A new appreciation for Magnum

This may seem like a worthless topic to many but...oh well. I went to Valleyfair (Twin Cities, MN) and got a chance to ride Wild Thing. Being an out and back hyper coaster and from looking at the photos before I went, I expected this ride to be much like Magnum. Not even close. This ride has a great first drop and airtime comparable to MF on its second hill, but the second half of the ride is terrible. I don't understand because it had the same basic layout as Magnum. Big hills to start, a few turns with a turnaround, and bunny hills back to the station. This ride is not even close. Just goes to show, Magnum is #(whatever its ranked this year) for a reason.

Magnum :)

It is known to many as "Mild Thing". If I remember correctly, it was the first Morgan coaster. Correct me if I'm wrong anybody.

I still think magnum is the best coaster out there. I can't understand when everyone says it's so rough. I have been riding magnum ever since cp built it and it doesn't seem any rougher now than it did then. I think everyone is getting spoiled with all the new coasters from intamin and B&M being so smoth.

I really didn't think Wild Thing was all that bad. It was a pretty good ride. It doesn't compare to Magnum, but then again, nothing compares to Magnum.
What got me while I was there is that on Steel Venom they have a break on the back spike, and it scared the shxt out of me because I wasn't expecting it. And it sounded like some pretty heavy grinding as it let go which worried me a bit.

I've been on cousin Steel Force and people diss that ride all of the time. I loved it.

Magnum continues to be a "good accident" by Arrow. If they could figure out how to retrack the turn around (look at how the paint wears in the rails), the rough complain I bet would disappear.

Also a similar arrow design to Magnum is Desperado at Buffalo Bills... rough as hell though and being stuck in the middle of the desert cannot compare to Magnum's location.

The only seat in the magnum that is kind of rough is in the back seat, other than that its not bad at all

The trick to a smoother ride on any Arrow coaster is to sit in the first row of each car... may be old news :)

Here's another "tip:"

HOLD ON. Sure its fun to put your hands up but you'll save yourself the end of the day headache after a full day of riding if you use those handle bars.

Just to clarify, Wild Thing wasn't bad. It just wasn't as good as I'd expected it to be at first glance. The first half is pretty darn good. After that you can just about fall asleep though. I guess growing up on Magnum kinda set the bar high for me.

I've put some thought into this thread and I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that one of the secrets to a great ride is no mid-course block brakes. Discuss....

Exactly, Magnum was trimless for me in the Middle of July, and I have to say, it sure does match up to its little brother Millennium Force! What a ride it was...(even though I suffered from acute bruising to the thigh), but still, Magnum is by far one of the best when it is ran trimless. :)

Magnum run how its supposed to run (trimless) is the greatest ride in the world. Simple as that...too bad loaded ones are few are far between.

I was wondering, who decides to make the trims mandatory except for when trains are almost empty or it is cold? Is it operations, or maintenance?

I think that untrimmed, the ride is the greatest steel coaster on Earth. Rides like Millennium Force can't even compare to Magnum without trims.

-Sam

Isn't Mamba also one of Wild Thing's cousins? I enjoy Mamba very much, but I think the bunny hills lack a little something compared to Magnum's.

Magnum has always been of favorite of both my wife and me since we started going to CP, and it is usually the first coaster we hit. I also think a big part of its charm, at least for me, is the location. I love how it goes along the beach front.

I thought the midcourse was ok, after that though the headchopper was great, all you see is this warehouse and suddenly you drop down to go in, it was a great effect.

Does anyone remember riding Magnum early during it's first season? Wow, now that was a rough ride... no padding anywhere inside of the train (not even the lap bars had padding, like Gemini was) and there were no trims yet. I remember being so beat up, I could barely walk down the exit ramp.

I remember the lap bars on magnum being orange in years past, and when I was there this year they were black. Am I just going insane or did they actually put different color bars in?

In the 15 yrs of riding Magnum, I have never seen orange lap-bars.

I agree with ya DD! It hurt a lot that 1st season!

Jeff, I agree about the pretzel. I wouldn't be surprised if they replaced it again. It has been 10 yrs now.

I must be going insane then...and when did they redo the pretzel? I remember them redoing the 3rd hill but not the whole pretzel, or did they redo all of it?

I'm not sure about the 3rd hill being redone but I can remember Magnum being down for several days in the late summer during it's 2nd or 3rd season to add the trims to the pretzel.