Trims Fix

SFStL's mine train has a trim that was added to that smallish "bunny hop" a couple years ago. Because it's a fairly recent addition, I can't imagine it's needed to slow the train speed entering the lift.

-Nate

Trims exist for different purposes and some are wll executed while others are poorly executed.

Trims on the start of drops really damage the ride experience. Trims at the end of rises or in valleys do much less to damage the ride experience.

Many trims are used to correct problems with the ride. B&M however to mention 1 company, designs computer controlled trims into their rides to enhance the ride experience. Nitro is a perfect example. A trim located at the bottom of a hill is almost unnoticeable to the rider. However, it allows the ride to be designed so that it gives a good ride when it's fairly cool, yet can be trimmed to not let forces get too high when things get hot and the speed picks up.

So is(are) Nitro's trim(s) located at the bottom of the hill(s)?

thecoasterguy,

Perhaps I am crazy but I think the trim on Mantis actually improved the ride. Did you ever get to ride it without the trim? During the first couple of weeks of it's opening season, even the mid cource brakes were barely on.

Now, I love a brakeless ride on Mantis every once in a while, but I will admit that a trimless ride was very hard on the legs. Yes, sometimes it was great, but I have seen on more than one occasion someone having a very difficult time walking down the stairs at the exit because their legs went numb on the ride.

For me, the first drop trim makes the ride a lot more reridable. Now, if we were talking about the mid course trim, that's a different story. =:^)

Some of Nitro's hills do have trims before and after them- the first camelback hill (the one before the overbanked turn) is a good example. But Nitro's trims do not affect the overall quality of the ride, as they are not designed to reduce forces to the point where they no longer exists. They just kinda keep things in check.

Now, take a look at a coaster like Hercules and try and tell me that the trim brake on the first drop didn't have a negative impact on the ride experience?

That's what trims should be used for to keep things in check not to reduce the forces to nothing like Valleyfair does. I have been on plenty of coasters with trims that still keep the force (airtime) intact a few example: Magnum, Mamba (Yes, a heavily trimmed Mamba, unlike Wild Thing still have some airtime in the back on the return leg!!), Timber Wolf (The extra weight from the added ratcheting lapbars kept the ride as fast as ever which is why I think they added a trim to the first drop. The only loss is the back seat airtime on the first drop, otherwise the front seat is better than ever!!), Texas Giant and the Georgia Cyclone. In some cases on looping coasters like Vortex trims actually makes the ride BETTER (to me) because you can get some hangtime (upside down airtime). Trims are not always bad it is how they are used that makes them bad sometime.

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IIRC, PKD is also trimless.

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well, that may be true, but they abuse block segments to COMPLETELY STOP both Flight of Fear and Anaconda on their midcourse breaks. anaconda i can understand, but FoF with lapbars doesn't need a COMPLETE STOP in the middle of the ride! ricochet has some mild braking, too, but thankfully volcano, hypersonic, shockwave, rebel yell, grizzly, scooby doo, and everybody's favorite, taxi jam, remain brake-free.

FoF's braking is also weird to me, because Joker's Jinx at SFA is basically an outdoor clone of this ride, except it doesn't even HAVE a block segment in the middle. it also feels like the launch isn't as fast, perhaps to compensate for the lack of braking in the middle, but that could also just be that it SEEMS slower because it's not enclosed like FoF.