texcoaster Posted September 24, 2007 Share Posted September 24, 2007 Signs in Bullet station: "Please secure hats, glasses, cell phones, iPods, and pagers before riding." I thought it was sorta funny that iPods were mentioned by name. I didn't think it was funny when the girl in front of me pointed to the sign and said "what's a 'pager'?" I feel old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almightyfire Posted September 24, 2007 Share Posted September 24, 2007 Oh I would have broken down and cried if she asked me that. hahahaha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorddoonga Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 (edited) I went to Kemah to ride the Bullet on Sunday (Dec. 2nd) and it was CLOSED for winter maintenance. One of the park employees said it had just closed on Saturday. The ride sign read "re-opening soon". Any tidbits of info from anyone?? Edited December 14, 2011 by larrygator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 It's smoothness and non-aggresive ride must be the culprit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixflagsguy5 Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 ^Yeah, it's probably from that. The two Gravity Group coasters that I've been on have been very aggressive (not necessarily rough). I guess that there's a price to pay for having an intense wooden coaster. Hopefully it'll reopen soon so taht everyone can go get their offseason fix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almightyfire Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 I am sure CoasteGuy and Tex will have some info when they get home this evening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmccalip Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 Guess you missed the post: http://sixflagshouston.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2373 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuruGuys Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 Guess you missed the post: http://sixflagshouston.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2373 Yeah, its been closed since the weekend after Thanksgiving, I thought I posted that here in another thread but perhaps not. It'll likely remained closed for another couple of weeks while they attempt to get it running faster and smoother as it was designed. -GG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuruGuys Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 It's smoothness and non-aggressive ride must be the culprit. You are right, while this coaster will never be non-aggressive, it supposed to run smoother. I don't think anyone has claimed it is smooth or non-aggressive to this point. I guess that there's a price to pay for having an intense wooden coaster. Hopefully it'll reopen soon so that everyone can go get their offseason fix. While I have posted this in several threads before it always seems to be overlooked then you get posts with speculation like above... The Bullet was supposed to be open in spring 2007. A very abnormal amount of rainfall in the area delayed this opening until very late summer, even after school started locally. When they finally finished and tested the coaster it passed all the required safety inspections but it was not running as fast or smooth as designed. Parts of the track needed to be reworked but since the coaster was running they decided to go ahead and open it and salvage what was left of the summer. There have always been plans to work on it this off season and get it running as designed. That is what is happening now. -GG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorddoonga Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 I hope its closed no longer than a couple of weeks. Pray. We still have some great weather around here. There was a U-HAUL truck backed into one of the front gates. Was it loading or unloading materials.. who knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verticalzero Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 Most people have been saying it's getting rough etc and GG are gaining a name for creating intense rides. That's the price you pay for such a compact twister woodie, the wheels, track and structure will take a huge amount of beating. I guess it will have to get re-tracked within it's 1st birthday. I wonder if a Pre-fabricated track woodie would work in a layout like this.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorddoonga Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 /\ ... Are there woodies with pre-fabricated material out there now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginzo Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 /\ ... Are there woodies with pre-fabricated material out there now? There are three installed right now, and one under construction in Korea. Colossos @ Heide Park, Germany Balder @ Liseberg, Sweden El Toro @ Six Flags Great Adventure, New Jersey T Express @ Everland, S. Korea Werner Stengel developed this technology, supposedly because of frustration with the Son of Beast project, and holds the patent on it. There is some sort of arrangement between Stengel and Intamin such that only Intamin can sell these coasters. I hope they get BB back up and running soon. There is a chance that I'll be interviewing in Houston in early 2008. I'd be pretty bummed to fly all the way out there and not get to ride this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuruGuys Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 That's the price you pay for such a compact twister woodie, the wheels, track and structure will take a huge amount of beating. I guess it will have to get re-tracked within it's 1st birthday. For the last time, this is NOT a result of it being 'too intense, twisted, track taking a beating etc". How many times must it be said that this coaster had construction issues from the beginning. The work being done now is fixing what