What is it with trim brakes???

I've just ridden Montu to find that to my horror, trim brakes have been added just before the batwing. The result is a SERIOUSLY slow ending to the ride where previously, the ride excelled!
Is this because of some safety matter or to make the ride more "comfortable"? Yeah, the batwing is intense but thats what this ride is all about. The coaster now barely makes it through the loop (6th inversion) and crawls back home! A bit of an exaggeration but it has spoilt the ride!

I wonder if anyone knows the answer as I hear that Mean Streak and Mantis now have been spoilt too by these brakes.

Yes they have. Mantis is ok without the trim brakes I think. Actually, I think there are times when they have them on and off during the day. I'm not sure. That's just what I have heard. As far as the Mean Streak, I don't think it was all that bad before the trim brakes. I mean, hey, it did roll back when they were installed.

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Shawn Bailes
Webmaster of Coasters R Us
http://coastersrus.home-page.org

I rode Raging Bull at SFGAM last Wednesday and they had all three trims on my first ride of the day. I don't understand this it seems to happen especially on B&M's that I have ridden recently. Why would a new coaster built just last year need to be trimmed three times? The last trim is after all of the hills and made no sense whatsoever... the train just crawled back into the station.

I just wish they'd do away with all of the trims. A few of the coasters I have ridden this summer had trims on the first drop, now there's a prelude to one wild and exiting ride!

If you've asked yourself why B&M floorless coasters are so tame, now you know. B&M is sick to death of having their most intense coasters breaked to death.

Medusa at SFMW didn't seem tame.
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Parks for 2000: SFEG,IOA,MGM,WDW,PGA,SFMW,SCBB,Lakeside.

Medusa is a great coaster, but intense it is not.

I had the privilige of riding THE BEAST with no trim brakes earlyer in the season it was so intense that I thought it was going to fall apart. I have ridden it other times with the trim brakes and there is a small change in speed and intensity but not a great one.

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WOOD RULES!

I've heard the same thing too Simcoaster, that B&M has backed off of designing intense rides, cause then the GP complains they are too intense, then the parks have to trim break em to death to avoid lawsuits. Newer coasters like Medusa West are great rides, but I agree they severly lack the intesity of of early B&M's like Kumba and Iron Wolf.

I'd love to ride Kantun, B&M's latest invert, looks pretty intense, and since it's not in the sue happy US, probably wilder than anything they've built over here in years.

http://mirabilandia.cjb.net/

There is always a trade-off involved. Parks want big, high first hills and lots of inversions so they can advertise the impressive stats. But going through loops at high speeds is generally uncomfortable for just about anyone but the most die-hard enthusiast, so trims are added. I think that’s why CP had MF designed they way it is. Lots of big sweeping curves that can be taken at high speed with little G-forces. The ride is still exciting because it’s fast, buts not too intense. As for B&M making their rides less intense, I would rather ride a slightly slower coaster that had no trims and a constant pacing then a highly trimmed coaster that has a slow ending.

I think Raptor is intense and last trip I was there [8/9-8/10] it was hardly braked at mid course. Now in 98 and 99 when I rode the less intense Alpengeist IMO, it was braked harder
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Beeman65
Co-Webmaster
Kennywood Park Unlimited
http://kpu.danimation.com

Yes, I do think that Mean Streak at CP is just about ruined because of trims but Mantis is still pretty cool, slower than it can potentially be but still cool. But if the MS trims are there to keep the ride from destroying itself, I guess that's okay, I just won't ride it as much as I would if it didn't have trims. I just wish that someday, CP would turn off the trims just for ONE DAY. Maybe if I join a coaster club and show up at Coastermania, they could do it that day, when all the die hare enthusiasts want a good ride. Just a thought.

I belive that parks enjoy ruining great rides with trims. Montu, Mean Streak, Mantis, soon the Georgia Scorcher, Apollo's Chariot, Vortex, OL:FOF, Comet. That is a few rides that have been destroyed by Trims (in my oppenion)

MFBound, everyone of those rides that you just described that I have been on is still an incredible ride (Montu, Mantis, Mean Streak, Vortex and OL:FoF). I am sick of all this whining about trim brakes. If they didn't have them, you would say the ride is too intense. If you don't like the rides, don't ride them, and don't waste out time complaining about them.

Leave the trims on Mantis! I am sure I wasn't the only one who had aching lags from that ride.

Mean Streak has them because the ride goes to fast for it's own good. Because people complained about the rides roughness they put brakes on it. Know people complain about it being slow. If you want my opinion they could lighten up the brakes if they did no more than put new padding in the trains.

Mid course brakes at CP are deployed only to keep the trains a certain distance apart. It the trains are dispatched properly the mids are not deployed. This goes for Mean Streak, Raptor, and Mantis. This is also why Disaster Transport's brakes sometimes work as boosters.

Magnum's brakes have always puzzled me. They re engineered part of the ride and still need the trims?

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"I don't want to be turned into a fax machine!"

~FRANC~

I don't disagree that some rides need breaks to keep them from tearing themselves apart. I have heard the Mean Streak was breaked both because it was rough and because it was tearing itself apart, but I rode it before they added the trims and I didn't think it was that bad at all. I recently rode it with the trims and it is breaked poorly. If this ride needs the breaks to keep it from tearing itself down or to keep people from saying it's too rough then they should trim it like PKI does on the Beast. They slow the train down but you do not get the jerky movement as the train hits the trims. On the Beast you don't even know you are going over trim breaks unless you are in the front car. The way they trimmed Mean Streak was just bad.

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http://www.coasterriders.freeservers.com

Roughness shouldn't be an issue. New padding (such as the padding on Wolverine Wildcat at MIA) would cure that in an instant.

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"...If We don't get you there in five minutes we don't get you there at all. ~Dispatch Master Tran

Did any of you ride Mean Steak before they braked it to death? It was horrible! Now it's just dull and lifeless. At least with the brakes some of the GP will ride it and leave the lines shorter for the good rides.

The ride was nice and smooth opening season. Most woodies are. It wasn't until a year or two after.

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"...If We don't get you there in five minutes we don't get you there at all. ~Dispatch Master Tran

Kevin, if you had read my post originally you would have noticed that I said that Montu was fine before the trims were added! It wasn't too intense at all! The end on Montu is not incredible anymore. It's rubbish.