Ok, so today I finally made it out to SFA for the first time this season. It was ok overall, but Roar is rougher then ever, but more importantly, superman Ride of Steel is SLOW... What on Earth? can anyone confirm my fears that they have turned on the trim brake before the final hill? I was riding it today in the backseat and the ride was about the same all around as last season, but from the que line I could almost see the train travelling slower then I remember and not hitting the brakes with as much force as in prior seasons. Once I got on the ride myself the final hill felt pathetically slow, the train seemed to barely crawl over it, no ejector air no speed, nothing. I swore that I felt the tram brake before this ending being on for the first time ever because it seemed like the train lost a bit of speed when going over it but I'm not certain.

Ok, so is this all in my head or is S:ROS @ SFA being trimmed? :eek:

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"For each path you walk down, there are several others you have to bypass. Maybe walking those paths would have made you happy, maybe they wouldn't have. You'll never know. Choose your path, walk it, and make the best of it."

It has ALWAYS been trimmed. It is a stationary magnetic brake that cannot be turned on or off, or turned up or down. It's always on.

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If you can't stand the heights, get out of the line.

That's true, it can't be changed for any reason.

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I don't feel like manually adding my Track Record, so I'm just going to tell you it's 210.
Towson '09

The blue train has been running slow this season for some reason. There is absolutely no air towards the rear of the train, however, sitting in the front couple of cars will give you outstanding air. Is it possible the slowness could be the result of a different kind of wheels being put on the train that will let it run the course more reliably in cooler weather?

You willn't get any arguement out of me on Roar!

It's tough to tell, but I'd guess the problem lies in the wheel bearings. I mean, when I rode Superman last Sunday, it was in the upper 70s and I rode it around 4pm, well into the opperating day, and it still felt like it was running slow. I've heard that Superman at SFDL does the same thing. What PROBABLY needs to be done is to completly take apart the wheel mount and really clean it out. I mean, the cool weather well tend to make the wheel lubricant less viscous, but when the coaster has been running all day in 77* weather, it's hard to believe that the "cool weather" is what's slowing it down.

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If you can't stand the heights, get out of the line.

I rode once around 5:30 and again about 7:30. The 7:30 ride was awesome, I don't know if it even slowed down in the second helix, I really got some get air, despite being stapled, on the second hill. The bunny hops were great.

Well on opening day it valleyed so it must have been running slow then.

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[QUOTE=coasterdude28]Well on opening day it valleyed so it must have been running slow then.[/QUOTE]
are you serious? jeez... thats unbelievable... normally SFA does a desent job maintaining the rides but this year is pretty horrible...

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"For each path you walk down, there are several others you have to bypass. Maybe walking those paths would have made you happy, maybe they wouldn't have. You'll never know. Choose your path, walk it, and make the best of it."

It did valley on opening day. The ride was set to open opening day and it vallied 15 minutes before park opening. The park does do a excellent job in keeping their coasters up and running. New paint jobs on Mind Eraser, Joker's Jinx, rebuilt the trains on Wild One, Wild One is running the best it's ever ran and it usually doesn't hit a good stride until about mid June. Joker's Jinx was open on opening day, not something that happens every year. The red train is back from off seaon maintenance now, it's like coasterlover said, they just need a little grease here and there and the coaster will be back to being new.

i dunno about wild one, it may have been bad luck luck or something but 2 of my 3 rides of the day on WO the trim before the helix was turned on so high the train literally slow to about 5 mph... really sad. again, may be bad luck and i got 2 watered down rides by chance, but eitherway...

JJ did surprise me, running very well and the new paint is nice. Two Face is running consistently which is a big plus. I guess I shouldn't have summed up the whole parks maintenance being bad just because S:ROS and roar are running horrible right now. I didn't think it was possible for a train to bottom out on a slightly droping overbanked turn, but roar managed to do it last weekend...

o yeah, ME looks nice, but it still runs rough as anything... did it get new trains? or just new "shells" on the cars or what?

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"For each path you walk down, there are several others you have to bypass. Maybe walking those paths would have made you happy, maybe they wouldn't have. You'll never know. Choose your path, walk it, and make the best of it."

Yeah, I agree about Roar being rougher this year, but it's blazing through the course. Wow, it's way more out of control and fun than usual, and I liked it a lot before too. I've never seen Roar run that fast before this year, and I've gotten probably 30 rides in each of the last two years. I actually got some air in several spots from the back row, even though I was stapled (I wasn't paying attention when the ride op pushed my bar down). I like it this year way better, even though the bottoms of several hills feel like the last turn has in the past.

SROS is running very slow, and it's obvious. I told my friends that on physics day while waiting in the (very long) line, and 5 minutes before we were going to get on it, they had to stop the ride and test it with water dummies because it was going so slow. With the 5 dummies they put on, it barely made it through the course. It was seriously crawling at the end. I also think it's the wheels that are the problem. They need to see what SFNE is doing to keep their Superman running fast, and do the same thing to SFA's Superman. The slow speed is really detrimental to the ride. Riders are noticeably less excited after the ride now than in past years, where they used to cheer and clap and have their hands way in the air at the end of the ride.

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Check out my NL recreation, Superman SFNE! http://www.thrillnetwork.com/boards/...ad.php?t=33703

[QUOTE=PANTSFREE]i dunno about wild one, it may have been bad luck luck or something but 2 of my 3 rides of the day on WO the trim before the helix was turned on so high the train literally slow to about 5 mph... really sad. again, may be bad luck and i got 2 watered down rides by chance, but eitherway...
[/QUOTE]

I've been getting some pretty amazing airtime on Wild One and having the air brake on going into the helix hasn't affected the g-forces of it. The helix is the only point in the ride I have to put my arms down. I wonder if the computer controls the brake based on the speed of the train?

