What's wrong with Mean Streak?

[ginzo]

It's a wooden coaster. It's not going to be smooth. Tough it out.

 

You poor California people.

[slither37]

The trim on the first drop for one thing and how slow it is and how despite the fact that it is slow, it is still very rough.

 

I also think the design could have been better. Last few times I rode it, I kept thinking, a drop here would be good for some airtime... or a sharper turn there....

[almightyfire]

I have been on it 5 times and the last time was 5 yrs ago. I didn't see anything wrong with it. Now it was rough but not where I couldnt ride it. I think what has happened over the years is that there are more and more steel coasters being built and people subconciously are comparing the smoothness of a steelie to a woodie. The Texas Giant was rough the first time I rode it in 1992 and it is still the same TO ME. With all of the suspended , inverted and other types of steelies people have become weak. The only wood coaster I have been on that was smooth was El Toro and I am sure it had something to do with the way it was structured.

[Loopy]

I actually performed an experiment with mean streak. It went like this.

 

I had heard hundreds of times how bad mean streak was before I had even been to Cedar Point. The first time I rode it was as an employee during a "ride night" (kind of like ERT for employee's). I rode it twice, and was done. There was no thrill whatsoever, and it was rough.

 

Shoot forward a couple years, I decide to take some friends to Cedar Point. These are people who are not nerds like us, they don't know what TPR is, and know nothing about mean streak. I said NOTHING about the ride before we got on, to get unbiased opinion.

 

They all hated it. They even wished they had not rode it at all. It was that bad.

[ginzo]

I have been on it 5 times and the last time was 5 yrs ago. I didn't see anything wrong with it. Now it was rough but not where I couldnt ride it. I think what has happened over the years is that there are more and more steel coasters being built and people subconciously are comparing the smoothness of a steelie to a woodie. The Texas Giant was rough the first time I rode it in 1992 and it is still the same TO ME. With all of the suspended , inverted and other types of steelies people have become weak. The only wood coaster I have been on that was smooth was El Toro and I am sure it had something to do with the way it was structured.

 

There are plenty of smooth woodies apart from the Intamins. Most of the GCIIs, Phoenix, the Kennywoodies, Cornball, Phoenix, Viper (SFGAm), etc. Sure they have a little bit more bite than most B&Ms, but it's a very reasonable amount of roughness. Just enough to let you know that you're on a woodie. The problem with Mean Streak, SOB, Texas Giant, etc. is they're too big. Wood isn't the most durable material and when you start subjecting it to the high forces of a 150+ foot drop things start go bad.

[NINCUB]

Well I have ridden Mean Streak one time on my first visit to CP last summer. I thought it was a pretty fun ride.

 

I am used to very rough woodies like GASM and GC at SFOG. Those two woodies are so painful that I haven't ridden them probably the last 20 trips to SFOG. Where there is speed, air, and fun... there is way too much jarring and body beating.

 

With Mean Streak it was more enjoyable to me as I didn't have a headache or a potential bruise when I got off of the ride. The views of lake erie were awesome and I felt the ride had decent speed.... the ride was petty long, longer than I expected.

 

Maybe it is just my lack of experience, but Mean Streak was more enjoyable that I thought it would be.

[Olsor]

Ah, jeez... the "roughness" debate again.

 

Yes, wooden rides shouldn't be as smooth as a brand-new B&M. The charm of wooden rides is that you can feel the vibrations of the ride. A wooden ride, however, should not make you feel like you just spent a round in the octagon in a UFC fight. Mean Streak gave me multiple bruises on my back, and it knocked the snot out of my nose.

 

(I actually enjoy old Arrow loopers, too. Mean Streak < old Arrow loopers.)

 

That said, wooden rides give vastly different rides depending on the time of day, day of the week, month of the year, etc. I totally understand that there are folks out there who have had good or even great rides on wooden coasters that are generally reviled, for various reasons. Voyage and El Toro top my rankings, but I've also had spectacular rides on American Eagle, Zeus, and Cyclone and Thunderbolt at SFNE, none of which rank highly in Mitch's poll. I think that the rides at the top of that poll tend to be the ones that give the most consistent rides.

