Excalibur is Swell...
Got to get a couple of laps in on Excalibur (VF's version) yesterday and its running awesome this year, (Better then last year in my opinion). Back seat is the place to be on this ride with a fantastic drop that really rips you over the top and the helix is a thing of beauty.
I thought you folks might want to know how its running this year, and well, now ya know.
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Flume & Hydroblaster Crew for 2002!
Have you ever been on Excalibur with the brakes on the first drop off? Wait 'till you hit that tight, ground-hugging midcourse curve. While the train violently shimmies and your internal organs slam into each other, you'll never whine about brakes just because they exist again.
Some trim brakes actually serve a good purpose...and Excalibur's first-drop brakes are among them.
-'Playa
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All that exists was made for you
CoastaPlaya said:
Have you ever been on Excalibur with the brakes on the first drop off?
No and I wouldn't want to either, The ride already gives me a headache the way it is, but you gotta love the speed of the the turns and the crossover.
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Flume & Hydroblaster Crew for 2002!
Valleyfair Fan: When did you ride Excalibur? Is it still a rough ride or is it any smoother? I will find out this Saturday 2002 Season gets underway ;). Were are you going to be working in the park on Saturday? I will be coming in the afternoon.
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Valleyfair Security 2002 (Nights)! 8Years working at Valleyair :)!
Many coasters have helixes at the end of the ride because tight turns snd high lateral Gs are fine when the ride is slowing down...but for some reason, Excalibur was built with a tight, fast curve right in the middle of the ride.
I'd guess the whole idea was to whip around at maximum speed, but unfortunately an Arrow mine train with gaps between the track and wheels is going to shuffle all over the place.
During the '99 -'00 offseason, Excalibur got an awful lot of work--somewhere between a 25% - 40% rebuild. Anyone can see that the track segment from beneath the drop's trims to the top of Turn #1 was replaced, but you may not notice that every support underneath them was replaced, too. In fact, most of it isn't wooden at all, but painted tubular steel.
Although I don't have photos to prove it, I do believe the supports on the curve itself have been changed as well. I seem to remember them as wooden supports in an 'X' formation over the concrete footers in the past and now they are also tubular steel in more of a '/| ' shape.
The only change that will absolutely stop the shuffling would be a new train design. Not a new mine train, mind you--a new design altogether. I dream sometimes of what the ride would be with a train with spring-loaded wheels and without any side panels. Perhaps the Arrow alumni at Setpoint would like to build one. Talk about a reborn coaster. They could market this thing for a fraction of the price of a new coaster and have people line up like crazy.
-'Playa
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Coming 6/6/02--the CoastaPlaya 100!
Check Meeting Calendar for details...
I rode Ex around 4 on Sunday, Area 4 were the only people riding it. I've never really felt that the ride was rough but it was really running fantastic in my opinion.
I'll be there Saturday at either Hydro or Flume, I got trained on both, but I'm not sure where I'll be at as I guess Hydro didn't have a lot of people trained on it yet, but there's only a couple trained for Crown. So your guess is as good as mine as to which one I'll be at. Either way if you swing past by either of those rides you'll probably see me.
And Playa, yes the curve has been retracked as well.
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Flume & Hydroblaster Crew for 2002!
*** This post was edited by Valleyfair Fan on 5/7/2002. ***
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