I was just curious how people go about judging wooden coasters. Golden Ticket or otherwise. For instance, I love The Raven and The Legend at Holiday World. The Legend is much longer and seems to me to have everything The Raven has and more but it never ranks as high as The Raven. Why? Just curious. I have had the privilege of riding several top ten wooden coasters but no top ten steel coasters as of yet. I think Raging Bull at number 11 is the highest rated steel coaster I've ridden. At any rate, just curious about how one judges a wooden coaster.

It is all based on personal preference. Plus the golden ticket awards is rigged since the same coasters win year after year. Though I do agree with Superman: Ride of Steel taking best steel coaster. If you like it, you like it. Thats really how it works. Don't just follow what other say. Tell what you think and stick to it.

__________________

The Legend is really high on lateral G's, and some people don't like that. I think the intense lats are the reason Raven rates higher than Legend. I'm a fan of lats, so Legend's ranked high on my list.

Alan, the Golden Tickets aren't rigged. I think it's really more of the system that's used. A big concentration of the people who vote in the Golden Tickets are set in one region, and voting is based on regions. So if there's a majority of people in one region who haven't visited another region or have only been to a few parks in that region, the list isn't going to change much.

__________________
ThrillNetwork editor emeritus
Voyage is the best roller coaster ever.
Raptor ride count - 1,146.

I agree with you that Legend has the lateral g's. I honestly like to ride it alone so when i fly side to side I"m not upsetting someone I don't know lol. I think bigger isn't necessarily better. I love the Boss and Evil K at SFSL but if I had to pick I would rather ride Evil K more back to back than the Boss. I do like the Boss and the site of it is impressive but it can bang you up a bit much. I guess I agree with Alan in you like what you like. Thunderhead is great also,I could ride it all day long. I make it a point to be sure and get the woodies in when I visit a new park.

It's all in the mind, and it's a personal thing - like pizza (everybody has their favorite that they think is BEST).

For me its all about airtime and how smooth it is. I also like laterals.

__________________
"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 usually judge a wooden coaster by its looks an personality, and also if it likes me back.

As for our steel situation, is Raging Bull really at number 11? I mean, I'm sure any person would agree that at least fifteen of these steel coasters are better than Raging Bull; Nitro, Apollo's Chariot, Goliath (South), Goliath (North), Diamondback, Behemoth, Bizarro (SFNE), Millenium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, Kingda Ka, Storm Runner, Xcelerator, Volcano, Alpengeist, Bizarro (SFGAdv), Dominator, Raptor, Montu, Afterburn, Hulk, Dueling Dragons, Kumba, and Superman Krypton Coaster.

And those are only B&Ms and Intamins, and only the North American ones.

So yea, I'm pretty sure I consider Raging Bull to be as fun as Silver Bullet. Which is fun because they have the same theme.

I was going by the golden ticket awards where Raging bull was number 11 in 2001, 2006, 2008. While checking I found it was #9 in 2005 so it makes me feel good that I have cracked the top ten in steel also (according to golden ticket standards that is).

I think I agree that judging is all relative to the person. For instance, I believe I read that at one time looping steel coasters were all the rage but currently out and backs are all the rage. I enjoy wooden twisters (Thunderhead, Evel Kneivel) and wooden out and backs (Voyage, Boss, Screaming Eagle). I still like a loop in a steel coaster. Oh well its all relative. I was just curious I suppose how the offical golden ticket people judge. I suppose I should have started with their website. I was just making coaster conversation.

As far as how a coaster looks, I don't think anything is as pretty as a wooden twister with wooden supports. All that wood is just amazing.

I judge it solely on its trick track. If it has none, then it's a zero

__________________
ThrillNetwork Webmaster/Systems Administrator -- My Official Fansite -- Get Firefox!
Everytime I ride a coaster, it valleys. I've never been on a stalled coaster or had one roll back (except Wicked Twister and what was Superman: Ultimate Escape, which does that by design).

I judge base it on the same things I judge other coasters by:
Layout & Length
Theme/Environment
Forces
Smoothness

One wooden coaster that a lot of people seem to love except for me is Wildcat at HersheyPark. I hated it when it had PTC trains and hated it still with Millennium Flyers. I think it is one of the roughest coasters I have been on regardless of train and will avoid it if I can now.

__________________
ThrillNetwork Moderator
The user formerly known as WildeFyre
UOIT Mechanical Engineering Student

Remember Ryan, you are not the only one with Wildcat. I don't really like the layout. I guess the 2nd half of it is okay. Neither trains have done anything to improve it for me. If I had to not ride a woodie at Hershey during a visit it would be that one.

Layout is number one with me. For that reason I like Roar! Two is airtime. Phoenix I think has a boring Figure 8 layout. The tunnel before the lift is neat. The coaster looks really kept up. It's the ridiculous airtime that gets me. (That's after El Toro now) Three is forces. El Toro is so extreme with the airtime. Silver Comet has a ridiculous I guess lateral forces near the end of the ride. It's one of my favorites. I hate any kind of rattling/ratcheting in turns like I saw at the end of Rolling Thunder, near the end of Swamp Fox, the terrible helixes of Son of Beast. I hate coasters that banked too much for their slow, slow speeds like Pscyclone, the ruined Hercules, and now the SFOG Georgia Cyclone.

