Should Hyperwoodies be built?

With Son of Beast open for a good while now, what is your opinion about hyperwoodies?- Should more be built in the future as compared to steel gias/hypers? We've all heard numerous reports about roughness, structural problems, environmental stuff regarding how much wood is used and mixed opinions about the all around ride. We've also heard all the good reports about how awesome the ride is. Let us know what you think.

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My opinion is that the son was basically a prototype for the amusement industry. So, all the kinks, like all prototypes, have to be worked out. Personally, I love woodies and still think you just can't beat their classic feeling, laterals, and airtime. But is it really worth a ride if you come back with a headache from roughness? I think that with all the new technology we've seen from Intamin (and other companies) with their world class Supermans and the Force, I'd still prefer a ride on Superman than the son.


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-Josh

Yes, hyperwoodies should be built. SOB is an amazing ride. I've never found it to be too rough, and the first drop is amazing. The great thing is that the next one will be smoother, and the next one still. Technology will allow bigger and better rides as it progresses.

I think there will be more hyper woodies but I don't think there will be one anytime soon. That is unless Cedar Point or Magic Mountain decide they want one. I really can't see any other park investing the time and money in one considering the problems SOB had. Eventully parks will forget and decide they want attention and build another. I really think the best chance would be at Magic Mountain. I don't think Cedar Point wants another large woodie after the problems with Mean Streak. As far as the environmentalists, build the structure out of steel and the track out of wood like Villan or Zeus. Eventully SOB will be beat for records!

I have to ask how many laps you've had on SOB, Jacob, because others strongly disagree with you.

"Technology will allow bigger and better rides as it progresses."

Maybe that's the problem. SOB essentially uses the same technology wood coasters have used for a very long time.

I would further comment that bigger isn't always better, and that's even true for steel coasters. I find a Batman: The Ride far more intense than a ride twice its size, like Alpengeist. The CCI collection of 80-120-foot coasters certainly illustrates that good design and layout are far more important than height.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Very well said Jeff. Signs say, ride at your own risk. People should listen, if oyu think you can't ride, DON'T. I think a hyperwoddie will be built. Maybe a park should fix out all of the kinks in the ride, before it opens unlike the situation that PKI put themseleves in. PKI did a good job, but I think if another park fixes the ride before and not during, it might be a little smoother, a little more fun.

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DOWN WITH TRIM BRAKES!

I'm curious about the maintenance of a wood versus steel structure. My impression is that wood structures are more difficult, costly, and time consuming to preserve. Add to that the fact that you need more support per foot of track to build a wood structure, and I've got to believe (in line with what CP Twister posted) that only the behemoth parks/conglomerates can afford to build hyper woodies. Point is well taken about building the support structure from steel but using a wooden track and appropriate trains: maybe this will be the future of hyper woodies. I personally find this approach less aesthetically pleasing, but then again Millenium Force has ugly supports and it's still worth having around.

When I first heared about the stats for SOB, I was absolutely blown away. At the time, The Beast was my favorite woodie, and a newer, bigger, faster ride inspired by my favorite coaster looked loke a slice out of heaven. Flash foreward to the openening weekend one train only, and eventual shutdown. We all know the rest of the sad story, mine ends on July 10, my only chance to ride SOB, and it is closed all day. Ever since the Mean Streak, any woodie over the 150 foot mark has met with mixed reviews (bad reviews) poor press, and low ridership. Meanwhile, CCI (and GCI) is being credited with more "top 10" woodies than could be imiganed, the largest being only 125 feet tall. So, should hyper-woodies be built? In a word, NO!

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Gotta ride 'em all!

It's hard to use the word "prototype" with SOB. Just because it is the first hyperwoodie doesn't mean it isn't built the same way as any other wooden coaster. By your logic, I could say Magnum was a prototype when it was built, and look at it. It was rated # 1 for a very long time. I don't think it had nearly the amount of problems that SOB is having. But Magnum wasn't a prototype because it was built like any other steel coaster, just a lot taller, and the same goes for SOB.

Just my 2 cents.



