The roughness of coasters on TPR

[mrngh2]

I've never understood the overall notion on this site that every ride generally should be glass smooth or its horrible. Unless we are discussing Ghostrider pre-revamp I don't understand. Even apocalypse at SFMM gets so much hate. It's very shaky but I've never seen it as "painful". Is it a matter of just preference for a smooth ride or am I missing something. I've always thought a somewhat rough ride adds to the overall experience for me.

[cfc]

Ride this.

 

 

Bandit at Movie Park in Germany

 

Then we'll talk.

[Nrthwnd]

^ I was gonna say that one, but hey - it's world wide!...

 

Anaconda

Walygator Parc (Maizières-les-Metz, Lorraine, France)

 

That's another that was supposed to be re-wooded...or something.

Back then though, it was pure..... manure.

 

Listen, while coasters world-wide sometimes go through a lot of

roughness, which is sadly never corrected sometimes, these are

the true "Lowest of The Low" when it comes to rough coasters. IMhO.

 

And for the steelies' side, the original SLC (Condor -Ick), in Wallibi Holland.

You can actually hear riders suddenly crying out in pain on the thing!

 

I'll make drinks, while we talk.

And just because - this is the onride photo of me and Miles on INFUSION at Blackpool. We were NOT amused. )o:

TPR 2010 UK Tour.

[bill_s]

The "world's worst" is irrelevant to the question. Some very good coasters are complained about; smoothness seems considered the most important aspect. Further, some of the complainers are young -- when I was that age, intensity was #1, and roughness increased it. And I'm still riding coasters they can't stand 30 years later. I might limp out of bed the next morning but I can't stop riding them.

[Nrthwnd]

^ I agree with what you say. I myself, at 63 now, am still enjoying coasters which really still have that edge (and a bit over) of roughness to them.

 

But then, there are some coasters I have been on, world wide, that even the other ages (teens, 20s, 30s+)

are freaking out about. En masse. They are really rough, rough enough to the point of bruising, which isn't fun.

I find that with some OTSRs on steel coasters. But that's me.

 

But what can you do? Don't ride them, or do ride them. It's your choice.

And it's always best to ride it if YOU want to, without everybody's opinion on it.

Forwards or backwards, Indy Jones coaster in DLP, sucks. I think this is me waving for help, going backwards.

Edited May 7, 2016 by Nrthwnd

[A.J.]

I've never understood the overall notion on this site that every ride generally should be glass smooth or its horrible. Unless we are discussing Ghostrider pre-revamp I don't understand. Even apocalypse at SFMM gets so much hate. It's very shaky but I've never seen it as "painful". Is it a matter of just preference for a smooth ride or am I missing something. I've always thought a somewhat rough ride adds to the overall experience for me.

You have the super glass-smooth coasters that everyone likes, and then you have the downright painful ones (poorly-maintained Vekomas, RCCA wooden coasters, Zamperla Volares, etc). But in between those is a huge area made up of exactly 50% gray. The way all the coasters in that gray area are arranged is going to be different no matter where you go or who you talk to.

 

Example, Twister at Knoebels is in that gray area for me. It's definitely a rough-and-tumble wooden coaster and it can give me a headache sometimes but I don't think it's horrible. Likewise, I'm not the biggest fan of Mystery Mine at Dollywood, at least in terms of roughness - but as a complete experience it's really good!

[Nrthwnd]

^ Totally agree with this.

Sorry to add, but Regina (for myself) was pretty overly-rough. Tobu Zoo, Japan. TPR 2011 Japan Tour.

[CPmillenia94]

 

Example, Twister at Knoebels is in that gray area for me. It's definitely a rough-and-tumble wooden coaster and it can give me a headache sometimes but I don't think it's horrible.

 

On that note I found twister running exceptionally well this year...

 

Twister is a tough one because there is another grey area where coasters become so forceful that the smallest jolts can be really jarring. I think this is what causes so many people to find rides like alpengeist rough..

[Physical]

Example, Twister at Knoebels is in that gray area for me.

 

Slightly off topic, but... I felt the same way... last season. If you make your way out there this year, the new wood really does make an unreal amount of difference. It's glass smooth now, with a very minor bump at the bottom of the 2nd helix.

[Henry M]

The best example for me as to how roughness ruins a ride, go on Colossus at Thorpe Park at the front (smooth) and back (rough as hell) . In the front it is an amazing coaster, one of the best I have been on, but anywhere else and it is completely awful. You get cramps in your arms from trying to stop the harness punching you in the face the whole ride. However, it is untameable and I came off with a headache.

 

I know what you mean by roughness adding to the experience, and it can do, but there is a limit.

[Pirate]

I know there are rough coasters, but is there such thing as a rough flat ride?

[coasterbill]

Yeah but that B&M rattle though...

 

PS: Anyone that thinks Twister at Knoebels is rough or has ever been rough is a complete bitch (sorry AJ, you're the best lol) Go ride a rattly B&M like Gatekeeper or Fury or Valravn to experience true pain and suffering

[cfc]

^I feel the same way about people who complain that Verbolten is "rough."

