SOB-possible to enjoy it?

When I think of "broken necks" I get images of people becoming critically injured. As in like..."my neck is broken, take me to the hospital, I'm possible paralyzed."

I don't think "broken neck" is exactly a medical term, so maybe I'm just interpreting the term differently from other people. As in, there's a big difference between hurting your neck and breaking your neck. *** Edited 4/15/2005 4:58:17 PM UTC by matt.***

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Kick The Sky said:

but I had to wait an hour in line while they were pumping out the trains at breakneck speeds to form my opinion of the ride. In fact, SOB was one of the longest lines I waited in all day.

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I know that Jeff already touched on this but I just had to elaborate.

Of all the adult coasters at PKI, only Face/Off has a worse capacity. I've never seen a huge line for SOB in terms of number of people actually in the line, but the wait is always over a half hour just due to the crappy capacity.

How many of the record breaking coasters built in the last few years have lower ridership than SOB, not counting the SBNO SD2K?

Does PKI understand that people are cracking necks, getting bloody knees, and dislocating shoulders on this ride?! I can't believe they would let people on this ride.

I remember several years ago when Georgia Cyclone was immediately shut down to refurbish a section of the ride that gave a woman severe whiplash. The coaster was down for a loooong time.

Sounds like SOB is truely a "ride at your own risk" experience and I'm suprised the park would subject it's guests to possible severe injury. Is there a certain level of injury that somebody would have to unfortunately cross before the park considers shutting down SOB? Sounds to me like every ride on this thing is a game of Russian Roulette.

On the other hand, I can't wait to get my first ride on it this summer :) I'm DYING to know for myself.

I know Jeff was probably being sarcastic, but, the line is long because the GP apparently doesn't hate it as much as the enthusiast community.

About the broken necks.....

http://www.saferparks.org/database/AR_by_state.asp

Check this out beast master.

Go to the database, and look in ohio under kings island. *** Edited 4/15/2005 6:06:15 PM UTC by crazy horse***

For what it is worth, what I believe to have been the primary reason for the broken necks on Son of Beast has been mostly corrected, and the correction did in fact improve the rideability, though only marginally.

When they added the blocks to the footwell, forcing you to sit with your knees way up in the air, they also forced most adult riders to sit in a very awkward position with their weight not on the buttocks, but on the edge of the tailbone, at a point directly beneath the base of the spine. Whatever ignorant person came up with that setup ought to be shot at sunrise, hung at high noon, and drawn and quartered at sunset. The solution to that problem was to add a thick seat cushion which spreads the load over a much larger area. It still requires that you sit in a very awkward position, though.

As for capacity...I think the blocking is okay to run three trains...there is a safety brake immediately downtrack of the station, the lift, the mid-course block brake, the transfer table, and the station. That's five points that can be used as block points, and the timing of the ride is such that if they could hit interval, they could run three trains. Not that I have ever seen a Kings Island crew hit interval with any regularity, although Vortex and Adventure Express usually come close. Most of the time, the Son of Beast train is ready to go for a long time before the time comes for it to leave the station, so there's plenty of time to run three trains on it.

Of course, they don't seem to *have* three trains. Rumor has it that late in the construction of the ride they rolled the third train off the storage track and destroyed it. Once they saw how well received the ride was and how long the lines were, they decided the third train was not necessary. Is that rumor true? I have no idea. I've never seen the rumored third train.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

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The Mole said:

What do you mean we don't ride the coaster correctly? RIDE THE DAMN RIDE. Ride it, have fun. Just let me and the others who hate this ride hate it.

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actually...maybe there's not a CORRECT way to ride this ride, but there sure is a more comfortable way!

I rode in 1-2 on opening day (THANKS for all the advice guys!!) and it was so much smoother in comparison to the front seat (for me at least).

The only rough part was the last dip before the station.

I love those "you don't know how to ride coaster (X)" comments.

They tend to come from people who have some other reason to defend a ride even though they know very well it's rough and bumpy as hell.

I got the same remark after I wrote a message about the extreme bumpiness of the Eurostar travelling invert - and I bet it was a member or friend of the Eurostar's owner family defending their business.

I wonder what reason BT has to defend SOB in this way. I wish I could ride it to generate my own opinion - however, I'm glad I can't: I'm 6"4 and would end up with lots of bruises I guess.

greets jo *** Edited 4/15/2005 9:06:00 PM UTC by superman***

oh well, few people less in line for the most incredible wooden coaster in all the world!

