Was Son of Beast a Bomb?

Arrow trains are probably the most uncomfortable for me. The harnesses push down on my shoulders, transitions into the elements headbang, and the bucket seats were made for people with pointy rears. The corkscrews are nice on the Vortex, but it is after all just a standard Arrow looper. Mildly rough with uninspired elements (IMO).

Irronically Sambe i rode the Son in seat 6-2. Maybe it was the day, or the weather or something, but it wasn't the fact that it was rough. I kind of like a rough wooden ride. But it's the type of rough that is so bad about the SoB.

Judging by the lines for the ride this year, Son of Beast is a huge failure.. Running only 2 trains, yesterday it was a 2 train wait. While the 20 some year old Beast had appx 15 minute wait running 3 trains. Several people getting off the ride did not look happy because of the roughness. After all, that is the ultimate reason a coaster is built, to attract people to the park. And if lines are short for it, its not an attraction for which the paying public is coming to the park.

The only thing that can save this coaster and make it re-rideable is to shorten the first 3 drops, especially the second 2 drops in the first helix. The forces and roughness going through that helix are almost intolerable to the human body. One can feel their spine being compressed at the valleys of theses turns. But if they shortened the drops, they wouldn't have the sensationalistic claim of "biggest, fastest" anymore, but instead a rideable, fun coaster and that does not seem to be the goal with SOB

The loop is wonderful, but getting to it is dangerous to the average human body.

All in all, it was a pointless coaster for KI. They already had and out and back, and a terrain coaster. What would have completed their wooden collection would have been a nice, rideable GCI type wooden twister. This is more of a helix coaster than a twister and the Beast already featured the best helix possible on a wooden coaster.

*** This post was edited by super7 6/18/2003 3:45:03 PM ***

I personally like sob. It's my sec fav woody. Behind shivering timbers of course. It was a lil rough yes. but not bad. Now The one wooden coaster that everyone seems to like, I hate. I cant stand the beast. Way too rough for me. I had a major headache when I got off. I didnt have one when I got off sob.
*** This post was edited by coastermadness 6/22/2003 2:57:30 PM ***

I can think of something else that Son of Beast is a Son of.

However, in row 2 the ride is pretty cool and not too rough, just don't sit above the wheels. I though this was BS when someone told me that, but it really works.

------------------
Coaster Grotto - Save your Top 20 Coasters and Track Record Online!

SOB is violent and does things no wooden coaster should ever attempt to do (read: them helixes, especially at the bottom) but it is at least interestingly violent. There are any number of Dinn/Summers contraptions that are both painful and boring. I'll take it.

-'Playa

------------------
The CPlaya 100--6 days, 9 parks, 47 coasters, 2037 miles and a winner.....LoCoSuMo.

If SoB had different trains that ran smoothly and had better restraints, would it still be junk? Is it the layout or the concept or the execution?

My question is, why did PKI build a monster woodie in the first place? I guess the wood w/ loop catches headlines, but all my GP friends stay away from woodies, even if they're spectacular. I know lots of people who would rather be on an SLC or boomerang than a classic out and back or even a CCI.

------------------
Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It's not a Toomer" - Arnold Schwartzenkoph
"Those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know." -Jeff

I've only ridden SOB maybe three times total. The I think the last time I was at PKI was the first year the ride was open, so the lines really prohibited repeat rides. But what I'm hearing from most of you is that even if the ride was a walk-on, you wouldn't ride it again. That's saying something.

I think of the times I've been to SRM and ridden Legend and Raven over and over and over and over and over ... and would gladly do it again, which is a testament to how good those rides are (even with the resulting bruises).

Don't you think that one biggest things that ultimately rates the quality of a coaster is it's re-rideability??

On my trip yesterday, it was a near walk on. I rode it once hoping it would be better than my last trip, but once was more than enough and i won't ride it next time i go because i do believe it has the power to knock your body out of alignment.

Rerideability is the definite number 1 quality all parks should seek in their coasters. More riders means more return trips means more $ through the gate. And that is the ultimate goal of any ride in a park.

Good point Playa.

"If SoB had different trains that ran smoothly and had better restraints, would it still be junk? Is it the layout or the concept or the execution?"

ApolloAndy, i tend to think that the ride would still be less then stellar with a smooth ride all things being equal. The pacing between the hills is much to slow. The train tends to creep over the top from my experience. I think most people here would agree that a good ride is one that comes at you nonstop for the entire ride, but the SoB is all intensity or boredom making it slightly better than the Mean Streak which has pretty much been all boredom for a few years now (i do recomend riding the Mean Streak with your eyes closed, it makes for a more interesting ride). All that being said, whos to day that the ride wouldn't speed up if energy wasn't wasted in the roughness that the ride exibits now...

I've ridden SOB with both the old and new trains, they both beat the hell out of me. I've retired from riding it, way to rough.

superman said:

ErinGoBraugh said:
Would I be near to correct in thinking that there needs to be some ground-breaking revolutionary advances in wooden coaster engineering and construction for woodies over 120 feet to really be successful?

It's already here... Mr Stengel has patentet a new plug-and-play type wooden coaster construction that is used by Intamin to produce wood coasters that are supposed to be almost as smooth as their steel counterparts.
The first one was Colossos at Heide Park, Germany:

http://www.coasterclub.org/photos/colossos001/img_8.shtml

I haven't ridden it myself, but if SOB would be constructed like that, it would sure be a much smoother and more enjoyable ride.

This post from June 03?! Talk about Kreskin!?! (if the kiddies know who that is...)

Plug-n-play is probably the only thing that would fix SOB. I know that it's expensive, but wouldn't Plug-n-play save money in the long run with the money they spend on maintenance and lawsuits?

Let's not revive an old thread and continue it as if no time has passed...