400th trip on Boardwalk Bullet

[texcoaster]

Well, I took my 400th ride on Boardwalk Bullet tonight. Yay!

 

Man, they just can't retrack this thing soon enough. Rains earlier in the day softened up the wood a bit so it wasn't brutal, but the thing is suffering from the Dinn shuffle worse than a Dinn woodie!

 

The bottom of the first drop is jackhammering pretty hard, the upper bay turn has three NASTY slams, and the train is crawling over the next big hill like a granny with a walker. The rest of the ride is still the same, but that first third is worthy of a chiropractor visit these days.

 

Even so, it's still a great ride. I just hope they can smooth it out when they go to replace some track. Every woodie needs track replaced from time to time.... I just hope they hit this one sooner rather than later.

[christianscoasters]

What exactly do you mean by 'shuffling'?

[Wes]

Every woodie needs track replaced from time to time....

 

After like what, two or three months of operating, though? Even Psyclone stayed smooth for a couple years. Something is terribly wrong with the design or construction that a ride would get brutal after such an abbreviated operating schedule.

[texcoaster]

There were lots of issues with this one due to the length of time it took to build it and the extraordinarily wet summer we had here. The wood literally changed shape on the bay side (the first sections to be built) as it dried out.

 

It's been no secret that the ride is rougher and slower than was planned, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if the bay side was retracked much more quickly than most woodies would be. It's noticably rougher than the rest of the ride, and some riders complain that the ride is "too jerky".

 

"Shuffling" (to answer a question in a previous post) is when the cars bang back and forth from the left side of the track to the right in an effort to find center. When you ride the back car, watch the cars in front of you. Noticable wiggling and such is an indication of shuffle.

[haux]

Wow. That sucks that it's doing poorly so early in its life. Does the salt water have anything to do with that too? Maybe they should have gone with steel supports. I'm surprised The Gravity Group didn't because they seem to only be doing that.

 

Congrats on 400 rides in three months. So, do you have a job or something? Because I understand if you don't.

[GuruGuys]

Congrats on 400 rides in three months. So, do you have a job or something? Because I understand if you don't.

 

Jim works for a national shipping company (hint: What can brown do for you?). The good thing about the bullet is you really don't have to wait in line to ride on most days. If you can make an entire weekday out of it getting 100 rides is very possible. I've ridden somewhere around the lower 300's but quit counting awhile back. The last time I rode it was too rough for even my liking and I only rode it twice before getting a headache.

 

I'll probably attempt to 'marathon' it one more time before the weather goes bad but not sure if I'll be able to ride it as much as I used to. The last time I rode it over 20 times in a day was the TPR video shoot.

 

-GG

[PURE]

I'd blame location.

 

How can you expect to put a wood coaster next to water with all its moisture and climate changes and expect the thing to last without constant maintenance? When I saw the POV (which was awesome and really made this ride look like fun) with the ride next to the water, that was the first thing that popped into my head which would be a long term problem.

[verticalzero]

You must like riding the "Bullet" with it's problems of bumpiness if you done it 400 times.. It would not bother me as I like getting slammed into the "Buzbar" and shoved into the car's side.

 

Getting a bruise or being shaken around is part of the fun on a woodie, the "Nash" a Blackpool 1 such ride which throws you about. Don't even think about riding with a phone in your jeans pocket.

 

If the problem is like the SOB accident then that's different.

 

A wooden coaster needs about a year to bed in properly unless it's the pre-fabricated track.

 

The Park should of taken this into account before deciding to build a wooden coaster by water.

 

Does the "Big Dipper" at Belmont Park and "Cyclone" at Coney Island suffer from the moisture and climate changes...

[texcoaster]

re: coaster by the sea - problems

 

So I suppose that they shouldn't have built the Coney Cyclone, Morey's Great White, Cyclone Racer, or either of the Giant Dippers.

 

It's not being next to the water that's the problem, it's the unbelievably rainy weather we had during the ride's construction plus the fact that nearly every inch of track on this ride is curving in some way.