Edited May 7, 2016 by cfc

[MisterP]

As far as steel coasters, to me it's about the restraints 95% of the time.

 

Even bone breakers like Ninja here at SFSTL or Anaconda at KD or the old GASM at SFGAdv would be 100 times more tolerable without the awful OTSRs.

 

Ditto for every Vekoma SLC.

 

I guess I understand the need for those awful restraint systems, but they essentially ruin rides could be so much better with a less-painful system...at least IMO...

[DoinItForTheFame]

^I feel the same way about people who complain that Verbolten is "rough."

 

 

Anyone who says Verbolten is rough has either:

 

1.) Never been on Verbotlen

 

-and/or:

 

2.) Fallen out of the stupid tree, and been hit by every branch on the way down.

 

There is no way Verbolten is rough. Having ridden it 18 times in one day recently, I never once found any moment of the ride to be even remotely rough. If Verbolten is rough then Son Of Beast was glass smooth.

[Samuel]

The "world's worst" is irrelevant to the question. Some very good coasters are complained about; smoothness seems considered the most important aspect. Further, some of the complainers are young -- when I was that age, intensity was #1, and roughness increased it. And I'm still riding coasters they can't stand 30 years later. I might limp out of bed the next morning but I can't stop riding them.

 

* While a little shimmy here and there doesn't bother me too much, I am glad that the old notion of "enduring" a coaster is going out the window. Intensity can be done well (SkyRush, Toro), but too often it's cited in an attempt to camouflage a simply inexcusable coaster. Around 2000, I can't tell you how often Six Flags framed its crappier rides as challenges, trials, and dares that riders would have to overcome. "This Boomerang is awful, so try to survive! Will you dare!? Also, Corn Nutz." I'm glad we're seeing RMC, GCI rehabs, and lots of different train modifications to revitalize ride experiences. Enduring pain = not fun!

 

* Some people like to grow an ego within hobby communities -- this should be news to no one. Surely our opinions vary, but we've all seen those people who play characters: I've met the "everything is flawed!" scrutinizer, the "you just don't know how to ride" defender, and the "universally-praised coasters are for babies" tough guy at different events over the years. Establishing a rogue identity by way of constant complaining about good rides or false praise for bad rides are two ways it's done. Hopefully, we can see that egoism for what it is, and not take it as a truthful appraisal of a coaster.

 

* From first-hand experience, I've ridden Magnum and thought that it was truly the best coaster at Cedar Point during some trips, and at other times it's aggressively unpleasant and in the "once was enough" category. So right there I have two real, yet conflicting experiences on it. It's been the same story for me with GG woodies -- top-ten rides or brace yourself.

 

* We also have a community tendency to magnify the nuances between coasters, and also the nuances of a given ride in a particular seat, before/after rehab work, during a certain time of the day, etc. It can and often does get into nitpicking, but it's not unusual for people steeped in a hobby to develop - and debate - their refined palettes. So long as it's civil, I do enjoy "talking coasters."

 

* People vary by size and ride preference! Like the old RCT ratings, we have the full gamete of intensity and nausea preferences, plus so many different body types and sizes. Just my knees smacking around the inside of an old Arrow mine train car is enough to taint the experience for me, but others might feel that they are smooth and have aged gracefully.

 

In short, it's complicated!

[XII]

I've never understood the overall notion on this site that every ride generally should be glass smooth or its horrible. Unless we are discussing Ghostrider pre-revamp I don't understand. Even apocalypse at SFMM gets so much hate. It's very shaky but I've never seen it as "painful". Is it a matter of just preference for a smooth ride or am I missing something. I've always thought a somewhat rough ride adds to the overall experience for me.

While I will admit that I definitely think that many people in the coaster enthusiast community are too sensitive to roughness, complaining about rides that aren't that rough. I will admit that while Apocalypse is definitely rougher, it hasn't gotten painful rough yet. Hell, I even see people complain about the roughness of rides like Scream and the Incredible Hulk (Seriously?).

 

With that said, there are those coasters out there that are legitimately painful and are as bad as everyone says they are. Rides like Gouderix, Dragon @ Adventureland, and Bandit, yeah. Those rides REALLY hurt and you don't want to go anywhere near them. I don't think you've ridden one of these rides, cause you wouldn't be saying that people are exaggerating about roughness on rides like those.

[Nrthwnd]

Colossus at Thorpe Park = A HEADACHE every time I rode it.

 

And yet, this Ten Inversion Coaster in China wasn't that bad.

 

Huh.

[coasterbill]

^^While I do obviously have a massive ego I just want to point out that you're all just jealous that I know how to tame even the meanest of all streaks and I'm not falsely praising a bad ride you guys just can't handle the meanness.

[cfc]

Colossus at Thorpe Park = A HEADACHE every time I rode it.

 

And yet, this Ten Inversion Coaster in China wasn't that bad.

 

Huh.

 

This is true. The same model actually runs better in China and was much more enjoyable.

[Samuel]

^^While I do obviously have a massive ego I just want to point out that you're all just jealous that I know how to tame even the meanest of all streaks and I'm not falsely praising a bad ride you guys just can't handle the meanness.

