Coney Cyclone trains will not be replaced

Thank god. When I heard GCI was doing a refurb (including re-profiling to increase comfort - wtf?!??) it worried me.

The ride could be smoothed out, other than that, please leave it alone.

As soon as I saw the news posted to their FB page, I did a happy dance and went about notifying those who I knew would be as ecstatic as I am... best.trains.EVER!

THANK YOU!

zamperla for recognizing something that isn't broke and doesn't need to be fixed !

Maybe next time I ride it, I'll like it.

It was interesting to listen to what GCI had to say at Eastcoaster earlier this month. I wish I had recorded it. Before they started, there was no consistency to the number of layers of wood throughout the ride. It was patched together over the years. Some places had as few as 2 layers. No wonder it was so rough.

I have to agree. It's nice to see that this great and historic coaster is not going to be messed with.

Well, the coaster itself has been pretty well "messed with", depending on your definition. I mean, they took it down to bents and rebuilt the track bed.

Not that it's a bad thing, not in the least. I'm looking forward to giving it a try on the new track.

I rode it for the first time last year and thought it gave a really good ride. The current trains that are on there now are fairly decent. The only complaint I had about my ride experience came after the ride was over. Getting out of the front seat of the train, a kid vomitted on me and made a mess of myself. Oh well, I can't say I didn't get my eight dollars worth!

The only wooden coasters that aren't constantly being rebuilt are SBNO/defunct wooden coasters.

^To tangent on what Josh said, the ride actually was re-tooled or re-profiled somewhat. Decades ago. The guy in charge of it was Chris someone, can't remember. I think there is a picture of him working on the ride in the awesome, long out of print book "The Great American Amusement Parks" by Gary Kyrazi.

CoasterDemon said:
^To tangent on what Josh said, the ride actually was re-tooled or re-profiled somewhat. Decades ago. The guy in charge of it was Chris someone, can't remember. I think there is a picture of him working on the ride in the awesome, long out of print book "The Great American Amusement Parks" by Gary Kyrazi.

The name of the gentleman was Chris Feucht. He made a lot of changes to the Cyclone in the 1940's, including lowering the first drop to below grade. Evidently by the 1940's, the coaster was in really bad shape and was having a difficult time completing the first turn. The Pinto brothers made a number of changes to the profile of the lower hills in the 1960's and I believe Dewey Albert made some additional changes in the 1974 rehab.

^Thanks jim! It seems the Cyclone routinely has trouble rounding that first curve. It slams the crap outta ya, then it's "I think I can - I think I can." Just perfect. Pacing. Each curve is faster and faster...

i would probably give it another try. I last rode it in '98 and was very disappointed with it. I remember riding it front and back, then asking myself what kind of piece of crap did I just ride?! I love old classic coasters. Don't get me wrong. But Cyclone did not live up to its reputation. So, hopefully its new lease on life will give me a different opinion of it next time I ride.

2008 is when I took my only rides on the Cyclone, and that was kind of my impression as well. It was one of the worst wood coaster rides I had the misfortune to take. Fortunately I have taken enough coaster rides to recognize that this was more of a P-clone problem than a Son of Beast problem: Cyclone was delivering a horribly rough ride because the track was in worse-than-poor condition, and the rolling stock was at least as bad.

Of course, the modifications that made the trains so painful to ride in were a response to the track being so rough that it threatens to throw the kids out. So fixing the track should make it possible to fix the train, and when all that is done, the Cyclone should be able to deliver a really great ride. And if everything is done right, it shouldn't have any trouble making the second hill.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.