[dammie16@vt.edu]

Got some interesting replies here.

 

I think another thing that made it better for me was the fact that there was no line. I rode it three times, middle, front, then back, all within about 30 minutes probably not even that.

 

Any ride I can get around a bunch of times in a short period helps me like it more (Kind of like the ever so short Superman Flight at GAdv. that I got to ride 5 times without getting off).

 

P.S. This was the year Maverick was being built so MS was the only ride back there.

[firstbase11897]

Here's the deal about Mean Streak, from what I know.

 

When Mean Streak opened, there was little or no trimming, non on the first drop. After a while, the ride basically began to tear itself apart. It is a huge ride, and wood is only so strong. The ride requires a huge amount of daily maintenance. Unfortunately, Cedar Point believes it isn't cost-effective to spend so much money maintaining the ride while operating it the way it was meant to be. Instead, they trim down the ride on the first drop and to a near halt at the MCBR. All airtime hills are no more.

 

The first time I rode Mean Streak (2004 I believe), I loved it. Every ride since has been a disappointment. Once you get used to the big drops, the ride really loses its thrill due to lack of airtime.

[TheGreatOne]

I can sum it up in one word: Dinn.

 

Predator, Raging Wolf Bobs, Mean Streak...pretty much all of his woodies aged like crap. It doesn't help that CF isn't the best at maintaining a wooden coaster, either.

[ghost007jas]

^ And lets not forget my personal favorite, Psyclone!

 

I wish I could have ridden Mean Streak before the trims. But, I didn't, and when I rode it, it sucked, and that's that.

[verticalzero]

Do any general public or these complaints arrive at CP doorstep so they can see how anyry coaster fans are about MS by them adding a brake to the 1st drop.

 

I rode it in 2000 and it seemed a fine ride by me, but then England can't be rated to have decent woodies.

 

If someone is so annoyed about a ride being braked to death then write to the park to try to get something done about it instead of moaning on a forum.

 

I'm sure the train gets to 50+ mph around it's circuit.

[RCoasterny]

I can sum it up in one word: Dinn.

 

Predator, Raging Wolf Bobs, Mean Streak...pretty much all of his woodies aged like crap. It doesn't help that CF isn't the best at maintaining a wooden coaster, either.

 

Yep. Dinn did a lot of things wrong when constructing his coasters. One thing I noticed absent from Dinn's creations were the stompers. Stompers are long beams of wood that run from the track all the way down to the ground. They add extra reinforcements on high-G areas, such as curving uphill or pulling out from a drop. You can see the stompers from the queue when waiting in line for the Phoenix on the turn around next to the station. They prevent the wood from sagging between the bents.

 

Dinn also placed bents at a fixed interval. I've noticed GCI and probably Intamin placing bents closer together in high-G areas, to provide extra reinforcements. With the bents at a fixed interval, the wood would sag and cause the roughness. Also PTC is known for tearing up wooden track. That's why GCI developed their own train, and even swapped the train out on Hersheypark's Wildcat coaster.

[VivaLaVibora]

The problem with Mean Streak, SOB, Texas Giant, etc. is they're too big. Wood isn't the most durable material and when you start subjecting it to the high forces of a 150+ foot drop things start go bad.

 

Mean Streak is like heaven compared to Texas Giant. Texas Giant is the roughest ride in the history of rides, and pointless to me. The roughest woodies I have tried are 1) Texas Giant, 2) The Boss, and I would say 3) Villain. Gwazi is another ride along with Georgia Cyclone, but GC actually gives me something (airtime), and I really like that ride.

[Hercules]

It was designed by Curtis Summers. That is all you need to know.

