X2 is being retired...

Magic Mountain posted on Instagram that X2 will be retired.

I got to ride this for the first...and last time when TylerWS and I visited earlier this year. I remember walking off thinking it was the most intense coaster I've ever ridden...even more so than Pantherian. It is such an incredibly flawed coaster, but the things it does well are so good that it's in my Top 10. I understand why it needs to be put down, but I'm sad about it.

I guess it's time to book a trip to Japan...

I rode this just a few years after it opened, and wow... what an incredible experience. But I haven't been on it since and it sure sounds like it didn't age well. I hate to see any unique ride head to the scrap heap but after the many incidents over the years, it's time.

Plagued. Plagued is the word for this ride.

I rode it back in 06 and it was awesome, too bad it couldn't have been fixed. I am sure the costs would have exceeded what the park was willing to accept. Wondering what impact this may have on Viper and Nija as they have been rumored to be on the chopping block?

Looking to the future, I am expecting the company to put a lot of focus back into this park and really re-shape this park (fingers crossed). But it's going to take years. Is there any chance this doesn't happen? Or could it be at a much smaller scale?

Rough 2026: Lost Kumba, AireForce, & X.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I won't mourn it.

Great idea, awful implementation.

The one and only time I rode it was about 10 years ago and it was the most painful riding experience I've ever had in my life.

Rode it in Spring of 2003 right after the trains were overhauled (maybe 2nd gen?). It was amazing, ranked it as my #1 at the time. Haven't ridden it since, I'd prefer to remember it the way it was back then.

I've seen videos recently with people on it and I couldn't imagine how rough that bounce got on the seat rotations. RIP. The youngest Arrow is now going to be no more.

Never got a chance to ride it, but unlike a lot of other unique coasters, I’m pretty indifferent about its demise. I’m sure it’s a cool experience, but one that I’d predict would turn my stomach and/or make my head pound in my old age.

If you were to build one today, it seems reasonable to use a similar mechanism to those used rotating cars on the yaw axis, like Guardians. Granted, balance is probably a very different problem, but it seems like a solvable problem.

That said, there's something about the lack of rigidity for something that far off the track, as even the wing coasters have had to deal with some bouncing on the outside seats.

I rode X back in 2003. I thought it was one of the greatest things I'd ever been on. It rode well, smooth, disorienting, and was completely different than anything else out there.

I made it back to SFMM about 3 years ago and rode it and it was maybe the most awful experience of my coaster riding life. You know that shuffle that old Arrows have in the track that causes the headbanging? Well it has that, with the added bonus of having that on the rail that controls the pitch of the seats. Even when moving slowly you could see the chairs shimmy forward and back a few inches. It was awful, and as someone that has a ride inspection license, I seriously would have shut it down right there if it was in my park. I wish it could be retracked and returned to what it once was, but short of that, good riddance.

Now that we know it's leaving ("taer it down!"), I'm curious to hear what folks think should replace it.

I'd go with a big ol' B&M dive machine. Reliable, smooth, and impressive looking people eater. I think the GP would eat it up.

What would you put there?

Later,
EV

Now what will happen to the other 4th dimension Arrow-style coasters around the world?

Rick77:

Now what will happen to the other 4th dimension Arrow-style coasters around the world?

Since they operate in countries without the scourge of America's Accident Attorneys, I think there will be no impact.

What an insensitive statement. There’s evidence that a number of people have had life altering injuries and have died because of that coaster. No coaster should be doing that to riders.

I'm with you, man. Businesses should be able to injure and kill people without any consequence at all. Friggin' lawyers!

And yet, all the S&S Air Thrust Coasters in China are SBNO after the accident on Bullet Coaster... The only one still operating is in the US.

PhantomTails:

There’s evidence that a number of people

I'm not sure that evidence has been proven to be the cause of said traumas. [EDIT: originally wrote "brought forth" yet].

Most of the claims involve a rapid deceleration event. X2 has no mid course brake run, and to my knowledge there has never been a train collision event. If there had been such an event, that alone wouldn't have caused the retirement of the ride. The trains come to a stop a lot softer than many newer rides today

The park has all along said that the ride fell within acceptable standards for forces. If it didn't, it wouldn't have opened after each such set of tests.

Fun:

And yet, all the S&S Air Thrust Coasters in China are SBNO after the accident on Bullet Coaster... The only one still operating is in the US.

That's because..."The Difference in Safety: The catastrophic crash on Bullet Coaster in October 2023 was not a flaw of the mechanism's design, but rather a severe failure of park maintenance. According to official investigation reports, Happy Valley Shenzhen used unapproved, off-brand bolts and failed to properly tighten them. "

That's not a design flaw. The fact that they are closed is a Chinese govt. matter, but thanks for playing.

CreditWh0re:

The park has all along said that the ride fell within acceptable standards for forces. If it didn't, it wouldn't have opened after each such set of tests.

I'd be curious in this case if the accelerometers are mounting to a dummy "body" that is just a midsection, where the accelerometers record the acceleration near the middle of the body, OR, if they have dummies that also have accelerometers in a neck/head area. I'd assume the angular velocity of the neck/head will change things quite a bit the further you are from the rotation center of the seat.

I think X2 is a weird one with its rotation plus 'shimmy' to where I can see forces recorded near the midsection within spec, but without a dummy that is recording neck/head measurements, accelerations through the center of the train during rotations might not really give an accurate picture of what is going on when you have the ride forces, plus acceleration changes (shimmy) further away from the center of rotation, causing things to get even worse.

I assume the team doing these dynamics measurements are taking all this into account in some way... Maybe we find out as these lawsuits continue on how they actually performed these measurements to justify the ride was safe.