[QUOTE=PANTSFREE]
... and roar are running horrible right now. I didn't think it was possible for a train to bottom out on a slightly droping overbanked turn, but roar managed to do it last weekend...
[/QUOTE]

Roar was doing the same thing last season. I'm wondering if the supports are beginning to settle in the ground and that's causing that last overbanked turn to feel extremely rough.

[QUOTE=PANTSFREE]
o yeah, ME looks nice, but it still runs rough as anything... did it get new trains? or just new "shells" on the cars or what?[/QUOTE]

They just painted the old shells. Everything is the same. In fact, you can still see a little bit of the red paint on the bottom of the seat for the old red train.

o ok, the last turn on ROAR was deffinately rough last season, but I was actually talking about the 270 degree turn after the first camel back hill. At the lowest part of that turn the train bottomed out and really caught me off guard.

I should be heading back there next weekend, hopefully things will run a bit smoother overall, but I'm mostly looking at Superman...

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"For each path you walk down, there are several others you have to bypass. Maybe walking those paths would have made you happy, maybe they wouldn't have. You'll never know. Choose your path, walk it, and make the best of it."

I hope SFDL's isn't like this. Sadly in the 2 weekends it has been open I haven't been able to get there. I'll get back to you once I do.

Funny thing, I had a similarily slow expearence with Millennium Force two years back. It was earily June and it was oddly quite cool out and it was running SLOW. I mean for MF it was slow, still damn fast. The third hill (out to the island) was exceptionally lacking that year. Even in the fround car you barily would catch any air. At least it was running good last year :). The other things I've noticed recently is that MF lost it's roar. I remember standing in line next to the station back in 2001 and you could hear the ride rumble and roar when the train was still out on the island and when it went by it was like a sonic boom. I loved the noise, I don't know what they did to it but MF isn't as fast *or* as load as she used to be. Not as pretty either... It needs a paint job here soon.

ride6

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Ne- RCT to the Max- http://www.nedesigns.com
"What's so Civil about war anyway?"- Guns N' Roses

im thinking its funny how people may end up regretting their continuos praise of intamin as the greatest coaster designers in the history of all time as their rides from the earlys 00's and late 90's like volcano, superman, MF and such seem to be continuing to age horribly.

I haven't been on volcano this season [and i most likely won't] but every year since it opened back in 98 has been worse and worse in terms of smoothness. obviously superman hasn't been up to par this season...

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"For each path you walk down, there are several others you have to bypass. Maybe walking those paths would have made you happy, maybe they wouldn't have. You'll never know. Choose your path, walk it, and make the best of it."

I rode volcano back in what must've been 2002 or so. Damn good ride, smooth as glass man. I still hail Intamins as some of the greatest rides constructed in recent memory. I never really lost the love of MF and I love impulse coasters. Frankly though I haven't been on many of the above mentioned rides thanks to the fact that I get to very few park (2-3) each year. Only Cedar Point and Indiana Beach this year polly.

Oh and just look at how wonderfuly B&M's stand ups have aged (With the exception of RR and possibly Chang). Every company has some bad stuff in their past. However I think Intamin is on a roll since they are continuing to creat amazing ride expearences (Storm Runner) where B&M is making slowish, overly smooth and forceless coasters (Silver Bullet).

ride6

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Ne- RCT to the Max- http://www.nedesigns.com
"What's so Civil about war anyway?"- Guns N' Roses

theres deffinately no excuse for B&M since the 99 season, ever since that season there rides have lost nearly all forces, although they are smooth and do provide a couple of nice thrills [exception of AC and Nitro being made because those rides are pretty awesome IMO]. But I still think the B&M's after Kumba up through the 97 season are still the cream of the crop personally... even now with Busch overbraking Montu and Alpengeist they are incredible rides.

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"For each path you walk down, there are several others you have to bypass. Maybe walking those paths would have made you happy, maybe they wouldn't have. You'll never know. Choose your path, walk it, and make the best of it."

well after 3 different trips tro six flags, heres the rundown on superman...

1st trip - ran really slow.
2nd trip - never opened.
3rd trip [last friday] - ran exceptionally with both trains giving great fast rides.

hopefully #3 will be the general idea for the rest of the season.

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"For each path you walk down, there are several others you have to bypass. Maybe walking those paths would have made you happy, maybe they wouldn't have. You'll never know. Choose your path, walk it, and make the best of it."

Yeah, Superman is giving some fantastic rides in the front side, the further back you go, the less airtime you get but you get beat up more. Road four times in one hour on Saturday. It seems I'm jinxing the red train. Whenever I get close to riding in the front row on it, something happens and they have to pull it off the track. Happened twice on Saturday (airgate problems as soon as I stepped in and buckled up) and once while I was in the station before it opened on Sunday.

[QUOTE=pretzel-loop]Yeah, Superman is giving some fantastic rides in the front side, the further back you go, the less airtime you get but you get beat up more. Road four times in one hour on Saturday. It seems I'm jinxing the red train. Whenever I get close to riding in the front row on it, something happens and they have to pull it off the track. Happened twice on Saturday (airgate problems as soon as I stepped in and buckled up) and once while I was in the station before it opened on Sunday.[/QUOTE]
something like that happened to me, but with the blue train...

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"For each path you walk down, there are several others you have to bypass. Maybe walking those paths would have made you happy, maybe they wouldn't have. You'll never know. Choose your path, walk it, and make the best of it."

[QUOTE=CoasterKid23]I hope SFDL's isn't like this. Sadly in the 2 weekends it has been open I haven't been able to get there. I'll get back to you once I do.[/QUOTE]

SFDL's was running good when I was there (6/8).

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