Brakes in middle of Goliath

What's the deal with the brakes in the middle of Goliath? It really destroys the flow of the ride to almost stop in the middle of it.

Without those brakes, the trains enter the following diving turn at speeds exceeding 40 miles-per-hour. Take that and finish the ride all the way through to the end. That's too intense for majority of the general public to handle. In fact, just weeks into its operation, complaints were made about Goliath's extreme intensity. Magic Mountain management replied by kicking up the block brakes up a notch or two, cutting down on excess (unecessary) speed.

It's not just a brief squeeze to slow you to (say) 25-30 MPH, you're practically *stopped* before you hit that turn. They've got the brakes tuned for geriatric customers. Bah!

I dislike it as well, BUT the ride does get back up to speed in a hurry. Just goes to show you how well somethings are engineered....:) Ride in the last car if the stopping kills you so much. At least it doesn't affect you as much there.
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www.tripowered.com ~ The Nexus of truth

The ride started out pulling 4.2 Gs in the helix. Well the GP couldn't handle it and they got scared and complained so now it is down to 3.7 Gs. I have been lucky and only got 4 out of 18 rides toned down to 3.7 Gs. Somedays it seems like you keep rolling right on through!

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www.EverythingRollerCoaster.com

*** This post was edited by CoasterCrazyOne on 8/13/2002. ***

If those brakes weren't on to that degree...I wouldn't ride it. It would probably kill me.The helix is so amazingly strong, even though the brakes do almost stop you.
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"There's no such thing as a mistake. There's what you do, and what you don't do."

I think the ride needed a little more before the brakes to run off some of the speed, and NOT another helix! People always say Titan is the better ride because it has an extra helix. I completely disagree, another helix was the last thing these rides needed. I'll also go against the popular notion that the ride needed a few more bunny hops, at least at that point. Instead, after the bunny hop, how about a few more high speed dives and another tunnel, followed by an *upward* helix straight into the brakes!

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"Escuse me, can you tell me where the heck the Mystery Lodge is"?

OutKast, am I reading your post correctly or did you say that the last thing Goliath needs is another helix, then you suggest it adds an upward helix?

Seriously though, the brakes at the midcourse need to be there. If the train went full speed ahead through the second half of the ride, there would be LOTS of people blacking out on it.

Goliath gets bashed for being too short, but aren't all rides? Phantom's Revenge is 1000 or so feet SHORTER than Goliath, then again PR is my #1 hyper, over both Goliath & Titan.

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Nothing... NOTHING... can prepare you for... the Fourth Dimension!

No, I meant an upward helix instead of the downward one, Nitro style.

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"Escuse me, can you tell me where the heck the Mystery Lodge is"?

I wouldnt have a problem with Titan (and by extrapolation Goliath) in terms of length. I mean, I felt the ride on Millie was much shorter (duration) than Titan. But the fact that Millie didnt slow down at all, made for an exciting ride through and through (though Millie aint my favorite either).

IMO, what "should" have happened was that the heilx on Goliath/Titan should have been designed to be a little bit bigger so that the forces would be about the same at a higher speed (and then should "limp home" from a dead stop).

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"To get inside this head of mine, would take a monkey-wrench, and a lot of wine" Res How I Do

Oh and outkast the helix on Titan *is* an upwards helix much like NITRO

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"To get inside this head of mine, would take a monkey-wrench, and a lot of wine" Res How I Do

Oh I know, but what I'm saying is, ONE helix, at the end of the ride, make it wider like you said, and have it going up instead of down.

You don't need two helices, just one that can handle the speed.

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"Escuse me, can you tell me where the heck the Mystery Lodge is"?

I dunno, folks......the Big G did it for me big-time.....one or two trips is great fun, but during ERT they grey-outs became almost the *norm*....took me a WHILE to get my peripheral vision back to "regular full-screen view"....I can only imagine what an extra 15 mph would've done....I probably WOULD have blacked out after a dozen or so spins....

But it was important to me that I let the lapbar fall pretty snug at the MCBR, the air-time portion of the ride was over, and I flopped around like a rag doll through "the centrifuge".....AWESOME ride, still ranks up there about even with Millie, and below only S:RoS....

As long as the brakes don't completely stop the train (like they do sometimes), I have no problem with them. I think they are almost necessary. Like some have said, however, perhaps they should have made the helix bigger. All I know is if I went through the helix as is without hitting the brakes first...I would probably be afraid of that ride.