Son of Beast closes

The chances of getting another beemer so soon after another big B&M investment of Diamondback is unlikely. I'm still a sukka for B&M inverts, so I wouldn't be upset.

I'm with the tear it down crowd. If CF had any real forthought about becoming an even better destination, the obvious choice is a modern GG woodie. I realize this is apples & oranges, but look at what Voyage has done for HW (not to mention Raven & Legend). With a big, good, aggressive (dueling???) GG replacement, KI would be insane.

KI is more likely to get a GCI then a GG coaster. CF has a history with that company, and thanks to the MF trains they have less maintence issues then GG coasters.

Maybe in a few years when those trains that they tested on the Raven go into production and some rides are either converted or built for them and show better long term durability things will be different but until then bet GCI for any wooden coaster at a CF park

Soggy said:
The chances of getting another beemer so soon after another big B&M investment of Diamondback is unlikely. I'm still a sukka for B&M inverts, so I wouldn't be upset.

Like Mantis opening two years after Raptor? Batman after Iron Wolf? Nitro after Medusa? Apollo after Alpengeist?

Yeah didn't KI just sign a three ride contract with B&M? ;)

As far as the future of Son of Beast, I'm in the "good riddance" group. I rode it once after the loop was removed and decided that I was done with it. We'll see what the future holds...

~Rob

I would be happy with a B&M floorless, like Dominator. It was such a smooth ride!!

Speaking of Mantis, why not Prince Cobra? If it wouldn't be a TOGO which I think is not in business any more, then it just wouldn't be worth building then.

Why not a B&M deuling flyer? We've seem racing wood, dueling steel, and deuling wood, by WHY NOT A DUELING FLYER?????

Better yet, make it a giga flyer too.

Jeff: I said unlikely, not impossible. And I'll admit freely that when I said that, it was my uninformed opinion, so take it as such. I suppose it is a lot more likely now that CF owns KI, considering in the park's entire history they have had zero B&M coasters, now they have one. (but are they willing to break up a two-pack?)

I just think if they are going to demolish a record breaking wooden, they might as well replace it with another wood that breaks some sort of mundane record AND delivers a ride that makes it a worthy successor to The Beast. (yeah, yeah... I know you aren't a big fan of The Beast, but I think you know what I'm getting at) Again, my uninformed opinon on the subject.

Well, they did demolish and replace a one-time record breaking woodie at Dorney with the coaster equivalent of a carrousel.

I would love to see a B&M dueling flyer!

I'd love to see them send all their PTC trains back to PTC for a complete overhaul in order to make Racer and The Beast rideable.

I'm no fan of Son of Beast, but at least I can ride it when it is operating.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

RideMan said:
I'd love to see them send all their PTC trains back to PTC for a complete overhaul in order to make Racer and The Beast rideable.

I'm no fan of Son of Beast, but at least I can ride it when it is operating.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I agree 100%. I was at KI for the second time 2 weeks ago and those trains are horrible. Between the lack of padding and too tight lap bars, they hurt what could be good rides. For Beast, maybe articulated trains like current PTC's could help?

I'll have to agree with that the PTC train's need more padding, I did in fact ride the Racer this year ten times in a row, it felt great maybe a little sore. But yeah I think the Beast is a rougher, but they did a heck of a job retracking in the double helix, that is smooth!!!!

What about, a 500 ft woodie dueling flyer? To the best of my knowledge, nobody's even tried it.

Wood should never go above 200 feet, unless its built right.

Wood should never go above 2 feet, unless it's built right.

How about a 500ft Floorless, Woodie, with a splash down at the end!

On Racer and The Beast, the current trains operate just fine. At the Ride Warriors event this spring, Jeff Gramke talked about how when they built The Beast, they took John Allen's rules of thumb for coaster design and actually went more conservative. Allen suggested, for instance, allowing half a train length of transition space between roll and yaw motions to give the train a chance to straighten out; on The Beast the transition space is more than a full train length based on the original trains (which were longer than the current train). There is nothing on that ride that the unarticulated 3-bench cars can't handle. Articulation wouldn't hurt, but from the way the straight cars run, it seems it probably wouldn't help, either.

The biggest problems are that both Racer and The Beast have narrow-body cars to which seat dividers and individual lap bars have been added, leaving not enough people space; and that they insist on ramming the lap bar down two clicks when the first three clicks are missing. On The Voyage, I typically ride with the lap bar in the fifth or sixth notch; on The Beast it's a battle to get it into notch #1. That is unreasonable.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

To be honest, I think CF could spend the next 5 years cleaning up the Action Zone. So much pavement, so little shade. Son of Beast and Congo Falls never fit with the theme. Top Gun is 10 miles from anything. You'd seriously think that Paramount was playing RTC.

Actually, Congo Falls fit into the theme of that area of KI back when it was built. Paramount created the Action Zone when they added Drop Zone and Face/Off. Before that, it was Adventure Village and had King Cobra and the Animal Habitat monorail as it's anchor attractions. Congo Falls fit right in with the jungle theme that the area had. Fast forward to 1999 when the Action Zone was created suddenly the jungle theme feels out of place.