I wanted to ask people with more knowledge of coasters than myself how practical or economically feasible would it be for CP to redesign or partially "redo" Mean Streak? It seems that most of the complaints about MS is about it's lack of intensity and generally being an unexciting ride.
Easiest way would be to get rid of all those damn trim breaks. Probably would need retracking, too. I guess its just a matter of how much more money Cedar Fair wants to put into an older ride when they have other newer rides that require so much money.
GamRCFreak is right on. Get rid of those trims. Problems is one of the reasons the trims were added (and I'm assuming, so correct me if I'm wrong) was because the ride was getting so rough. Which leads us to retracking, and maybe new trains would help?
If you rode Mean Streak the opening year you know how furious this thing really was before the trims were installed. At the time, I even enjoyed it more than Magnum (-puts on flame suit-). That thing navigated the track like a bat out hell, and never seemed to slow down. Then, a year or two later, my buddy and I were cresting the first drop with eager anticipation; when the trims hit. Ugh.
It seems to me that trims act as a band aid solution to the real problem that a coaster might have. The inexpensive way to keep a coaster running without having to spend a lot of money fixing the real problem. They built these huge fast woodies like MS, Texas Giant and SOB without the proper support they need to perform the way they were intended. I would think that after years of rides, they could come back to these coasters and make some routing adjustments or something. In the long run, it would be worth the money.
To fix Mean Streak, you would have to do what Kennywood did with Steel Phantom- leave the final brakes, the station and the lift hill and junk everything else. Certainly the folks at GG or GCII could add a fantastic coaster to Mean Streak's lift hill!
I'm no engineer, though i'm not bad when it comes to construction. Did Mean Streak open w/trims on the first hill? If so, was it engineered that way? I'm just curious why some company would do that. great ad: "Our coaster is soooooo fast, we have to slow you down from the first drop." hmmmmmmmm, i don't think so. Are they the same company that designed the Rattler?
The 2nd half of the ride is boring, with or without the trim brakes. The train just meanders around its structure after the brake run. It's not an interesting layout at all.
I suppose anything is possible but what could they possibly do to redesign it? They could probably put two really good wooden coasters in the same spot.
Mean Streak is a victim of the "bigger and faster is better" mentality that a lot of major theme parks suffer from.
What is with the obsession with tearing down or tinkering with Mean Streak? I rode it last summer and, while it's a little on the rough side and it's a little slow through some sections, I didn't think it was really all that bad. It was certainly FUN and is there really any other criteria that it needs to meet? If you go on rides looking for the truly orgasmic riding experience each and every time, you're going to walk away disappointed most of the time. As long as it's fun for someone and people keep riding it, is there any reason to "taer it down"? *** Edited 5/20/2005 9:35:05 PM UTC by bigboy***
I don't think they would ever tear it down, but rebuilding it would be an option...they have been known to change layouts on coasters such as Big Dipper at Geauga Lake, I beleive that had had a few differant layouts. If they did have a renovation plan, it would take a while. I'm not sure what the condition of the coaster is, whether its that bad or not.
