Small fire contained on Cedar Point's Mean Streak

Looks like Mean Streak is now down and out for the season.

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/2010/sep/22/meanstreak092310tjxml

I started laughing out loud when I first read the title. They should of just let it burn, baby! ;)

Kick The Sky said:
I actually thought Mean Streak wasn't all that bad.... <<ducks incoming projectiles!>> .

Oh you'd love Ghostrattler ;)

I'm starting to wonder if all our collective trash-talking is beginning to hurt Mean Streak's feelings, and in despondency it attempted self-immolation... ;)

Well, if King Cobra can self smelt, Mean Streak can self-immolate.

As for the ride itself, I never thought it to be overtly rough, just boring. And I do like Ghostrider ;).

Whoever self smelt it, dealt it?

Maybe the park ordered multiple versions of the same fire, just like the Windseekers.

If so, maybe KI will announce their fire on SOB next week.

Collin Aynes said:
I think this is a sign that the ride needs to go.

Or needs to be fixed ... CORRECTLY !

There's really nothing to fix. It's not an interesting ride regardless.

But it's not the most uninteresting layout in the world (faint praise, I know). Regardless of whether D&S had been the designer, I think the lesson of MS is that when you take a Bobs layout and blow it up to gargantuan proportions, it loses something. Just as the lesson of SOB is that when you take Thunderbolt and blow it up to mammoth dimensions, it doesn't work either.

MS is still one of the most visually beautiful coasters out there -- not that it should be granted a reprieve simply on the basis of second-hand charm.

"Secondhand" charm? Does that mean they chopped down trees and used the wood to build a coaster that looks pretty at night? :)

Eh, I don't really know where I was going with that. It just sounded good so I went with it... ;)

That's just it though ... If they do what they have to - that being speed it up and smooth it out for starters - I think it would become "interesting" ! At least somewhat ... I know it couldn't hurt !!

Mean Streak would be a whole lot more interesting if it ran a whole lot *faster*.

The first drop would be decent, if it didn't have three brake calipers dragging on the train most of the way down.

The second hill is a really neat high-banked curve that doesn't work because the train is moving too slowly to stay stuck to the outside rail.

The third hill is a repeat of the second, only it doesn't go high enough to generate a little pop of airtime off the top for the run past the camera, as the drop is not as steep as it once was.

After that drop is a rise into a horseshoe that wraps around the lift hill. It's a visually interesting part of the ride, but it is also an area where the scrubbing dumps an insane amount of energy. It also shakes violently side to side because the train isn't going fast enough to stay stuck to the outside rail on the curve.

The drop coming off the lift-hill loop is nice and steep, and to this day is the only one that actually offers a hint of air both on the drop and on the rise at the far end. Imagine what this one would be like if the train were actually moving the way it's supposed to!

That hill is followed by the mid-course brake. That brake is there for blocking purposes, and really shouldn't be used to drag the train to a crawl, but that's how they're using it. The drop here is supposed to be comparable to the drop off the mid-course on Raptor, but again the train is moving too slowly for that. The train now takes a high-speed run around the whole perimeter, finishing with a final leap into the brakes that is supposed to look like an imminent head-on collision with the train coming down the first drop. But of course they don't hit dispatch intervals anymore, so that never actually happens.

In my opinion, to fix Mean Streak, the first thing they have to do is fix the train. Get rid of the hard seats and put in soft seats so that the ride is more forgiving to the riders. Then, having done that, relieve the first drop of its brakes, and build the third hill back up. Correct the banking on the first two hills with the understanding that while the original overbanking looks great, it rides like crap and the banking needs to be reduced so that the train rides cleanly on the outer rail. The mid-course needs to be loosened up so that the ride can run faster, and the entire track needs to be lubricated so that the train doesn't gouge the rails and scrub off so much speed in the curves.

The trickiest part, of course, is figuring out how to fix the washboarding. What makes it tricky is that I am not familiar enough with what the ride is really doing to know what causes it. They've beefed up the structure with additional bracing below every track tie, so I don't think it's a problem of a lack of support for the track stack; I wonder if there is a problem with the stack itself. But I can't get close enough to Mean Streak's track while it is operating to see any examples of what it's really doing.

Besides which, even if I could, what do I know about wood coaster track? Seriously, I'm not exactly an expert at this stuff. Not yet, anyway.

Speaking of operating, Mean Streak's trains have been removed from the ride for the season. The other ride that is obviously done for the year is Thunder Canyon; its pumps have been taken out. But then, that one gets repurposed for Halloween anyway.

--Dave Althoff, Jr., who remembers that Mean Streak used to be better. Not great, but much better.

Or they can continue to use it as the worlds largest spot light as they did at least last night. Lights were on but nobody was home.

Better luck next time.