[Astat]

In all fairness, Mean Streak does go through periods where it's not THAT rough. I believe the last time I rode it was at the end of the '05 season, and it was relatively smooth (at least for Mean Streak anyway). I kind of think of it like driving over train tracks: Ever notice how sometimes when you go over train tracks without slowing down because you're in a hurry, they actually seem smoother than when you slow down to 15 MPH or whatever you're supposed to? If something's really rough, the slower you go over it, the more opportunity there is to feel every single bump. The trim on the first drop slows Mean Streak down so much that you basically have zero momentum for the rest of the ride, so you just rattle along the entire course.

 

I think it's a great-looking ride with a cool layout, it just really suffers from poor design/construction, as a lot of Dinn woodies do.

[Tanks4me05]

IMO Mean Streak is fun. Sure it hurt, but it still had a good "character" to the ride. I will try to get a night ride in 2009 like TopThrill182 said, and see what I can do. Speaking of which, TopThrill182, what seat is the best on Mean Streak? Does it matter which train? My only trip to CP was in 2004, and I'll finally be going back in 2009 and I had ridden few wooden coasters then (still that number is just over a dozen) and I didn't care for seating, I just wanted a shorter wait.

[coaster05]

I hate it because I rode it that first year when it was awesome. I have rerode it several times since then sometimes just because it is funny. I feel that there is no roughness to it as it is moving to slow to cause any real issues. Course I rarely find a ride to rough, (wolverine wildcat, SOB, coasterexpress) are some of the very few.

 

Bottom lione 1. the ride was designed crappy, 2. CF sucks at maintaining wood coasters. Timbers at MIA is a perfect example, it is designed fine but gets worse every year.

[nagro5]

I rode it last year in the back, and all I have to say is that IT SUCKED! The whole way through the ride all I could hear my family say was ouch this hurts, get me off of this thing, this is like torture, hurry it up, ect. I was grunting through it. When we got back into the station, the ride op said "Welcome back riders, how was your ride?" Yeah, no one answered besides this one guy who said to tear it down. When I go back, I'll try riding it in the front to see if it's any better. If it's not, I'll never be riding it again.

[sfotkid]

If its anything like Texas Giant Migrane, then its a Pos. But we don't have a trim on the drop!

[sfmmrules!]

I didn't mean headbanging. I meant all I ever hear about it is that its very rough. So with all this complaining about Mean Streak, Mean Streak is just as bad as bad as the Grizzly, if not worse? & I thought the Grizzly at CGA was the worst ever! Oh & Physclone. Ok so 3 wood coasters tie for being the worst.

[TopThrill182]

IMO Mean Streak is fun. Sure it hurt, but it still had a good "character" to the ride. I will try to get a night ride in 2009 like TopThrill182 said, and see what I can do. Speaking of which, TopThrill182, what seat is the best on Mean Streak? Does it matter which train? My only trip to CP was in 2004, and I'll finally be going back in 2009 and I had ridden few wooden coasters then (still that number is just over a dozen) and I didn't care for seating, I just wanted a shorter wait.

 

I was beginning to think I was the only one out there that liked it!

 

While its a little harder to do with the addition of Maverick and more people back there, usually if you ride Mean Streak starting an hour before closing trains will start to be dispatched half full, and this is when trims start getting turned off. All three trains deliver the same ride, but sitting in the front is certain to deliver a nicer ride than the back. If you want to get a good ride on it ride front or second car right before closing.

 

I must say that after all this discussion I'm interested to ride MS this year to see how its running.

[sam06pr]

I did not mind Mean Streak at all when I rode it. I do not remember that well the experience but I did not feel it was rough. It was an ok ride. I felt it to be a bit long. I did not think people hated it so much

[SFOGdude25]

Mean Streak is pretty fun in the front seat. That is probably the best bet for smoothness. It also gives you a nice visual experience being completely surrounded by wood. Other than that, It is pretty forceless and boring.

[pkd freak]

Seeing this monster in person is nothing like riding it. I felt like I was on Scooby-Doo.