"Summers" syndrome

[Movieguy]

I'm here to talk with you about a new disease. It's not something you're going to read about in medical journals. It's not even a disease you're going to find in living organisms. No...this particular illness exists in coasters. Wooden coasters to be exact.

 

Actually, I take that back. A wooden coaster is very much a living, breathing organism, as I once heard in a NOVA documentary on the subject. This is why, unfortunately, a wooden coaster is vulnerable to disease, like all other living organisms.

 

I have recently come across a disturbing phenomenon, a degenerative disease that has been plaguing wooden coasters, particularly those built back in the late 1980's, through the 1990's. I have dubbed at as "Summers Syndrome", named after the firm that built many of the first modern woodies, Summers/Dinn

 

As many of you may recall, there was a boom in wooden coaster building that started back in the late 1980's, going into the early 90's. The Summers/Dinn corporation brought forth many different and intriguing variations on woodie design. These included many sharp turns, twists, and sudden dips.

 

Many of us remember the names from their opening days onward, "Psyclone", "Raging Wolf Bobs", "Predator", "Mean Streak, "Hercules", among countless others.

 

Unfortunately, we also remember the slow decline of each coaster. Each year making it a bit rougher, and a bit slower. Hercules of course got so bad that it was eventually removed. The first full casuality of Summers Syndrome.

 

The Summers/Dinn corporation came and went, and was soon supplanted by both CCI and GCI in the mid to late 90's. A new era rushed in, with the coasters "Roar", "Raven", "Ghostrider", and "Gwazi", among countless others lining up the parks.

 

We all thought this would be the start of newer, and better woodies, improving upon the supposed mistakes of Summers/Dinn. Sadly, as we all know, cracks are beginning to appear in this facade.

 

We're all too familiar with the slow declines of both Ghostrider, and Gwazi, among others. It is clear that Summers Syndrome has struck again in a new wave. Not every CCI and GCI coaster has been affected so far. But from the looks of the low prevention rate of Summers Syndrome among most modern woodies, statistics are clearly not in their favor.

 

Sadly, even the best of woodies these days, including Balder and The Voyage, may not be fully immune from this debilitating disease, that gets worse with each passing summer. I have watched painfully as Summers Syndrome has slowly wracked both of what once were my favorite woodies, CP's Mean Streak, and SFDL's Predator.

 

Don't let this happen to your favorite woodies! Stay informed. Keep parks aware of Summers Syndrome, and encourage them to take steps towards prevention. Don't let today's smooth tracker become tomorrow's ribcage cracker!

 

Thank you for your time, dear reader.

 

PS. I have also noticed a similar disturbing disease creeping up on some steel coasters, which I have dubbed "Arrow's disease", which is much more early onset in some cases. I shall elaborate on this more when I have properly researched it.

 

Douglas "Together we may find a cure!" Booth

[Shavethewhales]

Heh, yeah, some of these "newer" wooden coasters do tend to age terribly, but I hadn't noticed it on the GCI's...

Eh, while I like a smooth coaster, I don't mind being thrown around a bit. In fact, I think many people go over the edge in criticizing certain coasters just because they are a tad bit rough.

However, some rides are just terrible. My first and only ride on Mean Streak at CP was pretty bad, mainly because I sat in the very back, but yeah... it was just bad. There is a difference between being thrown around and having your spine snapped.

[Shockwave]

Surely a lot of it simply comes down to how well a ride is maintained by the parks. I've been on 80 year old wooden coasters than are still enjoyable thanks to the TLC from the park its built at.

 

I hardly think that a coaster such as Balder is gonna become as rough as Psyclone is. The entire ride was laser cut in factories, so it's as precise as any good mdoern steel coaster.

[willski]

Balder, Colossus, and El Toro will pretty much not age. In fact, they'll probably age better than Intamin's steel coasters (which don't do so well IMO).

 

 

It's all about maintenance. Those Summers & Dinn woodies could still be smooth if the parks actually cared for them. The problem is that Cedar Fair simply can't maintain wooden roller coasters-they just don't know how to do it, which explains Hercules, Mean Streak, and Ghostrider's fades from their original glory. Shivering Timbers is now getting very violent on the turnaround, but Cedar Fair insists on treating wooden coasters like steel coasters and never retracking them or giving them proper maintenance. The ideal woodie for a CF park is a plug-n-play, not a GCI (Renegade), which will most likely be quite rough by as early as 2011 or 2012 if CF continues its current trend.