Roflmao...............................................

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RideMan said:
If you are in Chicago, why not save the carfare and ride the Viper, which is arguably an insanely great wood coaster? Or the Little Dipper, which is far better than Son of Beast.

(Just do yourself a favor and avoid the American Eagle)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

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Actually Dave, last year at Fright Fest, Eagle Red gave me a couple of amazing rides. Maybe it was the cold weather, but there was airtime in places I don't remember there being any.

Oh and back on topic, I think the best way to enjoy SOB is with a flame thrower and a wrecking ball!! *** Edited 4/15/2005 11:21:48 PM UTC by ChiDan1972***

I'll bring the marshmellows.

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RideMan said:
As for capacity...I think the blocking is okay to run three trains...

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Not according to what they said on our tour a few years ago. The problem is that if you stop a train at the transfer, and don't clear it in time, the previous block is the mid-course. They don't want people hanging out there. You can't stack two trains outside of the station as it is built now. Unless you could build another block into the turn between the station and transfer, you can't hold three trains there. Why they didn't accommodate that is beyond me.

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RideMan also said:
Of course, they don't seem to *have* three trains.

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That thing they showed us on the backstage tour for the 2003 BeastBuzz sure looked like a third train to me. That's also where Siebert indicated that the block at the transfer wasn't enough to stack trains.

Good point, Jeff. I couldn't remember if that was the third train, or if one was missing from the ride at the time. :)

As for the blocking, it's technically possible to run three trains on the ride. That Kings Island chooses not to is not a result of a flaw in the ride design. If a train stops on the mid-course, the ride is designed to still bring it home once the system is cleared. I don't know that they have a proper stairway up there (they should...) at the mid-course, but the ride is designed to use that brake as a blocking point. That's why it's up there.

The basic problem is that Paramount is overly paranoid about coaster blocking, and does not want to run coasters with trains in adjacent (but separate) blocks, though that is exactly how the ride was supposed to operate. Perhaps their reluctance is, however, justified, given that even with the paranoid blocking rules, they have managed to have a fair number of collisions over the years. Only one per park, I think, but they have had a few. Thunder Road and The Beast are the two that stand out in my mind at the moment...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I don't think it's unreasonable to not want people getting stopped out there because it's so far away. I can't imagine it goes through the loop very fast from a dead stop either. Given the crew history there, I can see it happening a lot too. I bet it was happening every few intervals.

But I get what you're saying about the paranoia. I know we've discussed before that the setup on Top Gun harms what could be potentially very good capacity (can't dispatch until the other train is in the brakes, wasting the lift as a block).

Jeff, if I remember correctly to the info released prior to it's opening, they mentioned that the tire drive would be capable of "pushing" a train to the desired speed to the course could be compelted with reasonable speed. Don't know if that's what was implimented, though.

RideMan said:

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If you are in Chicago, why not save the carfare and ride the Viper, which is arguably an insanely great wood coaster?

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Yes Viper is pretty sweet but I am Great America'd out right now. Can't wait for BeastBuzz so I can get killed on Beast again (had a hernia when I went to PKI last year) when they tell me the lap bar has to come down one more notch and I am a pretty big guy. I have NO problems whatsoever on SOB. Oh well the 7 hours of Racquetball I am currently playing a week may help by June!

I LOVE the beast, but I'm not a big fan of its son mainly because it beat me around quite a bit the few times I rode it. Not nearly as bad as Mean Streak did, though. I HATE that ride!

Pretty soon this will turn into a Mean Streak-Possible to Enjoy thread. :)

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Beast Tamer said:
The drop out of the station has good air. The first drop, drop into the loop, the small hill out of the loop, then the final hill into the station. I am out of my seat like paul ruben was on the travel channel show where he was on Superman at darien lake on the last hill coming to the station on SoB. It is so intense you can't recall the air time!

It has the best start to a coaster period, you cannot dissagree about that. *** Edited 4/12/2005 8:10:24 PM UTC by Beast Tamer***

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OK I stayed out of this until I read your out of your seat air time comparable to SROS at SFDL. I have a love/hate relationship with Sonny, had some good rides with it, then hated some others, the others were recently. To compare airtime to SROS, ok this gets stupid and whatever you opinion is, thats fine, but I will have to say that there is nothing like the airtime on Sonny that compares to S:ROS.

Ed