GRizzley at PKD Question

Hi,

I was looking through my coaster book called "Roller Coaster" by Robert Coker. On page 49 it has a little caption for Grizzly at PKD and says "During this Grizzly's gallops rides speed through a tunnel with an action-packed surprise hidden inside"

I rode Grizzly 3 times in Oct 1 during the day and twice at night. Did I missing something here?

Thanks,

Dug

There's a tunnel on it before the fan turn. I think the "surprise" would be the bunny hop and turn inside the tunnel. Not to mention how loud it is.

Thanks! Yeah its loud as hell in there!

Not to mention that the bunny hop turns to the right and has major airtime!

Anyone know why this version of the Grizzly is so much better than PGA's imfamously horrible clone? Also.... any reason that the Hurler at PKD is far inferior to the airtime machine that is Carowind's Hurler? Maintenence, Design Changes, what is it?

Ya know, these tunnels would be so much more effective if they encased the whole structure, not just over the track. Check out JackRabbit's tunnel at SeaBreeze sometime. You'd have no idea theres a drop in there. Then look at Magnum's, or the pic above of Grizzly. Its pretty obvious whats going on in there. And what about MF's sewer drain tunnels? Wow, those are an eyesore on a beautiful ride. Sorry, I know Im ranting...

Im just wondering if it's still a *SURPRISE* When I rode it in '98 it was a total surprise cause the whole thing was hidden by the woods.

Last I seen in pics was they removed the trees in that area for Hypersonic.

So is the tunnel still a surprise?

Chuck

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RollrCoastrCrazy said:
Anyone know why this version of the Grizzly is so much better than PGA's imfamously horrible clone? Also.... any reason that the Hurler at PKD is far inferior to the airtime machine that is Carowind's Hurler? Maintenence, Design Changes, what is it?

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I've been told that the reason PKDs Grizzley is better is because of maintainance. As for the Hurlers, I rode PKDs and PCars almost back to back, and I can tell you, though not my fave woodies, they have both had work on them, and are both running much better. PCars was definitly golden last year, and PKDs was running great!

There was some discussion about PGA's Grizzly over at NCC, and someone who actually works for PGA commented that KECO's decision to modify Grizzly was because they wanted a tamed down family version for PGA. Don't know how valid this is, but it makes sense. This was done by the same company that castrated PGA's Demon by removing/remodeling the original ejector airtime filled first drop with the current boring rampish first drop.

http://www.norcalcoasters.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=35

The fact that you have been able to plainly see Grizzly's tunnel for the past few years doesn't really ruin the surprise for me, but then again, I've been riding the thing yearly since it opened in '83, and the 'surprise' in the literal sense no longer exists. However, even when I'm prepared for it, the bunny hop inside the tunnel is just awesome...massive air every time. Plus, the fact that you can see the bunny hop from in that picture above (you can't see it in the ride's queue) still doesn't prepare you for actually experiencing it. I'll be the first to admit that I dearly miss the once completely hidden Grizzly, but it's still no less of a spectacular woodie than it was 20 years ago.

I use to hate this ride it was so painful, but last year we started to ride it again and it was great it didn't seem to slam you so hard. The tunnel is great I do miss all the trees but it's still a fun ride. Most of the time there is no line for it. Can't wait till March 27th.

That's the only fault of the ride which is that it's no longer completely in the woods :(....for the love of humanity please put some trees back in between the grizz & that piece of fire wood known as Hurler.

On the bright side of things though whenever you ride this masterpiece after dark the semi deforestation doesn't really matter that much because for the most part it's still pitch dark...grizz ranks as one of my favorite night rides along with SFA's S:ROS,two fine coasters by day that are totally great by night.