 

 

Just maintain the rides and they will be fine, though some of them are undersupported. That can be fixed by replacing wooden beams with steel beams (you can paint them to match or you can leave them unpainted) during retracking. Also, undersupported coasters (S&D, CCI) need much more retracking than others, as the heavy PTCs eat the track up after a few years.

 

 

Another coaster that could be horrible as soon as the end of next year is Voyage. The coaster is so fast and so violent that if HW doesn't do heavy maintenance and some retracking yearly, it will become a big, rough piece of crap like SoB.

[timetrial3141592]

In comparison: Yankee Cannonball. It is the most ridiculous ride I have been on. Each year, it seems to get rougher, but the roughness seems to be in one trend: airtime. WTF?

[RaptorBoyASU]

I don't know, as of Haunt, Ghostrider was running amazing. Of course it got some TLC. If anything it was better than the last two years.

[Guy T. Koepp]

I agree.^ I rode Ghostrider yesterday with a couple of awesome Kiwis that I met! It was actually better than it has been in years. Not Baby Ass smooth as it was 7 years ago, but much better than it has been in several years.

[niiicolaaah]

Surely a lot of it simply comes down to how well a ride is maintained by the parks. I've been on 80 year old wooden coasters than are still enjoyable thanks to the TLC from the park its built at.

 

I hardly think that a coaster such as Balder is gonna become as rough as Psyclone is. The entire ride was laser cut in factories, so it's as precise as any good mdoern steel coaster.

 

What he said.

[coaster05]

I felt absolutely nothing wrong with Balder. I also enjoyed both Rides on Gwazi and think Raven was running great this summer. Timbers has gotten rougher, but one train was way worse than the others. Maintenance is a big issue, but sometimes they just have to bang a little its all in the style you like. Me I would prefer rough and exciteng, which is why Predator sucks so bad since it is boring.

[coasterCrAzY505]

I really hope Voyage isn't rough for my ride next summer ! When I first rode Mean Streak in '05, I had heard it was rough but I had to leave the park early because I was in so much pain(I was a dumbass for riding in the back row.

[Hercules]

Curtis Summers was God.

[DerekRx]

I think another reason why modern woodies (most of them) get so much rougher is because of all the extra forces; speed, airtime, laterals that have a lot of stress on the track and structure. Maintenance can help majorly, but sometimes its just impossible to make something glass smooth for very long.

 

Oh yeah, and CCI used cheap wood!

[okinawaboy11]

Roar (SFA)...Perfect exmple. Get some Millenium Flyers on this thing ASAP!

[viking86]

I think Thundercoaster at Tusenfryd is horrible and far too rough to enjoy in dry weather, but once it starts raining the ride becomes much smoother and crazier. I must say that I love being thrown around like that, but something should still be done about the ride as it felt like I was getting a spine adjustment when I rode it this summer...

[pvcoasterguy]

Surely a lot of it simply comes down to how well a ride is maintained by the parks. I've been on 80 year old wooden coasters than are still enjoyable thanks to the TLC from the park its built at.

 

Tom got it exactly right. Parks need to maintain their wooden coasters properly in order to have them run well. This goes for any wooden coaster.

 

However, some coasters tend to age quicker, so these require heavy maintenance. Dinn & Summers and some CCI coasters have already proven themselves as maintenance-intensive rides. Rolling stock also effects the ride greatly. Older PTC's are heavy and tear up the track easily.

 

I'd like to take a moment and comment on how well Six Flags Great America takes care of their wooden coasters. They basically have three wooden coasters, (the two sides of American Eagle and Viper). I'm sure they don't have a large maintenance budget, but these rides are kept running well every season. American Eagle is a 1981 racing wooden coaster designed by Intamin. It has a drop of about 150 feet, which is about the point where wood coasters begin to get violently rough if not maintained. However, American Eagle is a great ride, and Six Flags really seems to run it with minimal trims, which is great. My ride this year on it was perfect--the helix was retracked, which allowed for a really fast, intense, positive-g-filled helix. It was marvelous. And the airtime hills had some great air (especially in the front, red side). And, of course, Viper has been a great ride for quite some time.

