Kemah Boardwalk and Bullet Discussion Thread

[texcoaster]

Some of the folks who went to the TPR video shoot only rode about a dozen times and then posted about how much pain they were in the next day. Maybe they weren't ready for an adult coaster...

 

Maybe the Gravity Group should brag about that on their website.

 

TGG Coasters: Not For Little Girls!

 

I told the GM at Kemah that before the changes to the Bullet, I wouldn't have recommended it to someone who had never been on a coaster before (which happens a lot, since Astroworld has been gone for two years now).

 

Now, I think that even though the ride is still intense and fast, it's not so aggressive as to scare away first-time coaster riders into never wanting to get on another one.

[lorddoonga]

Bullet 1.0 before could dislodge all the intestinal plaque from Orson Well's guts ... LOL

 

How's it operating today in the mysterious 80 degree weather? Anyone get on today?

[texcoaster]

posting from the bullet. Brake run is slow enough to allow typing, LOL!

[lorddoonga]

posting from the bullet. Brake run is slow enough to allow typing, LOL!

 

Hey TeX... Ride 1L and 8L for me : )

[texcoaster]

The Bullet was reeeeeeeeeeally slow today. Hitting 74 seconds from lift to brake. It was actually sorta fun in that when I would ride in the back (usually the only one on the train), I really thought it was going to stall a few times.

 

The rains came in the afternoon, though, and apparently everyone down there knows that rain rides are good.... suddenly, boardwalk employees who were on break, management, maintenance, etc were riding and asking for run times -- down to 65 seconds! WOO HOO!

Had the Bullet to myself until it rained

[kraken613]

It really does very in speed!

[jmccalip]

What?!?!?! Why was it running so slow already?

[texcoaster]

^ The tracks were freshly graphited over the weekend, but a heavy rain this morning washed off all of it and left dry rails.

 

Dry rails + wet, swelled track + empty train = slow rides.

 

That's true of any coaster, and the more turns in the layout, the more the dry rails will make a difference in speed. Bullet is almost ALL turns, so it's more temperamental to track friction than most rides.

 

That's why a track with water on it (during the rain rides) ran so much faster.

 

They said that the first ride out today was running at 66 seconds. Then the rain washed off the graphite and it went down to 70. By the time it ran for another hour and the track dried out more, it had slowed to 74.

[lorddoonga]

Is there any substance sold that can be "painted" on without coming out in the wash to help it stay consistently 60 secs?

[Jew]

Seriously, even though it was rougher before, it still wasn't half as bad as some of the wusses on this site might have you believe. Some of the folks who went to the TPR video shoot only rode about a dozen times and then posted about how much pain they were in the next day. Maybe they weren't ready for an adult coaster... The Giant (SFOT) and Rattler (SFFT) are far, far worse now than the Bullet ever was.

 

 

...Or perhaps the ride isn't as good as you want to believe. Maybe those "wusses" were on to something.

[texcoaster]

^ I'm not saying anything about whether or not they thought it was a good ride. That's all opinion and can't be proved either way. Different people like different things and so what's a "good" ride for one person won't be for another.

 

What I was referring to was their complaints about how rough it was and how much pain they were in after riding a dozen or so times.

Was it rough? Yeah. Was it so rough as to warrant all the whining that was done after the photo shoot? No. They're just wusses.

[coaster05]

^So you can't prove if a ride was good, but you can prove if someone was a wuss. So I was tore up after one ride on Son of Beast does that make me a wuss? Or does it just mean SoB sucks? I am confused as to how you can pass judgment on someone's toughness.

[BeemerBoy]

^ One thing's for cetain. You have to be tough to stomach this thread.

[mcjaco]

Was it rough? Yeah. Was it so rough as to warrant all the whining that was done after the photo shoot? No. They're just wusses.

 

How many people were at that photo/video shoot? 15? 20? More?

 

And yet there's only three or four people that were there that day that continue (day after day after day after day) to proclaim the Bullet's greatness. I'd say that's a minority.

 

It's one thing to be a fanboy, it's another to beat a topic into the ground. There are far better and worse coasters that have gotten much less attention than this one.

[Wes]

GUYS lets get back on topic how was it running at 11:14am this morning. NEED 2 KNO ASAP!!!!

[jmccalip]

It's one thing to be a fanboy, it's another to beat a topic into the ground. There are far better and worse coasters that have gotten much less attention than this one.

