Mean Streak - better?

The train you get also has a say in your ride experience. One is just plain horrible it shuffles and feels like the structure is falling down from under you.

Mean Streak to me is better in certain seats. I did a front ride on Friday night and it sucked. But the middle seat on any car after the first car, is OK.

Come again? Mean Streak's cars are two-benchers. There are no "middle" seats.

I rode front seat last Monday and thought it was the best seat on the whole train. I'm surprised you thought it was rough up there.

If I EVER ride Mean Streak, it's front or nothing. But my most recent ride last august furthered my dislike of the ride in any case. lol

I thought that too until I found the front far bumpier than I thought. Forget what train it was tho the gold train I like best. Will try it again but I got a tip from a ride op in another part of the park where to sit and it's in a part of the train I'd have been afraid to sit for fear of bruised ribs. She was right...it was a lot smoother than I thought.

Still, I am going to try seat 1-1 next week...usually used to sit 3-1

In my opinion when I rode it, the side to side movement wasnt as bad, but it was like riding a jackhammer.

I was at the park yesterday but only stayed for a few hours in the morning because it was so busy. But anyways I rode Maverick for ERT in the morning and then took a ride on Meanstreak. To my surprise the trims on the first hill were OFF! The ride was actually smooth! I actually enjoyed the ride for the first time since early this year. I was a little confused bacause in earlyer post you all say they added the trims to slow the trains down because of modifacations made to the ride. Well the trims were OFF!

Well I was so impressed i got back on and rode meanstreak a total of 8 times in a row with the trims off! But by my 9th try they had been turned on and the ride went back to its normal roughness.

Also i would like to ad.
With the potential of Cedar Fair removing SOB at the end of the year do you think that CF will concider removing Meanstreak anytime soon?

In my opinion Cedar Fair will get rid of Son Of Beast at Kings Island and add something in the future for maybe another coaster or water ride or something. Also I think Cedar Fair will probably keep Mean Streak, because it's not as bad as Son of Beast as far as roughness goes. I'm sure a lot of people will agree with me on that statement.

At least Mean Streak is fixable and has never had any lawsuits for rider injury. What I don't get and I'm glad you pointed it out dude is why the ride would be rougher with the trim brakes on compared to having them off?

I was up there today and most of the time I was up there the Mean Streak was not very full! Most of the trains I saw had people more toward the front!

In my opinion, Mean Streak has gotten worse. The last time I rode it was back in June and let me tell you, I had a headache for 2 days straight after riding it. I even sat toward the front of the train. When I worked on the crew of the ride back in 2002, it ran smoother that year than it did this year. I don't think I will be riding it anytime soon again unless I have a presciption of heavy duty pain killers ready for after the ride.

Shawn Meyer said:
... What I don't get and I'm glad you pointed it out dude is why the ride would be rougher with the trim brakes on compared to having them off?

Simple.

Without the trims, the train moves faster.

Moving faster, the train has a higher speed going into a curve.

Because of the higher speed, when the train goes into the curve, there is more energy, and the higher energy means there is more lateral force. The added lateral force means that the train will stay stuck to the outside rail.

Here, have a look at this photo. It is a photo of the inside rail on the last turn of Ravine Flyer II. A broader view is available HERE. That photo was taken at the END of last season, and yet you can see that the side steel is rusty, like the wheels have never touched it. That spot is the last curve leading into the station.

It turns out that in order to compensate for the fact that PTC trains cannot steer, the trick is to keep the train going fast enough through the curves that the ride's energy will drag it against the outside rail instead of allowing the train to shuffle back and forth between the inside and outside rails.

With the trims, Mean Streak moves too slowly to stay "stuck" to the outside rail, so the train shuffles back and forth, yielding a rougher ride.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

And the shuffling then leads to the scalloping/damaging of the track, which further worsens the ride experience. However, if you don't use the trims, supposedly the ride will (slowly) shake itself apart, leading to increased time spent trying to make sure everything is good, or more likely, rushing through on a nightly basis because there is too much to be done between closing and 8/9 in the morning. Both situations lead to increased maintenance, but evidently there is less maintenance (and risk of missing a problem) by using the trims.

Dave, thought I would also point out to you that if you haven't ridden Blue Streak this year, it isn't shuffling near as much as it used to through the turn-around, and you can see it on the rails as well as how the graph-coat lays out. I was really surprised to not feel it shuffling like it used to and am curios what they did, as it can't be going faster. My only thought is that they bumped out the outside side rail to narrow the spacing, or even bumping out both side rails to really tighten things up.

I have to differ on this slightly. Mean Streak felt horrable without the trims on when i went to the park sunday. The next ride they turned them on and it felt sorda rough. Rideman, could it be that there is to much room between the track and the train so that makes it shuffle back and forth?

The worst part of the ride when I rode it in June was at the valley after a hill. The vertical vibration was, as one poster noted, like a jackhammer. It was almost intolerable. At these areas, I would expect shuffling to be minimal. But, the contact pressure between the train and the top side metal rails will be at a maximum. Any irregularities on the wheels or track topside will be felt. And boy, could you feel it.

Just wanted to bring this topic back just because yesterday it was announced that Holiday World would be upgrading their trains for the voyage. I don't have the link on me of where I read about this, but I'm sure you guys have seen the link. I believe it's on Coaster Buzz. Does anybody think these new types of trains would help Mean Streak out at all? I know Mean Streak has a bumpy design as it is, but would this make Mean Streak smoother? I mean to me it's worth a shot.

Alot of people are talking about CP adding a new woodie. My question would be why would they add a new woodie unless Mean Streak was torn down? Why add a great woodie and keep a crappy one? I'd say two solutions exist here...either reprofile Mean Streak (essentially rebuild the thing with a new design all together) or tear it down and build a new woodie. Your thoughts? Man...all this talk about wood coasters makes me want to go to Holiday World...I still have never been.

I think it would be a great idea. What i would do is: get two Timberliner trains to Mean Streak. If it boosts popularity, keep the trains for the ride. If it doesn't do anything, bring back the PTC's and make a new wooden coaster. I would still keep Mean Streak around though. They really need to add something back there so Mean Streak is not alone. For a ride that is deserted, it gets good ridership.

I rode it 10 times saturday closing weekend with Mean Streak Henry and about 5 of the rides they turned the trim brakes off.Made the ride alot rougher the next morning took me an hour just to get out of bed i was so sore lol.

I'm curious to see if the new trains deliver a smoother ride, as they are claimed to do. Voyage is a pretty rough ride, but only because of the really quick turns it makes. It doesn't bounce like Mean Streak, in my opinion. If they do really improve the ride smoothness, I think it's a great investment for CP. Tearing down Mean Streak would be a gigantic investment, and if the fix is as simple as buying new trains, I say go for it.