[Fry]

Gwazi was horrible in July, and hasn't it been re-tracked? Try again..

 

 

Other then that, the only other modern woodie I've been on is Stampida, which was fine, so. Oh, actually, there was Robin Hood which was a little 'ow' on some parts, but, hey, it's a Vekoma! Oh, forgot Pegasus at Efteling. Which is a good thing... it was horrible. But, that wasn't due to its horrendous roughness, just bad design. But, that's what you get for involving RCCA.

 

 

They just need a little more maintenance loving in some cases.

[Vekoma Fan Boy]

In comparison: Yankee Cannonball. It is the most ridiculous ride I have been on. Each year, it seems to get rougher, but the roughness seems to be in one trend: airtime. WTF?

 

 

BUT Canobie was smart and had GCI retrack it. The only odd motion I found on it when a i rode earlier this year was in the turn around, but it was fun. Like sitting on a giant pile of Jello.

 

 

But also it is impossible for a Woodie to stay smooth on it own, the side-to-side and up-and-down motion puts depressions (you could call them dents after a while) in the wood so even if the trains themselves are moving smoothly the dents are making it rough.

[Gnome]

Gwazi was horrible in July, and hasn't it been re-tracked? Try again..

Why am I the only one that had a good ride on Gwazi? I even rode back seat! it was ruff, but not exactly painful ruff.

[Guy T. Koepp]

^I thought Gwazi was running awesome in October! Personally, I realy like it alot!

 

I believe Jahan and Cameron would agree with me.

[Satoshi]

why are woodies gonna get rougher 'n roughter thru every

years gone? Japanese woodies also have got this kinda

feelin' like Regina does! Tobu zoo's 'round 8 yr old sorta

headbangin' woodie but was real smooth when its openin' day!

 

Regina's good: tons of good pops in the air!

Regina's bad: headbangin' plus gonna get whiplash-like.....

Ratin' for Regina: so so woodie sorry.....

[CoasterFanatic]

I am pretty much going to side with Derek on this one. These woodies that are being built today are not the same as those of the past. Not too many of the old woodies throw around nearly as many forces as today's rides.

[verticalzero]

The SOB was my roughest woodie to date, but still enjoyed the ride as I had to endure a 9 hour flight with Air India then a 4 hour drive to get to Kings Island.

 

I put them blame on the Parks for not looking after their "woodies" and they become rough over the years.

 

They need lots of TLC, re-track every few years and a nice coat of "White" paint for the Classic's.

 

With Balder, Colossus, and El Toro, these coasters will be easier to look after as each segment can be "replaced" if needed. This could be the way forward for future woodies.

 

As for MS at Cedar Point: I did not have the trim brakes on when I rode it in 2000 (when were trims installed..?). Why not ask the operators if the brakes can be switched off down the 1st drop.

 

You get slammed quite hard into the lapbar on the 3rd drop and there is much vibration from the trains of "Robin Hood" at Walibi World, but all in all this coaster runs fine.

 

The general public complain about coasters being "too fast / rough / shaking" etc and ask for the ride slowed down, this is the worst thing which can happen to your fav coaster either Wood or Steel.

 

The perfect woodie for all coaster lovers is "trimless" until the proper brakes kick in at the end of the ride.

 

"Colossus" comes close to my perfect woodie, the helix needs to be addressed as this is bumpy.

 

Come on Mr Bill Gates splash ur cash to Six Flags / Cedar Fair and all the other Parks in the USA to help install new rides and give their existing coasters an upgrade.

[coasterdad]

Coined back in the mid 80's it was called the Dinn Shuffle!

[coaster05]

^I thought Gwazi was running awesome in October! Personally, I realy like it alot!

 

I believe Jahan and Cameron would agree with me.

 

I also had two great rides on that also. I am not sure where the complaints are. It just seemed fast and wooden, definately not smooth, but I could easily put multiple rides on that if they would have been loading faster.

[Hercules]

The SOB was my roughest woodie to date, but still enjoyed the ride as I had to endure a 9 hour flight with Air India then a 4 hour drive to get to Kings Island.

 

Ironically, Son of Beast was designed and built by the company that Curtis Summers was once head of