't ridden the ride however looking at it I don't see any obvious close clearances.

It does seem a little weird that those little guards were added to the outside. I mean even the decals are applied underneath them. Must have been a last minute thing. I can't help but wonder what the issue was as it looks like it would be hard to get your arms anywhere near anything. I will admit after seeing it running it would probably be hard to have dual train ops on the ride. I hope that it will have decent capacity although I have to say it still looks like it would be a better fit for a smaller park. Overall though it does look like a fun ride and that is what really matters. I do hope this will last longer than Pandemonium which I didn't get to the park to try.

I am always a bit bummed when people post about Elitch Gardens. First because usually I had no idea they were there and second because usually it is just a trip for credits. Honestly the park has had a lot of problems since the early Premier days. The last 2 coasters added (flying coaster and half pipe) both had incredible problems (maintenance used to have someone sitting under half pipe almost non-stop because the thing faulted so much). Plus the flat package leaves a lot to be desired. Dragonwing has been a problem for several years at least, the Huss rides have all had significant downtime in past years, never mind that no new flats have been added for a decade. Please don't say anything about Disaster Canyon which has run with so few boats you might as well pack a picnic for the time waiting in line. Don't get me wrong the current owners have very little to do with the problems but PARC did little to rectify them. I'm really hoping that Herschend can give Elitch Gardens the spark that it needs to not be an also ran in modern parks. Also please don't think I dislike the park. I just want something in Colorado that truly impresses. It doesn't need to be big to do that as those that rode Wooden Warrior at Quassy no doubt discovered. I just want something that makes me say wow again. Maybe I'm being unfair but it seems like all the forum members that visit the park come away with the feeling that it is just generic and ok. That seems like a very sad thing to say about any entertainment venue. (Also Laura apologies for the rant on your thread )