was off to begin with. If this happens again next year when all the specs are correct then we can make speculations like this. Do people just read the first post in a thread and skip the rest? I wonder if a Pre-fabricated track woodie would work in a layout like this.. I think a hybrid pre-fab, non pre-fab woodie would be ideal. You'd still get some of authentic woodie feeling but the more aggressive elements could be pre-fab. This way it would be affordable for many parks as well as my understanding is that pre-fab costs quite a bit more. -GG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuruGuys Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 I hope they get BB back up and running soon. There is a chance that I'll be interviewing in Houston in early 2008. I'd be pretty bummed to fly all the way out there and not get to ride this. Right now it appears to be on track to be re-opened by New Years day... -GG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorddoonga Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 /\... thanks for the update ! can't wait ......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginzo Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 I think a hybrid pre-fab, non pre-fab woodie would be ideal. You'd still get some of authentic woodie feeling but the more aggressive elements could be pre-fab. This way it would be affordable for many parks as well as my understanding is that pre-fab costs quite a bit more. Tripsdrill is doing something interesting with their new woodie. It's using regular wood, but pre-cut by Cordes. That may be as close to a hybrid as we'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike robinson Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 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. As GuruGuy said, this nothing more than bringing the ride up to spec as it was designed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorddoonga Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 /\... YES ! and hopefully pick up speed or tilting past 51 mph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuruGuys Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 The construction is coming along nicely. Here are a few pictures I took today. The entrance queue would have provided the best photos of the contruction but that was closed and the structure blocks most of the work otherwise. These are the best I could do for now. The workers there said they plan to be home by X-Mas and I was told that the hard part is done and the rest of the work should progress quickly. Eeeek! Naked Coaster! Cover those things up! Rails lay everywhere. Extensive reworking is being done from the valley of the first drop to the start of the upper bay turn. Do coasters shed in the winter? Bullet dropping are everywhere! Look close and you can see the long bolts hanging through the reaming layers of wood. In this area they are only having to remove a few layers. More work on the upper bay turn which is an area that provided three unnecessary shuffles as the train tried to find its way on the rails. You can see the rail laying loose in the top right corner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorddoonga Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 Way to go Guru! When its all done, we will know why the name "Bullet" was intended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuruGuys Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 Way to go Guru! When its all done, we will know why the name "Bullet" was intended. Going by the animation on Gravity Groups page the ride should run about 54 seconds from the end of lift to the first mag brake. It was running 69-71 seconds when TPR was down for the photo/video shoot. I'm not sure the overall speed increase in MPH but if it does get to the mid 50's its going to be a totally different ride for sure. -GG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texcoaster Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Way to go Guru! When its all done, we will know why the name "Bullet" was intended. Going by the animation on Gravity Groups page the ride should run about 54 seconds from the end of lift to the first mag brake. It was running 69-71 seconds when TPR was down for the photo/video shoot. I'm not sure the overall speed increase in MPH but if it does get to the mid 50's its going to be a totally different ride for sure. -GG It was a totally different ride when it was hitting 62 seconds on those rain rides on opening day!!! While I can possibly imagine a 60 second ride, I just refuse to believe that it will ever get to 54. If it does, there will be airtime all over that ride! There's airtime in weird spots when it hits the mid-60's... there will be thigh bruises if you shave another 10 seconds off that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorddoonga Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 I rode it after having a chicken finger basket next door. You need at least an hour to process before riding this fun hilly-twister. : ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginzo Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 http://www.screamscape.com/html/kemah_boardwalk.html News - (12/17/07) I haven’t found any photos yet, but I’ve been told that construction crews are crawling all over the Boardwalk Bullet these days, taking sections of the ride down to rebuild it. Now I had heard over the summer that there were solid plans in place to do just this over the winter due to the rushed construction timetable. However, other sources tell me that the rougher portions of the ride have apparently caused a few individuals to file “whiplash” lawsuits so sections of the ride will be tamed down a bit when it reopens. I hope this doesn't equate to trims. Does anyone know what's going on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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