They are ruining the Beast

I rode the Beast yesterday and was thrown forward on the way out of a hill by the new state of the art break system. 2 times in the ride those breaks didn't slow the ride, they almost stoped it. These breaks have to go. The rythem of the Beast is way off. Everyone was complaining after the ride was over. Does anyone know what is going on and why they are breaking the ride so much?

Well I rode it yesterday and it was by far the most painful coaster ride that I ever rode. At least it was running fast and not hitting trucks.

*** This post was edited by Mark B. on 7/17/2002. ***

The brakes are no different then they were at the beginning of the year. I am assuming you sat in the front where you do get thrown forward when you hit the brakes. Sit in the back next time. It's not very noticable there.

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1989, 9 years old bawling my eyes out because I didn't want to ride Magnum. I did anyway and look at me now. Why did ya make me do it Dave?

*** This post was edited by MagnumForce on 7/17/2002. ***

Heh...not hitting trucks.....that's a good one

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"Hate is baggage...life's too short to go around being pissed off all the time" - American History X

Yes I was in the front seat, but I have never felt that kind of braking before. Funny about the truck though, I rode the Son of Beast and a bucket truck was parked at the base of the loop. I wish I knew that they were attacking the coasters and I would have never rode it.

I have to agree with jammie on this one, the new breaks are horrible and would be better off without, except for in the staion, you know, to aviod accidents. But i miss the old breaks, the old rise ones.

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B&M, the next pki sensation!

What NEW brakes? These are the same trim brakes that have been there...I rode in the front seat with my 7 year old daughter and we weren't "thrown frontwards"..the brakes only slowed ya down a bit..it definately didn't bring the coaster to a dead stop..THAT would have thrown ya frontwards...

Do you guys want to ride the Beast for the next 3 years? Those breaks are only there to slow it down to a speed where it won't hurt anyone or ruin the track, if you think its painful now, than without the trims it would be much worse, so stop complaining.

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(Former Signature replaced due to bad joke with accident) The Beast at night-Two peas in a pod?

Regardless with the new magnetic brakes installed this year the Beast is running faster then it ever has. 3/4 of the train makes it past the phone on the second lift hill now.

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1989, 9 years old bawling my eyes out because I didn't want to ride Magnum. I did anyway and look at me now. Why did ya make me do it Dave? ;)

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Teenage Ninja said:

Do you guys want to ride the Beast for the next 3 years? Those breaks are only there to slow it down to a speed where it won't hurt anyone or ruin the track, if you think its painful now, than without the trims it would be much worse, so stop complaining.

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(Former Signature replaced due to bad joke with accident) The Beast at night-Two peas in a pod?

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Yeah... NOT!!! The Beast used to be a fast, wild outta control ride. The true "answer" is if "PKI" had the will to hire a coaster maintenance crew (Holiday World, HELLO!!!) the ride would be able to run as it was meant to. I haven't been on the BEAST since 1993, and I'm thinking I should postpone my august trip this year... And wassup with removing the demon and king kobra without any sorta notice to all the "fans" or "gp"???

Wait a minute...... you have not been on Beast in nearly 10 years and you are dissing the crew and the way it runs? That is nearly the equivalent of me saying I hate Toyotas, as well as the people that assemble them, even though I have not ridden in one for a decade.

Obviously you folks have very little regard for PKI's stellar Wooden coaster mainentance crew and very little insight. They are, without a doubt, the best in the business.

To compare their crews (who maintain more board feet of lumber than some two, three, or four other parks put together) to a park like Holiday World is simply silly. Apples and oranges. Bet you didn't know that the coaster crew at HW makes annual trips to PKI just to ride the woodies and simply love the Beast did you?

And the "It's too rough" thing gets old too. I cannot for the life of me figure out why folks want a smooth woodie. I prefer wooden coasters because they DO shake me up a bit.

I challenge any one of you to get a hammer and saw and do any better. Until then, lay off the hard working folks that do their jobs to make us simpletons happy. Those of us that know the maintenance fellows know that they are some of the greatest and most dedicated folks you will find at a park. And they read these boards.

As far as the brakes. I personally am sick of hearing people say "I wish it would run like it used to..." etc etc etc. 99% of the folks saying this obviously never rode it in it's early years. Beast was NEVER run brakless for the GP. For the first time in it's history, the initial drop has NO BRAKE. And the addition of the magnetic trim before the second drop has added air to the front of the train. The first time I recall any air on Beast in the 20+ years I have been riding.

Honestly, I have noticed very little difference in the coaster this year with the new brakes other than a better first drop and a bit more sudden grabs to the trains rather than a loooooooong slow down.

