Wooden coasters

[Dailey Enterprizes]

I'm basically on the same boat as everyone else when it comes to roughness. There is much difference between good old fashion roughness and just plain suckiness rough. I mean the Thunderbolt at Kennywood

 

 

uses trains that are big, heavy, and don't even use the seat dividers or headrests and it is considered by many a fun coaster. Now the Mean Streak at Cedar Point

 

 

just plain sucks. I mean the trim brakes make the ride incredibly boring first off, so it's not bad enough that the train is going very slow, but it's very rough in spots it shouldn't be rough in. Meaning that I expect all wooden coasters to be rough in the corners, but not in the friggin drops and dips.

[cannonballer]

Its all subjective!!!!

One mans "That thing beat the hell out of me!" is another mans "That thing was badassed!!!".

 

I like a little roughness myself but smooth woodies like thunderhead and Kentucky Rumbler are like heaven while TOO rough woodies and even some steel coasters are pure hell! However there are alot of people that would disagree with me when I say The Scream Machine at SFOG is a bone crushing monster. Why?

ITS ALL SUBJECTIVE!

Like art, music, and even brussel sprouts!

[Blazen_AZN]

You KNOW you need to get out more when your favorite woodie is PSYCLONE. Even i admit that it hurts, but it doesn't really ruin the ride for me. Front row of the first car, on the first hill into the first turnaround = OMG AIRTIME/LATERALS, only for a split second though, it HURTS but its also damn good!

 

... Anyone esle notice the extreme lack of airtime us californian's suffer???

[robbalvey]

I don't mind a wooden coaster being "aggressive" as long as it's "good" - woodies like TusenFryd's Thunder Coaster or SFOG's Cyclone come to mind.

 

I *prefer* smoother coasters - like all the Intamin pre-fabs, Dania Beach Hurricane, Phoenix, Raven, Silver Comet, Aska, Viper, Cyclops, Jack Rabbit, etc, etc....

 

What I don't get is people who say "Woodies are supposed to be rough or I want to get thrown around and beaten up." Hell, you can HAVE those woodies. IMO, *NO* ride should do that do you.

 

If you walk off a ride with a headache or backache there is SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE RIDE!!!!!

 

I totally guarantee you, will put $100 bucks on it right now, that if you went and talked to the people who designed and built some of the now "rough" woodies, that was NOT their original intention!!!!

 

Most woodies have gotten rough because either the original design was flawed, the construction was shotty, or the park doesn't take care of the ride. Designers do not intentionally design a ride to be "rough and uncomfortable."

 

I'm damn sure that if Mike Boodley rode Gwazi today, or Larry Bill rode GhostRider is it's current condition, those guys would be pretty dissapointed. Because both those coasters were AWESOME when they first opened, and now, I personally find them borderline "unrideable."

 

IMO, if I were in charge of the world, I'd replace all wooden coaster track with Intamin's pre-fab stuff. The way those coasters track, IMO, is the "perfect" wooden coaster. Nice and smooth, all the airtime you could want (just watch all the people in our recent Liseberg segment), but still "feels" like a wooden coaster. (anyone that says the Intamin's are "too smooth" is just insane.)

 

--Robb

[cannonballer]

^Completely agree!!!

 

BUT ALOT of it is maintence I think. If The Cannonball can be as smooth as it is 40 + years later why cannot the Scream Machine SFOG (same builder) be half as smooth?

 

I think its because Lake winnie cares about The Cannonball and Six flags could care less about their woodies!. I could be wrong though.

 

What really bothers me is when people tell me that they HATE woodies cause they rough em up too much. After I find out they may have only ridden 2 or 3 in their life, I beg and plead with them and try to convince them their are smoother woodies out there.

[BeemerBoy]

I don't mind a wooden coaster being "aggressive" as long as it's "good" - woodies like TusenFryd's Thunder Coaster or SFOG's Cyclone come to mind.

 

Although I disagree with you on the GA Cyclone (a bit too brutal for my taste), I'll add to this with The Voyage. I think it's a perfect example of fun "aggressiveness."

[Jumboshrmp]

I'm damn sure that if Mike Boodley rode Gwazi today, or Larry Bill rode GhostRider is it's current condition, those guys would be pretty dissapointed. Because both those coasters were AWESOME when they first opened, and now, I personally find them borderline "unrideable."

 

Actually, I'm pretty sure I remember an interview with GCI, and when the person brought up a question about Gwazi, they seemed kinda embarassed.

[djrappa]

I would have to say I'm a little from column A and a little from column B on this one...

I thoroughly enjoyed Thunder Coaster and Balder both pretty much the same on the UK trip for two very different reasons, although I would definately say Balder is easily the better (or best?) coaster.

 

Balder was fast as hell, airtime like you couldn't believe (hell the a$$holes wrode this thing standing up!) and smooth as at the same time. It certainly didn't feel like a steel coaster but it was very smoothe.

 

Thunder Coaster (and I'm only talking about in the rain here mind you, in the day I was seriously left wondering why we came) on the other hand had that bat out of hell out of control feeling down pat. The thing was flying around the track and you thought you might die it was so wicked.

 

Two very different experiences but both great IMO. I wouldn't rate TC as 'rough' though.

 

Then again Robb will shoot me because I still think Ghostrider is great. I only got to ride it for the first time 3 and a half years ago and again last year so I never wrode it when it was apparently amazing. But for me it had the whole out of control, not going to let up thing happening which I think rocks. To be honest though I've never had it beat me up so if it got to that point I would have to change my mind.

 

 

The same can't be said for the now detroyed Beast at Wonderland in Sydney, that thing was MEAN AND BRUTAL!