Magnum Retracking

I love how in one of the posted videos the person mentioned how smooth steel coasters are when talking about the Magnum. Implying that it applied to the newly opened ride.

Don't touch her. She's still rightly in the conversation as the best ride in the park.

Beast is a classic example of trims taking the edge off a ride. Back when that opened those now perceived boring runs downhill through the trees were far more intense. At least that's the way it was the last time I was on it. Same thing with mean streak.

Most new B&Ms are soulless. Especially the last two at the point. Nothing unexpected, nothing out of control. They are right to be called out for making less than stellar rides for that price. It's amusing that after all these years Jeff still needs to slap down someone else to share his opinion. It's comforting that some things never change.

gener said:

Most new B&Ms are soulless. Especially the last two at the point. Nothing unexpected, nothing out of control. They are right to be called out for making less than stellar rides for that price.

Yeah, right. I bet CP sure misses the "out of control" days of blowing $10-$30 million on an Intamin ride, only to have to (in this order)...

1. Stress over whether or not the ride will even open on time.
2. Learn that it won't open on time (of course).
3. Have emergency meetings to decide how best to deal with whatever major issue is causing delay, because as usual Intamin are being unhelpful jerks about the issue.
4. Replace components/sections of the ride.
5. Finally open the ride (late) only to discover additional issues.
6. Replace even more sections of the brand new ride.
7. Install trims because Intamin engineers can't math beyond a high school level.
8. Deal with enormous amounts of downtime.
9. Decide whether or not to just cut their losses and remove the turd of a ride.
10. Regret not buying a superior product from B&M in the first place.

I get that fanboys ignorant of what it takes to run a successful park love to hate on B&M, but the fact is that B&M builds enormously popular rides with fantastic capacity, and do so while providing what is, by all accounts, the product they promised their customer.

gener said:

Beast is a classic example of trims taking the edge off a ride.

Uh...it's always had trims. Also the new one does actually run quicker. I've pointed this out time and time again. It still generally sucks though

http://www.youtubedoubler.com/?video1=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com...phrocarlin

Also:

http://www.kicentral.com/forums/index.php/topic/29757-beast-speeds/

If you think B&Ms are soulless, I'm surprised. Thunderbird, Valravn, Fury, and in some ways Banshee were quite impressive. Some B&Ms were a bit weaker than others, but those three were fantastic additions. Plus, it's not really fair to blame B&M for all of this. The parks approved the design. They don't design Mavericks every single time. Their job is to bring in the family and get them riding to have an incredible day. We are not the target market for any coasters, especially now.

Also, for you to criticize Jeff, one, he decides if you stay or not, just saying. Two, he kinda has more info/credibility than you. I may not agree with everything he says, but he has an opinion with more knowledge than practically everyone here; his opinion carries some weight with it. Best you understand those points, especially #1. The banhammer is always primed and ready.

thedevariouseffect said:
... Their job is to bring in the family and get them riding and spend as much money at the park as possible in order to turn profit...

I fixed that for you.

B&M seems to fit that bill better than Intamin. B&M rides appeal to a much larger audience because they are not ultra-intense. They run reliably with little downtime. When is the last time a B&M grand opening was delayed because they had to re-engineer an entire section of the ride (Maverick) or had to reprofile a section during the first off season (I-305)? Don't get me wrong. My personal Top-10 is littered with Intamin rides. But if I'm running a park B&M is where it's at... with RMC making a strong case lately as well.

From the park's perspective this is the key phrase:

"[B & M's] run reliably with little downtime"

Soul really doesn't factor into the equation

I don't think it's a surprise that the last time an Intamin opened in the US was with SkyRush at Hershey Park back in 2012. There's a reason that major US parks don't want them anymore: they can't trust Intamin.

They're a ton of fun, don't get me wrong. But they're unreliable and alienate a large portion of the park-goers with their intensity. I'd venture a guess and say that the GP loves floater air more than ejector air. And who provides more floater air than B&M?

Until a steel manufacturer can prove to be better in terms of reliability and smoothness, while providing the GP with a great experience, I think B&M is the way to go. It's the reason we all love GCI. They make proven products that work.

I'd argue that B&M attractions also better accommodate guests of exceptional size over Intamin. I've yet to see a walk of shame on their Hyper/Gigas. That's not to suggest that it can't happen, just less likely.

My first B&M hyper (Diamondback) instantly became me #2. Not just the experience of the ride, but those trains. Floor level entry/exit. Incredible comfy seats and restraints. Tons of room and space.. Near perfection.

Soulless? No way.

SkyRush was the last ride I've ridden that I truly felt death by ejection could occur at any moment.

Magnum isn't a "must ride" coaster for anyone in my family and we've skipped it on several of our visits. The first drop is fun but the bunny hops can be pretty brutal.

Having said that, I'm fine with leaving Magnum as-is.

Sparty42 said:
Until a steel manufacturer can prove to be better in terms of reliability and smoothness, while providing the GP with a great experience, I think B&M is the way to go.

So until rmc starts using their t rex track.

Magnum hasn't been rough since 1989, especially the first two weeks of operation when the trains did not have any padding in the trains whatsoever. I remember asking Ron Toomer at the 10th anniversary about that. He said that their supplier hadn't delivered the padding and they had a deadline for delivering the trains to CP.

Regarding using upstop plates instead of wheels, he stated that he thought the ride would be no different than CCMR or Gemini didn't feel it would need the wheels.

I had massive bruise on legs those first couple of weeks from the unpadded lapbars. Watching Magnum at night was a light-show, with sparks shooting out from under the train when it crested every hill, where the upstop plates hit the bottom of track.

The trims were added to top of third hill early on do to the stress created from trains hitting that drop. That is why the section of track from third hill to pretzel was replaced for the second season. It was hoped that the trims would be removed after the alteration. But, they stayed. I can't remember which year it was that they moved the trim from top of hill to the bottom. I was so happy when that happened! I felt it was the best of both worlds. The park was able to maintain the speed of Magnum AND we got our airtime hill back!

Ron.. Please show me where the ejection inducing hills are on CCMR and Gemini. Engineer fail.

Magnum "Candy" Man said:

Magnum hasn't been rough since 1989, especially the first two weeks of operation when the trains did not have any padding in the trains whatsoever...

... Watching Magnum at night was a light-show, with sparks shooting out from under the train when it crested every hill, where the upstop plates hit the bottom of track.

Oh I forgot about the sparks...What a great summer.

There's only one Magnum retracking project I'd approve of: un-reprofiling the third hill and returning it to its original glory.

It's still my favorite ride in the park.