Iron Wolf to possibly close at Six Flags Great America.

*aesthetics

Spell check, plus being in a hurry, do not work well together.

I didn't even know what ascetic meant until now. ;)

^I can still barely understand what it means, Travis. But heck, you made me look up a new word today.

Actually I made u look it up ;-)

BTW Screamscape reports a local application for SFA to add standup coaster that was filed last week.

If true, cool.

^^I looked it up as soon as Travis posted it ;)

Guess I got my last ride on IWolf in it's home here. Won't do that again this year.

BullGuy said:
...........about 100 feet from the entrance to the water park), the park's second wild mouse, and Superman: Ultimate Fluff.
........

Ultimate Fluff (giggle)

We hereby bequeath the moniker....

So Batwing Fan SFA finally got his standup?

^And he's not even here to tell us how great it is that his park is getting into recycling... ;)

For what it's worth, it's also rumored that the relocation will involve a new-school set of trains, rather than Iron Wolf's current, 11 year old rolling stock. Maybe that'll help? Who knows, maybe they'll be all-new, not just Scorcher/Riddler/Chang/etc-era new.

Were B&M to pull a new train design out of its hat that cured their roughest standup to date, I suspect that could spur a new stand-up install or two (or at the very least, a train retrofit on some of the other rough ones).

^ You mean current 21 year old rolling stock. And if it does get new trains, it will be like Chang/Riddler's Revenge trains. The ride doesn't need anything revolutionary. Despite the bad rap it gets, the majority of the ride is just minor vibrations. The only true head banging moment is exiting the corkscrew, and trains won't fix that, that's just a bad transition.

BBSpeed26 said:
For what it's worth, it's also rumored that the relocation will involve a new-school set of trains, rather than Iron Wolf's current, 11 year old rolling stock. Maybe that'll help? Who knows, maybe they'll be all-new, not just Scorcher/Riddler/Chang/etc-era new.

Were B&M to pull a new train design out of its hat that cured their roughest standup to date, I suspect that could spur a new stand-up install or two (or at the very least, a train retrofit on some of the other rough ones).

That 11-year-old stock is what killed the ride, IMO. It's the restraints more than the tracking. It rode smoothly for years. With new trains, I think it will be as good as new (almost) at SFA. But, it has such a bad rap at SFGAm, it would make no sense to rehab it, as people still won't ride it. I just wish everyone understood it used to be an awesome coaster. I hate hearing the youngens bash it,

Soft and 'slippy' restraints like I-305 would be great, if you have to have OTSRs on a coaster. The rubbery vest on the newer Vekoma trains hurt - they eliminate head banging, but hold you back and jerk you around harder.

ILRider said:

BBSpeed26 said:
For what it's worth, it's also rumored that the relocation will involve a new-school set of trains, rather than Iron Wolf's current, 11 year old rolling stock. Maybe that'll help? Who knows, maybe they'll be all-new, not just Scorcher/Riddler/Chang/etc-era new.

Were B&M to pull a new train design out of its hat that cured their roughest standup to date, I suspect that could spur a new stand-up install or two (or at the very least, a train retrofit on some of the other rough ones).

That 11-year-old stock is what killed the ride, IMO. It's the restraints more than the tracking. It rode smoothly for years. With new trains, I think it will be as good as new (almost) at SFA. But, it has such a bad rap at SFGAm, it would make no sense to rehab it, as people still won't ride it. I just wish everyone understood it used to be an awesome coaster. I hate hearing the youngens bash it,

If it goes to SFA, the majority of the people that ride it will never know of it being at SFGA before. They'll just be told of a "new standup ride at Six Flags America".

When Green Lantern opened at SFGADV, the news was all over the fact it was a "new" coaster. Not once did they mention it came from Kentucky.

Thought it rode a little better than it did in KY, too. Then again, I still wasn't all that fond of it. Stand up coasters have never been my favorite.

Raven-Phile said:
Thought it rode a little better than it did in KY, too. Then again, I still wasn't all that fond of it. Stand up coasters have never been my favorite.

I'm going the other way. As Chang, it was the only standup I liked more than a bit. My four rides on GL this season have been pretty bad, save for one front ride that was semi-decent.

Just to provide some additional insight into Iron Wolf's roughness. The main issue is the trains as mentioned here. More precisely, the wheel assemblies of the trains. Being the first B&M off the production line, it lacks the true secret to B&M's success - adjustable wheel assemblies. As Iron Wolf's wheels wear, there is increasing slop in the gauge between the wheel and the rail. This is what causes Iron Wolf to be prone to roughness - more akin to the "wonderful" trains of Arrow and Vekoma.

Of course, Iron Wolf being a very agressive ride doesn't help either.

Iron Wolf and Scorcher are two of the only stand-ups I tolerate since they are short. Positive g-forces and stand-ups don't mix well together over long durations as the blood has no place to pool as it heads south. If pressed to pick a favorite of the two, I think I'd take Iron Wolf and its insane corkscrew.

It's official, Iron Wolf will close on September 5th for permanent removal.

As Jason said, Iron Wolf is gone after Septenber, The juicy story(rumor) going around for SFGAm is that they will be getting a B&M Wingrider which will be the second in the world and the first in the states. If this is true, this will put this park on the map once again.

B&M Wingrider

^In all likelihood, it would be the forth B&M Wingrider in the world and the second in the States. Gardaland has the original with Raptor, Thorpe has already announced Swarm, and it seems quite likely that the coaster Dollywood is building is also a Wingrider.

Yea. I was going to mention that the big Dollywood rumor is that they are building a wingrider for next year.

My magical sources tell me that the wingrider rumor for SFGAm isn't entirely true. It may have the same seating arrangement, but it's not from B&M. It will not be the only ride of it's kind in the U.S. It will take up a pretty small footprint. It will be green. ;)