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Jeff Young

I believe wooden coasters do generally cost more to maintain than steel coasters. For most parks, I don't think a huge (hyper)wooden coaster is enough of a selling point for them to invest in all the additional costs in order to have one.

I also think this is one of the reasons PKI built it, because they may be unique in having a wooden coaster of that magnitude for the years to come.

Personally, I love SOB, but I would rather have parks build more inverteds of a larger scale. I'll keep returning to PKI to ride Beast and SOB, which is probably just what they want and I'm glad to oblige.

Hyperwoodies are not the next 'big thing,' but PKI was very clever in building a one-of-kind ride of such sheer intensity.

Especially in a family park!

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PINK FLOYD FANATIC

Yes they should,but to be honest I really don't see how a park smaller than PKI could maintain one.
In fact I really don't see how PKI could make a profit from this,other than its' opening year.
It'll take buko bucks to keep it running.

I am going to PKI next week. I haven't been able to ride the SOB yet, but with all the mixed comments about it, I'm not sure whether it's a good ride or not. Can somebody help me? But on the subject of Hyperwoodie's, I don't think they are quite necassary yet. There are plenty of great wooden rides out there that do not have overwhelming lift hills(Boulder Dash, Villian, etc). The height of coasters is usually the first think that inexperienced coaster enthusiasts look for. They are completely wrong, the rest of the ride is what matters. It is the combination of G's, air-time, turns, etc. that really make a coaster great

I think that parks are completely insane about having records. I think that PKI may have seen an opportunity to grab some. There has never been a crazy race to build taller and faster woddies, I have really only seen a race to be better. I think the GP is going to go to a park if they have the world's biggest no matter how wierd the record is. Then again, the "coaster maniacs" will go to the park for the better coasters. Now here is the question, are parks gonna grow bigger, or better? Do they want more profit from the GP or "us"?? (That is the best word I could come up with.)

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DOWN WITH TRIM BRAKES!

They want more profit from the GP instead of us because the GP is a much grander amount of people. Like previous posts, it makes more sense to construct the lift hill out of steel if its going to hit heights of lets say 150ft or higher.

A wood lift hill is perfectly stable; I don't think that's the issue. If anything, I think SOB's problems are a mix of the high speeds on curved track and those Permier trains. ShiveringTim put it best to me... Permier designed the trains, now let's think about Outer Limits. ;)

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

This coaster will ALWAYS get mixed reviews at best. I enjoyed it VERY much, but my friend thought it was too rough in spots(although he did like it). So there you have it, some like it, some don't, but you can't ignore it, which ultimately will make the coaster a success IMO.

Actually Jeff, I'm a season pass holder at PKI and I go almost every weekend when I go to Cincinnati to see my family. Sorry, but I don't know the exact count of my trips on SOB... probably 10 or 12. The only roughness I've experienced was opening weekend.

And the topic wasn't "Is bigger better..." as it seems some have taken it. The topic was "Should Hyperwoodies be Built?" Of course. If people don't like them, they don't have to ride them. And bigger doesn't necessarily mean better, I never said that. I was just answering the question that was asked.

Since you "had to ask."

I also didn't find much roughness like everyone has been saying. But like I said, my friend did. I can't really explain why this is happening, but much of the same thing happened The Beast's opening year.

I dont remember any of these problems happening when American Eagle at SFGAm debuted.

But the bigger/better argument is an integral issue in determining if hyperwoodies should be built. We've essentially identified that size vs. performance and the sheer economics of maintaining such a ride are the key issues that should be considered. I for one don't see a lot good in either one.

I think it was Scott's (ShiveringTim's) TR that said your seat placement on SOB has a lot to do with your ride, and that sitting over the wheels is sheer hell. Makes sense to me, as when I saw it running you could see each individual car shift around in the track on turns. Those things don't seem to track well at all in the turns.

Second, if they have to spend that much time closing it for inspection, you're not getting any real return on the huge investment.

Is this what we could expect from other large woodies? Who knows, but when CCI and GCI publicly say they don't want to build that big, I think they're on to something.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com