__________________
Thrillnetwork Moderator - Sophomore Original sn: CHILLERLC1
2008 & 2009 TN Coaster Draft Champion
You knew I wanted the other repeat too

In reality, it does boil down to personal preferences. I have a few extra factors that are a bit different than most:

1: Ride must have airtime (duh) - preferably the freaking insane ejector. The more the merrier.

2: Pacing, pacing, pacing.

3: High lats

4: Must be in the "Goldie Locks Zone" of roughness - this is actually rather rough. It has to be very aggressive/rambunctious/whatever, but still a few notches away from painful. The closer to this without going over the better. IMO the coasters that meet this roughness of the ones that I've been on are TGE Comet (#2) Knoebels Phoenix in the back seat (#3) HP Wildcat (#4) Minebuster (#6 - I don't give a crap about what people say, I think it's good) and Wild Beast (#8)

5: If I have a tie in my top ten list, the tiebreaker is whichever coaster has a more original layout.

I have to agree with those that say never use any rankings or ride reviews to make your judgement of a coaster.....my all-time favorite coaster in the world is Titan (Six Flags Over Texas), yet it has never ranked higher than #26 on the Golden Tickets in it's existence.

As far as wooden coasters, I've had a better experience on out and back layouts than twisters/cyclones. The reason: Floater airtime where you glide back down on your seat rather than being slammed hard back down in a painful manner. So rides like Great American Scream Machine (SFOG), American Eagle (SFGAm), Wildcat (Frontier City), and Judge Roy Scream (SFOT) rank higher in my opinion.

__________________
ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator (Originally known as Hurricane)

It's time to play some DEFENSE!

GASM and floater airtime in the same sentence. You've got to be kidding. That coaster slams me so hard, I stopped riding it for a while. I'll ride Ninja before GASM.

__________________

It's been a long while since I rode it -- summer 2003. So it may have changed since then. But I remember very well experiencing floating sensation on it. But the hard braking at the end got me of guard.

__________________
ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator (Originally known as Hurricane)

It's time to play some DEFENSE!

^Yeah, GASM has aged through the years. I rode it back in '03 also. It seems like GASM was smooth back then and Cyclone was rough. Now it's the other way around.

__________________

I think it's kind of silly that anyone says the Golden Tickets are rigged, fake, or even say they don't agree with them and point you to another poll or list. If you really look at any major or respected list, you'll see there a lot of the same. The top 10 in both steel and wood categories are dominated by many of the same coasters on numerous lists. It must mean that people really like certain coasters otherwise they wouldn't keep making the list year after year and on many different lists.

With wood coasters, the main thing I judge them on is how much I enjoy it. Speed, height, a steep drop can all make a wood coaster a lot more thrilling and fun but sometimes it makes for a horrible wood coaster as well such as Son Of Beast. Others like The Voyage and Hades and more do it right.

__________________
YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

I was fascinated that Son of the Beast was the only woodie to actully have a loop since wooden coasters aren't really able to pull that off very well. However, they removed the loop and the coaster is shut down now. I haven't heard much good about Son of the Beast. Most comments I read say its dangerously rough.

^Do not go by people's opinions. You might just be missing out on your favorite coaster of all time. Take me for instance: Of the six Boomerangs I've been on, I liked them all. (Darien Lake, Hershey, TGE, SFNE, LC, and CW)

I was expecting complete crap on virtually every coaster at CW, and I actually had a fun time on ALL of them. I heard nothing but crap about Wild Beast and Minebuster, but both are in my top ten wooden list.

Just like the New York State Lottery's slogan: "Hey, you never know."

I still went on SoB to get the wooden record and just judge how rough it is. I survived the 3 or so minimum times I've been on it.

__________________
Thrillnetwork Moderator - Sophomore Original sn: CHILLERLC1
2008 & 2009 TN Coaster Draft Champion
You knew I wanted the other repeat too

I judge wooden coasters with this in my criteria...

*Speed
*Laterals
*Airtime
*Is it fun?
*Does it have jostling, bouncing, potholes?
*Would I ride this again and again?
*Is this coaster worth for me coming back to (insert any park name here)?

Most coasters I can tolerate. It really takes a bad one for me to come off and say, omg why did I just ride that and waste my time? In fact, I really don't have a top ten or list anymore. I like different coasters for different reasons. They all give a different experience and make them to me very unique and would go back and ride them again for that reason.

__________________
~ThrillNetwork's Social Networking Director~
This signature is up for rent.

Gee, maybe by speed, G's and airtime. Maybe if a ride is uncomfortable they dont rate it as high.

__________________
Rollercoasters are my life, and so are B&M'S .
Oh yeah, MF is awesome too.
And TTD is great too.
Ride on Ride Warriors.