 

I just hope that the park takes care of it and doesn't let it become Texas' next Giant or Rattler.

[ParkTrips]

I'd blame location.

I'd blame a crappy Gravity Group design with PTC tracking and a poor construction contractor.. and I haven't even ridden it!

[BeemerBoy]

^ Good answer.

 

I certainly don't claim to be anywhere near an expert on wooden coaster construction, but with each new GG coaster I'm becoming less and less impressed with their work. I've only ridden Voyage, and yes, I did enjoy it during my only rides in its first season. However, based on all its retracking issues, and now the somewhat less than stellar reviews of Bullet (followed by construction excuses), I'm inclined to believe the company is just not up to par with the competition.

 

If I'm a park owner spending millions on a showcase woodie, this would be how I view potential builders:

1. Intamin

2. GCI

3. My high school shop teacher

4. Stevie Wonder

5. Gravity Group

[EvoLee]

removed

[Carnage]

Every woodie needs track replaced from time to time....

 

Tell that to GCI.

 

From what I understand Thunderhead has had next to no track replaced since it opened.

 

Seems pretty obvious to me that GG are getting a repuation for making aggressive rides, that need alot of work to keep them from tearing themselves apart.

[BeemerBoy]

Hey Beemer....you SURE you don't need me to send you some Va Tech swag? (remember me?)

 

Lee (or UVa, same state same result...I heard they want to downgrade Miami's status from Hurricane to tropical depression)

Eh, besides the Texas A&M game, we're perfect this season. We lost every game we were supposed to. I'll be concerned when ACC teams start beating the real 'Canes. And sure, you can send me some stuff. I'd love to have some of that Hokies National Championship gear from 19__, um.......oh wait.

 

Now back to our regularly scheduled Gravity Group sucks discussion.

[mcjaco]

When I saw the POV (which was awesome and really made this ride look like fun) with the ride next to the water, that was the first thing that popped into my head which would be a long term problem.

 

Really? I watched the POV and thought, "This ride is a mess. You can tell it's rough as heck, and it just opened."

 

As for the original post, seriously, how can you proclaim the ride's greatness while describing how it's rougher than all get out the previous paragraph? Makes no sense.

[fmulder21]

Jim congrats...Are you married?! How they hell can you get 400 rides? I'm only at 82 and have to shuffle and trick my gf into thinking i'm staying late at work!

[ginzo]

^ Good answer.

 

I certainly don't claim to be anywhere near an expert on wooden coaster construction, but with each new GG coaster I'm becoming less and less impressed with their work. I've only ridden Voyage, and yes, I did enjoy it during my only rides in its first season. However, based on all its retracking issues, and now the somewhat less than stellar reviews of Bullet (followed by construction excuses), I'm inclined to believe the company is just not up to par with the competition.

 

If I'm a park owner spending millions on a showcase woodie, this would be how I view potential builders:

1. Intamin

2. GCI

3. My high school shop teacher

4. Stevie Wonder

5. Gravity Group

 

I think this may be a little bit extreme. Hades is every bit as good as the best GCII coasters that I've been on. It's not my favorite, but it's still a great ride. The Voyage's main problem is its army of insane devotees that say stuff like, "It's good that Voyage gives crappy rides in the morning. Giving the same ride all the time is boring. When I die I want my ashes dropped off the back seat while climbing the lift hill of Voyage."

 

I think the jury is still out on The Gravity Group. Every vendor has botched a project. I'm still hopeful that Ravine Flyer II is going to be a great ride. Waldameer is a great little park, and nobody deserves a top 10 woodie more than they do.

 

Also, there's still a chance that they can fix this ride. Boardwalk Bullet's lay out looks far more interesting to me than anything by GCII. I love the drops! Since Kemah is apparently cash rich, maybe they should consider replacing the trains with the new 1-bench PTCs that nobody has installed yet.

[BeemerBoy]

^ Well, I obviously exaggerate a bit, but I'm still standing by my assessment of GG as compared to the other two. I look at it this way, if money's no problem and I'm out to buy a brand new car, would I go with the company that's prominently advertising its 100,000 mile warranty, or one that works mostly on reputation for quality?