 

Maybe this is because the Houston area lost its home park and went without a coaster for almost three years. Of course it's going to get more attention.

 

 

GUYS lets get back on topic how was it running at 11:14am this morning. NEED 2 KNO ASAP!!!!

 

You want to stop with your utterly useless posts? No one gives a damn about how you think it's stupid that we want updates. The coaster changes almost on a day to day basis. Maybe we want to know if it's going to be slow and rough before we drive an hour there and back to spend $20 for ONE coaster.

 

If you don't like this thread, don't click on it! Simple as that.

[Jew]

Disclaimer! You need a sense of humor to view our site,

if you don't have a sense of humor, or are easily offended, please turn back now!

[Wes]

Boardwalk Bullet is serious business.

[texcoaster]

How many people were at that photo/video shoot? 15? 20? More?

 

And yet there's only three or four people that were there that day that continue (day after day after day after day) to proclaim the Bullet's greatness. I'd say that's a minority.

 

And how many of them ONLY rode it that one day, when it was running poorly? Those who proclaim it's greatness have been on it when it runs well enough to earn the praise.

 

I'll be the first to admit that there are times when the Bullet is worse than mediocre... but it can also be an amazing, incredible ride. If a local wants to know how it's running that day before going down there and spending his money to ride, that just sounds like a smart decision to me.

 

If you aren't local, or aren't planning a trip down there, then the daily updates won't hold much interest for you.

 

The thing that seems most stupid to me is that folks complain ad nauseum about the constant updates, but THEY KEEP READING THE THREAD!

[GuruGuys]

Was it rough? Yeah. Was it so rough as to warrant all the whining that was done after the photo shoot? No. They're just wusses.

 

And yet there's only three or four people that were there that day that continue (day after day after day after day) to proclaim the Bullet's greatness. I'd say that's a minority.

 

Aside from Texcoaster, I don't know anyone else that is 'proclaiming its greatness'.

 

That's true of any coaster, and the more turns in the layout, the more the dry rails will make a difference in speed. Bullet is almost ALL turns, so it's more temperamental to track friction than most rides.

 

I guess that makes sense, I always wondered if it was normal for woodies to vary 10 seconds in their cycle time. It seems like a lot.

 

 

 

The Giant (SFOT) and Rattler (SFFT) are far, far worse now than the Bullet ever was.

 

 

...Or perhaps the ride isn't as good as you want to believe. Maybe those "wusses" were on to something.

 

 

The problem with the TPR shoot was that many of the riders rode for the first time that day - and many of them rode in some of the worst seats at the time. The ride had a nasty kick at the bottom of the first drop, and if you were not ready for it it would really kick your butt. In addition, everyone rode multiple rides in a row, without getting up and without even getting the lap bar reset. Without being able to reset the lap bar, I was having problems tolerating the Bullet especially in the back seat as there was no room to shake around the seat while being pinned done in it. Finally, it was riding around 70 seconds that day, which is on the slower end of the spectrum.

 

With all that in mind, I can see why most of the TPR group didn't care for the ride. After the maintenance, they may enjoy it a bit more but I have said in several posts that I doubt it will change their opinions on it too much. Aside from it no longer being too rough for some people to ride it is still a bit slow and boring on the back half. I don't believe anyone would call it a "Bad" coaster however. I think Robb put it best when he posted that a really good coaster is in there somewhere, it just hasn't happened yet.

 

The locals, (and I don't mean local coaster enthusiasts), Kemah's primary customers, seem to like it just fine and it is performing very well in revenue for the Boardwalk.

 

The Bullet was reeeeeeeeeeally slow today. Hitting 74 seconds from lift to brake.

 

I started thinking about this, I don't recall the Bullet ever running that slow, even before the changes.

 

Disclaimer! You need a sense of humor to view our site,

if you don't have a sense of humor, or are easily offended, please turn back now!

 

What is this, S.N.L., this is the third or fourth time this 'joke' (about Bullet Run Times) has been posted, its been run into the ground.

 

-GG

[coaster05]

As a person who has never rode it and one of the people who do find the updates annoying and really shouldn't care about this at all, I still have one question:

 

How great can a ride be that has good seats, bad seats, good days, bad days, fast days, slow days, wet days, dry days, etc?

 

I love the Phoenix and I have never heard any of this about that ride.

[texcoaster]

I wonder if a Pre-fabricated track woodie would work in a layout like this..