Shaggy

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Shaggy

R.I.P. Maestro
Phantom Theater 1992-2002

*** This post was edited by Shaggy on 7/18/2002. ***

Yah, seriously, ROUGH WOODENS ROCK.

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AHHH-SCHWARZKOPF!
-Coaster Enthusuiast Sneezing

Considering the amount of work that's been done in the past year to PKI's wooden coasters, I have no complaints....in addition to the Beast getting a new braking system, Recar was running like crazy during CBCon, and Sonny.....well, now, the legacy lives on......

I'm sure Beast will continue to be "tweaked", and it's the constant maintenance and upkeep that MAKES a wooden coaster IMO.....imagine what we'd be saying about Raven and Legend if they were "kept up" by the crew working on (over?) Rolling Thunder.....

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"You never stop building a wooden coaster."

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--Ollie Lindon, Director(?) of Wood Coaster Maintenance, Paramount's Kings Island.

(I just thought I'd throw that in there...)

I agree with Teenage Ninja about its speed being hard on the coaster. When we rode almost 2 yrs ago it was the fastest, roughest, most intense woodie I'd ever been on and for that reason it's still my #1. But it also broke down quite often those two days (in fact, I don't think it was even open by the afternoon of the second day when we left) and I'm sure at least part of it was due to the stress it was putting on the structure, trains, etc.

But I'd still prefer they run it like it was designed to be run and do the fixing than try to preserve some of the age-old stuff it has on it right now. I'd be willing to wait in line twice as long or even longer to ride the "real" Beast, so I can handle the consistent down-time.

BTW I haven't rode the Beast since then so I don't know how much the brakes affect it now...

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PLEASE READ: This post wasn't meant to offend or anger anyone; I apologize in advance if it does. So please don't post a reply just to rant about it. :)

Excellent comments, Shaggy. Leave it to you to put things into proper perspective.

Personally, I love the way Beast is running. It moved up my list with the new brakes.

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Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
Favorite Wood: Viper(SFGAm), Legend (HW)
Favorite Steel: MF (CP), Mamba (WoF)

THE BEAST HAS NEVER RAN WITHOUT BRAKES!!!

Why do you people not understand this? the first hill always had brakes and do you think that huge brake shed before the second tunnel just appeared?

The magnetic brakes slow the train down to the same speed as it was ever slowed down too. They just do it a little quicker thats all.

By all accounts the Beast is running faster and making it farther up the second lift hill then it ever has since it's inception.

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1989, 9 years old, Bawling my eyes out because I didn't want to ride Magnum. I did anyway and now look at me. YOU CREATED A MONSTER DAVE!!! ;)

Ya I totally agree with Shaggy, PKI runs 3 times as much wooden track as Holiday World, so they have more work than Holiday World before. I love the untrimmed first drop it gives you air in the back, you get air on the second drop too. Like I said you want to see your wood totally perfect go to Holiday World, PKI's wood is as good as it can get, (Son of Beast could use SOME work like tunnels, but its fun the way it is) and I like the brakes, the sudden stop like Beast is running right in front of you.

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(Former Signature replaced due to bad joke with accident) The Beast at night-Two peas in a pod?

I rode the Beast for the first time in 13 years this summer and I was amazed. It ran as fast or faster then it did in 1989. I thought the magnetic brakes where very smooth and did not hinder the pacing of the train. In fact, I didn’t even know there was a brake on the 2nd hill, until I someone on this site mentioned it.

Ride Mean Streak if you want an example of braking that totally ruins a ride. I think PKI has done a great job maintaining the Beast.

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Bob M.

*** This post was edited by RPMGuitar on 7/18/2002. ***

Only on one of these Coaster Enthusiast "Golden Calf" rides would one even *think* to say that brakes enhance a ride.

DISCLAIMER: The Hostyl One has not ridden Beast 2K2.

That being said, I cannot imagine what would inspire someone to proffer that a sudden reduction in speed in the middle of a ride would be preferable to a gradual reduction. I'm sure that we would all agree that the magnetic brakes at the end of the ride were an intelligent installation and that their installation necessitated the removal of all the skid brakes. It would also seem reasonable that those brakes too would be magnetic.

The question I pose though is would it have not been *better* if the magnetic trims were calibrated in such a way that they would mimic the ride of the skid brakes? That is, instead of taking the speed out in one big chunk, bleed it off in bite-sized pieces. I'll tell you now, when I rode Beast in 2000, I could not tell that there were brakes on the ride. If I hadn't known from these (and other) boards, I would not even suspect. But I think a sudden stop would be more noticeable.

In any case, I doubt my opinion of Beast will change *much*, just thought it weird to see so-called enthusiasts say trims *helped* a ride.
later days,
jeremy
--who still thinks Son of Beast is the best coaster in Ohio