 

GG is certainly capable of building great coasters, but from all accounts of its work, it simply doesn't seem as reliable yet. Evidently, parks aren't shying away from this debatable point, but for my money, hiring them just doesn't make good business sense.

 

I guess in other words I'd rather have a really good coaster that didn't give me offseason headaches rather than a great one that needed constant TLC.

[ginzo]

^ Well, I obviously exaggerate a bit, but I'm still standing by my assessment of GG as compared to the other two. I look at it this way, if money's no problem and I'm out to buy a brand new car, would I go with the company that's prominently advertising its 100,000 mile warranty, or one that works mostly on reputation for quality?

 

GG is certainly capable of building great coasters, but from all accounts of its work, it simply doesn't seem as reliable yet. Evidently, parks aren't shying away from this debatable point, but for my money, hiring them just doesn't make good business sense.

 

If it were my park, it would be Intamin for sure. But, I think that the price tag is beyond the reach of most smaller parks. At least Boardwalk Bullet has some spectacular drops, which is something I think that GCII neglects. They're way into curves.

 

GCII has made plenty of dogs. Hershey's Wildcat is in my bottom 5, and that's with the new trains. Give The Gravity Group some time. We'll see how it turns out.

[fmulder21]

Kemah is NOT cash rich...Look at Landry's earning and LOSS this past quarter.

[mcjaco]

I think this may be a little bit extreme. Hades is every bit as good as the best GCII coasters that I've been on. It's not my favorite, but it's still a great ride.

 

Isn't Hades getting retracked this year too? The final helix was brutal this past summer. Jackhammering galore.

[imbordisux]

GCII has made plenty of dogs. Hershey's Wildcat is in my bottom 5, and that's with the new trains. Give The Gravity Group some time. We'll see how it turns out.

 

Different strokes for different folks - I think HP's Wildcat is phenomenal, I could ride it all day. Then again, my faves are The Voyage and Coney Island's Cyclone, I definitely prefer a woodie that beats the crap out of you.

[ginzo]

I think this may be a little bit extreme. Hades is every bit as good as the best GCII coasters that I've been on. It's not my favorite, but it's still a great ride.

 

Isn't Hades getting retracked this year too? The final helix was brutal this past summer. Jackhammering galore.

 

No idea. Both Hades and Voyage were home made coasters, I think. You get what you pay for. Though Knoebels seems to do well enough with doing their tinkering in house.

 

We're just going to have to come to grips that quality minded businessmen, like Walt Disney, are not in vogue these days. Everybody is obsessed with cost. Go with the lowest bidder. Save money! When you combine the parks' lust for massive scale coasters with their lack of willingness to pay for quality, you get the disaster that is modern woodies.

 

Different strokes for different folks - I think HP's Wildcat is phenomenal, I could ride it all day. Then again, my faves are The Voyage and Coney Island's Cyclone, I definitely prefer a woodie that beats the crap out of you.

 

If you like a good ass beating, you don't need to spend all kinds of money and vacation time to get one. Just go to any bar, find the most neanderthal looking guy in the joint, and insult his girlfriend to his face. Or, find a sadist girlfriend.

 

No matter what you masochists say, roller coasters are not supposed to beat up riders. You can't find one vendor that brags about how much their rides hurt.

[BeemerBoy]

GCII has made plenty of dogs. Hershey's Wildcat is in my bottom 5, and that's with the new trains. Give The Gravity Group some time. We'll see how it turns out.

For the record, I believe I was mistakenly misquoted here. I actually liked Wildcat. That is, when the restraints weren't trying to saw me in half.

[peteb]

Looks like Boardwalk Bullet could be GG's Drachen Fire. Maybe this ride just shows the limits of the company's abilities. Sure early GCI coasters had some rough spots, but they apparently went to work, designed they're own trains and figured out how to track a ride that's smooth and doesn't fall apart after a few years.

 

And then there's Intamin who's probably using this as advertising for their wooden coasters.