What should Cedar Point do to improve the mean Streak or should they just give up?

I'm not in the know about what can or can't be done to make it better but whatever they did recently helped. I actually enjoyed it this year and my kids loved it. It was amazing when it was new, my husband and I drove out after work, waited in line 3 hours to ride it just before the park closed and then went home. I would hate to see it simply gone, but if it does go at some point I would want it replaced with another wooden coaster. Am a I wrong, or are Mean Streak and Blue Streak the only wooden coasters we have left in northern Ohio? I would hate to end up down to only one.

Last Saturday I was standing by Gemini as the early sunset light was hitting the Mean Streak, it looked so very nice. I *want* to like that ride the way I did its first year...

It really is one heck of a looker. It has my vote for CP's best looking ride, right in front of Millenium and Mav.

BirdOfPrey00 said:
Wow...I'll actually say left video looked a lot more fun than the right one. Maybe even some airtime on those hills after the brake run...

Yeah I'm with you. Amazing difference without the trims. So much faster.

I rode it Monday and the trims were fully functional.

I rode it in June and it was better than it had been in years. If Maverick wasn't so close, Mean Streak would be more likely to be on the chopping block. The park will have "anchor coasters" now with the addition of Gatekeeper to keep the flow around the park.

Personally I'm against them giving Mean Streak the Texas Giant treatment. Tear it down and build a good one. The cost probably won't be much more for a new one that's done right. I haven't ridden El Toro but Apocalypse at Magic Mountain is terrific.

Topper track +No Trims + M-Fyers =

"Attention Riders: There is Approximately a 2 Hour wait to ride Mean treak"

;)

I think any daydreams of topper track or the Iron Horse treatment are going to be unfulfilled. They just spent the past two seasons doing major work to improve the ride experience. Why would they invest millions in the ride if the plan was an enormously expensive overhaul in the near future? I suppose it could happen, but I would question the financial sanity of the park if it does.

Not only that, but the response to the recent repairs has been rather positive. If I had to bet, Mean Streak is just going to sit and be what it is until they decide to pull the plug. It's no secret that it's a stinker, and never lived up to expectations.

I would also bet that plug stays stays in the wall for at least the next 5-10 seasons. Hey, at least she's a looker!

Isn't the main issue the stress on the support structure? Which is why the trims are needed so often? Why wouldn't they improve the supports like add steel beams in high stress areas and replace the current trains with lighter more articulate trains? That could solve a good percentage of MS problems.

Rode it July 19th and it was just as horrible as its been in the past seasons IMO. A lady in front of us had her hands over her ears like she had a bad headache, the ride really was bad it, shuffled forward so much that it was like getting rear ended while driving. The side to side an over all roughness wasn't as bad but if they can find a way to lessen the shuffling it would improve the ride more so than what they currently have done to it.

And the shuffling cannot be fixed due to the lack of speed from the trim brake...and round and round we go. :)

My overall point was, I think this is it as far as major adjustments/repairs go for Mean Streak. They've had over a decade for someone to say..."Hey, Bob, why not just add some stronger supports?"...and I have a hard time believing that idea hasn't been at least looked at, and for whatever reason, never happened.

As I understand, reinforcing the support structure tends to backfire, as it increases the rigidity of the structure, which in turn serves to contain stress forces within the trains...i.e., on the passengers.

That's a good point. Of course...too rigid is not good either.

One word...plastics!

Not only that, but the response to the recent repairs has been rather positive. If I had to bet, Mean Streak is just going to sit and be what it is until they decide to pull the plug. It's no secret that it's a stinker, and never lived up to expectations.

I would also bet that plug stays stays in the wall for at least the next 5-10 seasons. Hey, at least she's a looker!

That's how I see it too.

Call me crazy, but I can imagine Mean Streak sitting on the location of CP's next world record breaking coaster as far as heights are concerned. I doubt it would be anytime soon, but the space a 500ft+ lift coaster would take up would require quite an amount of land I'd imagine, and it seems Mean streak's plot is the only area big enough.

I was thinking I read (coasterbuzz/Rideman) that the reason they use the trims is to slow the trains to save on track and support wear and tear? My thinking was improve the support structure and that could allow for less trims, allowing the train to speed through the course more, possibly lessening the shuffle affect.

Several times when I've rode it, the trims have grabbed really hard and the ride seemed to shuffle more than when the trims just barely grabbed.

Under Kinzels leadership maybe they took MS repair as far as they wanted to go. Maybe now that John has much more control maybe in the coming seasons he might feel differently than Kinsel did and take a much more indepth approach than previous.

Give it up, Kevin. Sixties' humor is lost on this bunch of tykes... ;)

Newer/better trains is the best way to adress the Mean Streak problem. It won't solve everything but woud reduce the wear and tear on the structure. Then they can remove those trims :). The ride looks "funner" without them. Atleast then we could get some-type of air and g's.

For the record, I do not know why they trim the life out of Mean Streak. You might have read a reason on CoasterBuzz, but it wasn't me. 8-)

A couple of weeks ago, I got a ride with the drop trims off. I don't know why they were running it that way, but it was the best Mean Streak ride I've had in years.

For that ride, I rode in the front seat of the last car. One of the things I noticed on that ride was that the train was forming a nice smooth line through the course, all the cars following each other just like they are supposed to. This contrasts with a normal ride, in which the cars all seem to be trying to go off in different directions.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Whew. Thank you, Mike. I was beginning to wonder...

I still don't know if I've ever actually heard the "official" reason (assuming there ever was one) that the trims were added - and even worse, have hung around. Was it because too many people were complaining or did the ride need to be slowed down to "save" the structure ??

Answer B. Maintenance costs.

After having ridden various wooden coasters with PTC trains across 4 different parks last week, I feel MS is as smooth if not smoother than any PTC-style...at least this year's MS. So I don't get the constant stream of complaints. I wonder if there are similar roughness threads somewhere about coasters like Knoebel's Twister. I didn't find that rough either, but it was rougher than MS.

If CP ever adds another wooden coaster, I'd suggest they just go with Intamin. I finally got to experience El Toro, and it's clearly in its own class as far as smoothness is concerned. It's missing much of the charm of a classic wooden coaster, but the bulk of today's riders obviously expect steel smoothness. An Intamin has this, and it'd probably please the highest number of riders for the longest possible time. Anyone know the actual cost of El Toro?