Mean Streak without trim brakes?

I got up this morning to pack up the camper with my family and noticed the test runs on Mean Streak where the train seemed to be flying through the first turn whereas barely making it through as it usually does. I watched a couple more times and it was pretty evident that they were running it without the trim brakes. I now think if I have the opportunity to work at Cedar Point, I'll try and work as a Mean Streak op just for an opportunity to ride Mean Streak as it was originally intended to be ridden....fast. It sure disappoints me that every banked turn you go into actually has the opposite effect as it was meant to give, instead of being pushed into your seat or to the left side of the seat on a right turn, you fall to the right as you would had the train been sitting still. Has anybody ridden MS without the trims lately? How was it?

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Trim Brakes.....a necessity?

I believe they do not use the trims when the train is more than a certain amount empty i.e. one person for the morning test runs that you saw. I got one ride without the trims earlier this year, and it was the best ride I've ever had on it. I think it is actually smoother without the trims.

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-Chris Woodard
Six Flags: More fun than an anal probe!

Last Monday, I was among about 7 other people in the MS station, waiting for the mechanics to fix the brakes at the end of the ride. (It was showing a train, which was not actually there, which caused a load of passengers to become stranded for a few moments on the midcourse.)

Anyway, after the three test runs, the 8 of us got in, and the ride was pretty fast, better than usual. This, despite the fact that the trims on the drop were most certainly grabbing.

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-Matt (Czar of the ever-reworking Loopscrew.com & proponent of campy Demon theme song! VIVA!)

As I've mentioned before, the trims squeeze according to the speed of the train ahead. An empty train will go slower, so the computer "thinks" that overall the ride is running slow. Now, get on a train just after an empty one and you'll get a ride like it's opening year.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

I rode last week, right behind a nearly empty train, and got the slowest ride I have ever had. I swear I could feel the trim brake catch three different times. I have no idea how we made it over the first turn.
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Bob M.

I remember last year I was the first and only rider on the first train (open to the crowd) of the day. I sat in the front, and I could feel the trim brake catch at three different points on the first drop. I was fairly dissapointed with that ride, but I went on the train rigth after that. I thought that train would be better, but I was most deffinitly wrong. It was the roughest ride on Mean Streak I had ever experienced. I rode again after that, and it was pretty smooth with a little bit of airtime.

With those trims on, when you go over what you know is supposed to be an airtime oaisis is just depressing.... you wait for the force to pop you out of your seat, but it never does...

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Stupid People Shouldn't Breath...
-Gonzo

*** This post was edited by Jeff on 2/3/2002. ***

This evening I jumped on for a ride. It was a full train, but the trims didn't touch us. It was so fast, and the lateral g's were insane. Those hills that look like an airtime oaisis actually were an airtime oaisis. It was by far my best ride ever. I rode three more times hoping to get another trim-free ride, but it didn't happen.

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-Chris Woodard
Six Flags: More fun than an anal probe!

Without the trim brakes it is a great ride. The only question that I have is: If the ride is tearing itself apart because of how fast the trains are moving after the first hill so there is a need for trim brakes, why bother having a ride at all? There is a reason that most coasters have a first hill: for speed, intensity etc. I understand that there is a cost issue involved, but the ride takes up alot of land. Put the land to better use than to have a roller coaster with trim brakes on the first hill.

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The best thing about Six Flags "Worlds of Adventure" is that Cedar Point is nearby!

Keeping their records of course. If they tear down Mean Streak and put in a different coaster they'd just be breaking even when it came to coaster numbers. CP would rather have a rough coaster that can't ever live up to it's full potential than get rid of it and put a better coaster in it's place just for the sake of staying on top of the world records.

Boy, I'll live for the day when CP finally takes off the trim brakes for good. I'd want to go the first day there off.

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Andrew L. of Waterville, OH.
Cedar Point, the cure for the Summertime blues!

Ride it late during the evening when they are only running 2 trains. It is a little more impressive. I am waiting for them to make some improvements worthy of the investment that was put into the Steel Phantom. MS has a lot of potential based on the twists, heights of hills and number of trains. The trims just seem to be a temporary fix IMHO. We won't see them go away with the current structure because of safety reasons (surely not CP's decision).

I seriously doubt there's much more Cedar Point can do for MS without it being outrageously. True, the coaster has a great design but even the description of the ride on this site says that the trims were probably put on the first drop to keep the ride from destroying itself. There's a great discussion in the Wicked Twister forum about how much certain materials can be more pliable before they finally break. Wood is more pliable than steel but everything has it's breaking point.

This is Mean Streak's 11th season, if those trims had never been put on the top of the first hill the ride probably would cost double if not triple in maintenance costs compared to what they're paying now. It's all in the money really. Until Cedar Point is able to come up with some cost efficient way to maintain the ride without the trims on, it's all going to be luck and timing getting a decent ride.

I was up there Teusday, and our first ride on M.S. didn't use the trims, and it was such a spectacular ride. :)

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~blza~
http://www.pbase.com/blah