Steel Dragon (Japan) gets B&M trains

The B&M hyper trains have my favorite restraints of all the coasters. They provide an incredibly open feeling. Even with the restraint properly resting on my legs, a good airtime hill will still lift me off the seat. Plus, no seat belts = faster load times, and less time in line.

As far as Magnum goes, I find the ride to be less enjoyable than it used to be. 10 years ago, it was my favorite ride period. Now, I feel a little beat up after riding it. I almost think that it's caused more by the bumpiness in the high g-force sections than the sudden ejector air. I'm not saying that B&M trains on Magnum are the solition, but I think that Cedar Point may need to do something to address this issue. It was such a great ride, I just hate to find it so much less rideable than it was a decade ago.

Has anyone here ridden Steel Dragon? I always thought of it as a bit underrated since it seemed to have a pretty darn good layout, and I'm sure adding the new trains will only add to that. I still haven't been to Japan.

When someone suggested trading out the train on Magnum, I was looking for the "-1" button.

Dare I mention that Magnum is one of the most accommodating rides at Cedar Point. Long legs? No problem. Big gut? No problem. Large chest? Big thighs? Unusual proportions in nearly any dimension? No problem.

Jeff suggests pulling the safety belt tight...as one who actually prefers to ride in the über-violent back seat of the lead car, I'll modify that a bit. Leave the belt loose when you sit down, but when you hit the turnaround after the third drop, grab the tail and cinch it tight. Also, do not get the lap bar too tight, and as you exit the turnaround, lift up on the lap bar. This is not to prevent the bar from coming down, this is to reduce the force by which you are catapulted into the bar. You are actually holding yourself down in the seat. That minor amount of effort can make a huge difference in your enjoyment of the ride.

(Or simply ride further back in the train!)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

^3rd seat on Magnum. Mmmmmmm! My friends and I always loved how the 3rd seat had a smaller queue shoot (what do you call em?) since it's wedged between the station support - or is it that the queues for seats 2 and 4 are angular with #3 in between? Or both? Hard to remember exactly, but whatever the set up, seat 3 always seemed to have a shorter line.

Phantom's Revenge has a similar situation up front and it's easy to get into the second row. Shhh. Don't tell anyone.

On Magnum, I also tend to press my outside leg against the vertical portion of the lapbar, as this pressure prevents the lapbar from ratcheting down as the ride progresses and allows for a little more airtime room. I find this also works well on the ratcheting restraints found on many PTC trains, as there's a little curvature to the restraint that you can nestle the top of your thigh into.

The beast has some angled queue sections too.

blasterboy6500 said:

Has anyone here ridden Steel Dragon? I always thought of it as a bit underrated since it seemed to have a pretty darn good layout, and I'm sure adding the new trains will only add to that. I still haven't been to Japan.

I have. It feels exactly the same as the smaller Morgans.

^^ Not a bad thing. I wouldn't mind riding it then...Steel Force remains in my top 20, so...

Really? I rode Steel Force for the first time, hoping for a Magnum-esqe experience, boy was that a disappointment. It is a good ride, but it just seems as if it may be traveling too slowly through the course, I wanted to be lifted from the seat, and was near floating, but just didn't quite get there. Had this issue the few times I have ridden it. The whole ride just feels kind of clunky and slow. Figure I'll just take laps on Talon instead.

Try that one in Shakopee, Wild Thing. Ugh. A heavy, lumbering experience and I believe my least favorite in the series of Arrow/Morgan hypers.
I wish I could remember Steel Force correctly. While on the way up the lift the sky opened and I rode that coaster in a driving rain. I couldn't keep my eyes open, and it was like an exfoliating facial peel at 60 mph. My every intention was to go back but the rain never stopped. The park closed at 2pm that day so I got on the road. Next time.

There a lot of rides that were made in the 1990s and early 2000s that tried to imitate magnum because of the sucsess it had. Most of those rides were tremendous disapointments!

I will always have a special place in my heart for Steel Force thanks to my years with Coasting for Kids. I really like that coaster. It's very conducive for marathoning.

I think that's the problem with riding coasters with the expectations that they be like other coasters. I just take them for what they are and I usually enjoy them for what they are.

That is so poetic

Important Update:

This is a link from Screamscape this morning, but check out the 3rd picture here.

http://vhcoasters.com/2013/03/17/steel-dragon-2000-adds-bm-trains/#

What do we see? Seatbelts. They look to be retractable, therefore less cumbersome in the loading process i spose, but still,... Please don't let Kings Island see this and get any ideas.

I've noticed the Japanese, and this may be in response to incidents here and there, have a lot more safety restrictions than even we do here in the US. I believe they are even required to have a catwalk along every inch of coaster track, speaking of evac.

Do those look like extra large wheels on there to anyone else but me?

Yeah, those wheels definitely look big. Are they in there to make the ride smoother or something?

The wheels are probably extra large to deal with heat issues with the tires due to the extended high speed of the ride. The larger wheels, because of the larger diameter, tend to run cooler.