Chance Rides

I just posted these questions on Reddit, until I asked myself "what are you doing?"

So, I came to the fine folks at CoasterBuzz to help me find education:

Why have all but one Toboggan coasters been taken down? Is it simply that the ride ran its course?

And, why has only one park built a Hyper GT-X roller coaster in the last five years? Seems like an outstanding rollercoaster, especially considering the price.

The Chance Toboggan was originally a portable ride from the very early 70’s. Just a few parks installed “permanent” models. I think Hershey had one or two and maybe Astro World?
Anyway, there are still a few traveling Toboggans out there. I never cared for the ride much. The Skydiver cars and the vertical lift through the tube are claustrophobia inducing and uncomfortable. The spiral trip down is marred by skid brakes, but I can’t imagine the ride without em! And when it finally cuts loose near the bottom the small drop is the thing chipped teeth are made of. All in all a bad idea.

I agree with you about the Chance coaster. Lightning Run is one of the most rigorous and thrilling rides I’ve taken, especially for a coaster it’s size. There’s no question in my mind that any sized park could benefit by adding one of those.
The last time I was at KK it was a really slow day during state fair time and I noticed a group of men on the platform of Storm Chaser. A couple of them had Chance shirts on and the others were from park management. We had the ride to ourselves and I struck up a conversation with one of the Chance guys. I had no idea who he was but I thanked him for a great ride and asked him to please sell more. He looked at me with a little sadness and tell tale frustration and said “believe me, we’re trying”.
I can’t imagine having spent the time and money developing and engineering a great product and then not selling but the one. And our disappointment comes nowhere close to their own, I’m pretty sure.
Maybe parks look at a coaster like that and say not big enough, not flashy enough, blah blah blah. Seriously, I found nothing wrong with that ride and if the price tag is right, why not then? I found it to be better than these Eurofighter rides that everyone seems to want. I don’t get it.

On a forum somewhere (it likely was here) someone equated the Toboggan ride experience to trying to get an adult to fit into a shopping cart. Once in, roll said shopping cart down a flight of stairs.

Technology has advanced. Rider comfort is a priority in a way it wasn't when those were made. Unless you are a kid, those rides suck. I believe they likely have just run their course.

A shopping cart with a roof that was too low for a 6' person to fit in, so you slammed your head on the hills at the end.

I've always loved the Toboggan. It's silly, quirky, stupid, and painful, but I will always ride it if I have the opportunity.

I'll admit it. I'd crawl in if I found one still running.

I rode the one at Lakemont a few years back. It was a carnival ride, it wasn't particularly well built, or very exciting. I sat in a strange car, on a piece of vinyl with some minuscule amount of foam padding underneath. The ride around the tower was meh, then as the ending hill approached I began to cringe because I knew it was going to hurt, it did, then the skid brakes at the end thankfully worked, though I think I tapped the car in front.

I had to ride it, I will never bother with another, kind of like a Vekoma boomerang.

TheMillenniumRider - sounds about right.

Out of 150 coasters, Lightning Run is easily in my top 10. I don't get why they haven't sold anymore. At least KK isn't too far away for me to get there a couple of times per year.

Are they still stapling with a passion on that ride? I rode the ride on the first day it operated and the employees were quite literally putting their entire body weight on every single restraint. I heard from a friend who visited later in the year that his experience was similar. I'm all for body contact with restraints for safety, but this was beyond excessive.

They were neither stapling me on Lightning Run nor on Storm Chaser. On SC, there was at least a 1 inch gap between my lap and the bar.

Don't know if it's stapling as much as the bars needing to be down really far for the ride to operate?