 

It might, actually. I've often wondered if it's possible to retrofit an existing wood coaster with pre-fab track. They would certainly need new trains.

 

I expect The Bullet to be a very different ride when it re-opens, not in a bad way but it will ride more like TGG envisioned. There is a lot of track work being done on the first 1/3rd of the ride that will make the ride much better.

 

It made it much smoother... it didn't really make it much better, though. The back third is still a snoozer unless it's raining.

 

The rest of the ride felt like it was trying SO HARD to be good, but instead felt like it was almost going to roll back.

--Robb

 

When I rode yesterday, it was going slower than I've ever seen it... I really did expect to have to be evacuated from the anti-rollbacks on the second big hill!

 

I bet riding while sleeting is painful to the face.

I'll bet! The rain rides I got yesterday were pretty painful. Like needles in your face...

 

I can't wait to sail right over third hill at breakneck speeds!

Same here! Hasn't happened yet, though.

 

... I'm down

(singing) I'm really down, down on the ground... How can you laugh when you know I'm down? WAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!

(not many people on this board are old enough to get that)

 

Ill be leaving Monday and driving their.

Driving their WHAT?

 

thanks so much for the updates GG and Texcoaster!

See? There are people who actually appreciate the updates!

 

The best seat I liked was car #8 right side.

 

Really? I don't think I've spent much time in that seat (or anywhere in the middle of the train), but I do much prefer the right side of the train to the left side.

 

So we can now put to rest that this was poorly constructed, which in turn made it a rough ride. Not aggresive.

It was both. Bigtime.

 

I have a very low coaster count overall

Don't feel sorry for him just yet... we've got a megatrip planned this summer.

 

So I was tore up after one ride on Son of Beast does that make me a wuss?

 

Not at all! SoB is a bazillion times rougher than Bullet. So is TxGiant, Rattler, Mean Streak, and lots of other woodies out there.

 

GUYS lets get back on topic how was it running at 11:14am this morning. NEED 2 KNO ASAP!!!!

 

It doesn't open until 1pm-ish, so at 11:14am this morning (redundancy alert!) it was probably pretty slow. ...and YES, I got your attempt at sarcasm. Did you get mine?

 

Boardwalk Bullet is serious business.

It is for Kemah.

 

How great can a ride be that has good seats, bad seats, good days, bad days, fast days, slow days, wet days, dry days, etc?

In an odd way, it's wildly uneven rides actually work in it's favor for folks who ride it a lot. There is a wide variety of experiences to be had and since it's the only coaster we have now, that keeps it from getting boring. It sucks for travellers, though, since they usually get their one shot at good rides on it, and if it's running like crap, they're SOL.

[robbalvey]

If you don't care about the updates, stop reading them and stop responding to this thread. If you DO care about the updates, please continue to have a great conversation about it. This back and forth bickering is useless.

 

TPR is a place where people can come and discuss their favorite rides and parks. Not get flamed by people who don't care about the conversation.

 

--Robb "We appreciate the level of enthusaism." Alvey

[mcjaco]

If you don't care about the updates, stop reading them and stop responding to this thread. If you DO care about the updates, please continue to have a great conversation about it. This back and forth bickering is useless.

 

TPR is a place where people can come and discuss their favorite rides and parks. Not get flamed by people who don't care about the conversation.

 

--Robb "We appreciate the level of enthusaism." Alvey

 

My apologizes. A tough month at work and home got the better of me.

 

Rice on, dudes. Ride on.

[texcoaster]

My apologizes. A tough month at work and home got the better of me.

 

Same here. I'm trying to sell my house and the closing has been pushed back to "tomorrow" SEVEN TIMES NOW. The delays are being caused by incompetence, laziness, and unprofessionalism... none of it on the part of myself or my realtor.

 

I will sometimes go down to Kemah and ride literally all day to keep my mind away from how pissed off I am over it... and I post here to keep my mind off it after I've stopped riding (or before I go ride).

 

The last thing I want to deal with is a bunch of people who haven't been on the coaster, and probably won't be on it any time soon, suggest that "they don't need constant updates" or "it can't be that good, your opinion is wrong."

 

I stay out of the threads that don't interest me. It never even occurred to me to jump into those threads and pepper them with posts about how I didn't need that information, let alone suggest that NOBODY needs the info. Live and let live, people. There are lots of threads you can post to without poisoning other people's fun.

 

[/soapbox]