Rumored Maverick Retracking

As the train goes around the course, the track and supports bend very slightly under the weight/force of the train, which is the cyclic loading he alludes to in the video.

Think of it as a much less extreme version of the swaying we see on Steel Vengeance when the train passes through the section under the lift hill. The same thing happens on a steel supported coaster, just to a much smaller degree.

Random question but have the water bombs been working the last few seasons?

No, as the CP "Lagoon Maintenance" funds were exhausted in other areas of the park such as the Iron Dragon TT2 spike area & Sirens Curse lagoon. Also, numerous guests complained that while walking the bridge near those cannons they would unexpectedly be sprayed with yucky lagoon water and then complain to Guest Services.

Seriously though, I seem to recall On Point Tony saying at some point that he was tired of adorning waders to go into the water & service the cannons, unclogging them took a yeoman's effort and expense.

Wait, so On Point Tony used to perform the lagoon maintenance himself? 🤣. No wonder he was so jazzed about the lagoon maintenance project a few years back, dude ain’t getting any younger.

First of all, El Toro Ryan's sources are usually some of the best. If he says it's on the table, I believe it. He was one of the earliest to say that Zamperla was the ones doing TT2, and the one who sounded the alarm that Kingda Ka was going to close. So if his sources say it's possible, I'm inclined to believe entirely that it's being discussed. As for if the ride is coming close to end of service life, Wicked twister was. Kingda Ka was. They're both intamins nearly the same age as Maverick. Lots of other rides have needed significant retracking. It's not like it's unheard of.

If Maverick is in need for a retracking, and Cedar Point is going to spend the capital on retracking Maverick, adding a reprofiled heartline roll back makes all the business sense in the world. Suddenly a boring retrack that is going to cost money without adding new value becomes a huge marketable change, that adds value. Every single enthusiast will come racing back to Cedar Point to ride it with the Heartline Roll. Even the general public will be excited. If you combined that with new trains with Velocicoasters restraints instead of OTSRs? Massive homerun.

You could take what is already one of the most popular rides in the park, and have it draw CROWDS into the gate again. Honestly the longer I've thought about it, I've convinced myself that if they do need to do trackwork on Maverick, it would be crazy NOT to add a revised roll back in. Especially if you are replacing that bit of track anyway?

Blind squirrel, broken clock, etc... Also, everyone knew Zamperla was doing TT2. Worst kept secret in the industry.

Wicked Twister and KingdaKa weren't retired for track. They were retired because all of the things that actually break are expensive to replace, on rides that were already expensive to operate.

And why do you think they pulled the roll out, and under what circumstances would they put it back in? The wear and tear on the wheel bearings and axels was apparently the thing they were trying to mitigate. Why would that be different now?

I guess I'm the only one that thinks ElToroRyan is just as click-bait-y as all the other Youtubers. Even if he gets the facts more often than most, the style is still tabloid and in your face and he has no reputable on the record sources.

I also can't imagine a world where Cedar Point has to do a full or partial re-track on Maverick right now and would take the time, effort and expense to add an element that already didn't work. Even if they did, a few hundred thoosies will hardly move the needle on attendance, which they clearly aren't hurting for based on the Jason McClure and Colleen Murphy presentation from a few weeks ago.

I don’t see adding one more inversion as drawing that many more people to the park. 75% of those in the park wouldn’t even know until they rode it.

I may very well be misremembering, but I thought at the time that it wasn't common knowledge that Zamperla had been chosen for TT2.

Jeff:

And why do you think they pulled the roll out, and under what circumstances would they put it back in? The wear and tear on the wheel bearings and axels was apparently the thing they were trying to mitigate. Why would that be different now?

This is a long shot, but if they ever re-added the heartline roll, I’d expect it to be more like VelociCoaster’s version. It’s not a true heartline roll, but from what I understand, it solves the issues Maverick had back in 2007.

That roll is longer and taken at slightly less speed. And it sure looks like a heartline roll to me, though I'm not sure what that has to do with anything.

The heartline roll coming back seems like a pretty big stretch even if we assume the rest is accurate. Velocicoaster's roll is probably twice as long, so to make something similarly-tolerable for Maverick would probably require the replacement/relocation of several supports, and probably modification or replacement of the rock work as well. That would be a hefty investment for a 20 year old ride.

Maverick's original "heartline" roll wasn't really even a heartline roll, riders heartline dipped down instead of staying level.

^Exactly. You could look at that thing and easily see that the trains and therefore riders were being spun around the track. It's a simple V^2/R angular acceleration problem, especially considering the time during which they are completing the rotation. I think it's entirely feasible to design a new roll in the given footprint that would be much less intense on the human body, and it likely wouldn't take that much development.

Dvo mentions toll on human body, Jeff mentions wear and tear on bearings and axels. Was any explanation given back then as to which reason it was removed, or was it a combination of reasons?

Brandon mentions heavy investment for a 20 year old ride. True, but they just did that for a 19 year old ride that needed lagoon maintenance.

Yeah, but Dragster had two decades of spotty uptime and actively tried to kill a non-rider. Not to mention the cable snap injuries.

Maverick has its share of "it's an Intamin" downtime but in no way is a liability to or expense for the park the way Dragster was.

I don't know if the park really saw much ROI on the Mantis to Rougarou conversion. It's still just kind of there for most people. Why would a financially strapped company put so much into a ride that is already adored by their guests to make a few dozen enthusiast wet dreams come true?

^I had the same question when I first heard of this video. But the key context is the rumor that the park is planning to re-track Maverick anyway. If that is the case, they are already planning to invest a good amount of money. And re-designing this very small section should be relatively little R&D. So if the park could re-introduce Maverick as an upgraded ride, that small amount of R&D is much more cost-effective than developing an entirely new attraction.

Has there been any actual information that leads anyone to believe Maverick is being looked at for any kind of retracking? Or is it just bored Youtubers in the middle of the off season looking for clicks?

First of all, I think this is highly unlikely, but, I suppose you never know. In looking at the video thumbnail picture above, it looks like there is a fairly straight section of track right after the roll before going into the over-banked turn. In the hypothetical situation where the roll is added back in, I wonder if it could be elongated a bit? When the original roll was removed, they made the final decision that it was too intense right before it was scheduled to open. What was have today was probably the fastest, easiest way to get it open ASAP, with minimal impact to getting the ride open. If they are going to completely re-track the entire ride, then I suppose its plausible that they might be able to take the time needed to get the profile of the roll right.

Dvo:

I think it's entirely feasible to design a new roll in the given footprint...

The issue I see is that making the profile more like VC would mean making the roll wider, so that, as you point out, the track rotates more around the rider that the original roll there. That would require the supports to be spaced further apart, which means new footers, which is less trivial than replacing steel alone. There is also only so much room to make the roll wider, since you have TC to the south and other footers for the trimmed hill to the north.