 

Haha, I don't mind Mean Streak, either. I always thought it fit under "most under-performing coaster" rather than most violent. But that's nothing! I once rode Steel Phantom 300 times in a row, and I got my ears pierced before I went on because that "no earrings" policy is for losers!

[Nrthwnd]

Colossus at Thorpe Park = A HEADACHE every time I rode it.

 

And yet, this Ten Inversion Coaster in China wasn't that bad.

 

Huh.

 

This is true. The same model actually runs better in China and was much more enjoyable.

 

NOTE: China got one right!

[neil009]

The "world's worst" is irrelevant to the question. Some very good coasters are complained about; smoothness seems considered the most important aspect. Further, some of the complainers are young -- when I was that age, intensity was #1, and roughness increased it. And I'm still riding coasters they can't stand 30 years later. I might limp out of bed the next morning but I can't stop riding them.

 

* While a little shimmy here and there doesn't bother me too much, I am glad that the old notion of "enduring" a coaster is going out the window. Intensity can be done well (SkyRush, Toro), but too often it's cited in an attempt to camouflage a simply inexcusable coaster. Around 2000, I can't tell you how often Six Flags framed its crappier rides as challenges, trials, and dares that riders would have to overcome. "This Boomerang is awful, so try to survive! Will you dare!? Also, Corn Nutz." I'm glad we're seeing RMC, GCI rehabs, and lots of different train modifications to revitalize ride experiences. Enduring pain = not fun!

 

* Some people like to grow an ego within hobby communities -- this should be news to no one. Surely our opinions vary, but we've all seen those people who play characters: I've met the "everything is flawed!" scrutinizer, the "you just don't know how to ride" defender, and the "universally-praised coasters are for babies" tough guy at different events over the years. Establishing a rogue identity by way of constant complaining about good rides or false praise for bad rides are two ways it's done. Hopefully, we can see that egoism for what it is, and not take it as a truthful appraisal of a coaster.

 

* From first-hand experience, I've ridden Magnum and thought that it was truly the best coaster at Cedar Point during some trips, and at other times it's aggressively unpleasant and in the "once was enough" category. So right there I have two real, yet conflicting experiences on it. It's been the same story for me with GG woodies -- top-ten rides or brace yourself.

 

* We also have a community tendency to magnify the nuances between coasters, and also the nuances of a given ride in a particular seat, before/after rehab work, during a certain time of the day, etc. It can and often does get into nitpicking, but it's not unusual for people steeped in a hobby to develop - and debate - their refined palettes. So long as it's civil, I do enjoy "talking coasters."

 

* People vary by size and ride preference! Like the old RCT ratings, we have the full gamete of intensity and nausea preferences, plus so many different body types and sizes. Just my knees smacking around the inside of an old Arrow mine train car is enough to taint the experience for me, but others might feel that they are smooth and have aged gracefully.

 

In short, it's complicated!

 

This is a really good post, I pretty much agree with all of this. I remember all of my rides last year at HWN on the Voyage were as smooth as it gets, EXCEPT for a single ride towards the middle of the train that felt like we were riding on a broken axle. Constant jack-hammering through the whole course, it was awful. So it really comes down to three things I think: The same ride giving inconsistent experiences depending on conditions, different people having different tolerance level for roughness same as nausea, intensity and anything else, and seasoned riders exaggerating differences between rides due to refined palettes. That about sums it up.

 

That said, I think it's always worth pointing out that "roughness" has many different meanings. Some people call any coasters with strong laterals "rough", regardless of how smooth and well maintained the track itself is.

[bf9]

The only legitimately painful experiences I've had were Alton Towers' Corckscrew, Windjammer, Manhattan Express or whatever it's called now, and Psyclone and Flashback at SFMM. All of these rides went over the line of bearable to horrible and headache inducing and I'm glad almost all of them are dead.

[xVicesAndVirtues]

I think that, in a lot of cases, it comes down to maintenance. I've had experiences where I rode a coaster once on Train 1 and had a rough ride, then rode again on Train 2 and had a great ride. At the same time, when people used to complain about old-Hulk being rough, I used to truly wonder if somehow every time I rode it I was teleported to alternate-reality Hulk, because I've ridden it ten times in a row and never thought it was rough.

 

I will say, though, at risk of everyone saying I'm out of my mind, that last week on my Germany trip when I rode Colossos at Heide Park, it was pretty bad. Like brain-stem-slamming bad at the bottoms of the hills bad. Didn't stop me from multiple rides, but I definitely had a lasting headache. I rode El Toro most recently last year and while there's some violent patches ie the turn-around, I think it's an incredibly great coaster. I was really looking forward to Colossos and I found that while the airtime was still great, the shuffling and jostling of the trains was pretty punishing.

 

Also, since someone mentioned ColossUs at Thorpe Park being really rough, is this a common theme with Merlin parks not maintaining coasters well? I felt like Flug Der Damonen was shuffling much more than I remember Gatekeeper or Wild Eagle doing, and Limit was an incredibly enduring experience.

 

Maybe I woke up on the wrong side of bed that morning.