[Tosu97]

....wish he was here. That'd make him seem even nicer. I hate to say it but it looks like overall Six Flags wins 2015.

[coasterbruh]

Ok . . . I was able to experience Twisted Colossus this past monday and all I can say is holy hell! It was pretty damn good. Yeah, each cycle was short but it packed a punch and utilized ever aspect of those short cycles to make one hell of a ride! Would I like to see something like this happen to hurler?? My "first mind" says no. But after my next two next summer we'll see . . .

[psychoticbiotic]

Twisted Colossus looks amazing but the two RMCs I'm most excited about are Wicked Cyclone and Lightning Rod. It would be very nice to ride anything from them though, so it sucks that they don't have anything close by for those of us who can't travel very far. Dollywood is just within the realm of plausibility for me though, so I have my fingers crossed that I'll be able to make it there next year.

As for The Hurler, I'd rather anything happen to it to make it less of a waste of park space. It's definitely one of my least favorite rides at the park for me and pretty much everyone I know. I almost never ride it when I visit.

[gad198]

I've ridden all of the US RMC coasters except for Twisted Colossus this year. The RMC coasters as a whole are all very good coasters. Wicked Cyclone - to me - is the best of the bunch followed by NTG, Outlaw Run, Iron Rattler and Goliath. They're all in my top 30 overall coasters (out of nearly 275) and I'm glad to see more on the way next year. Having said that...

I don't think that you'll see any at Cedar Fair parks anytime in the short-term. New RMC coasters are going to be more expensive than the ones created for Six Flags. Lightning Rod is a whopping $22 million. Ed Hart is quoted as saying that Storm Chaser would have been $15 million had they built from the ground up. When you're talking about spending almost as much money for an RMC - new or remodel - as a B&M you start to price yourself right out of smaller park installations (like Valleyfair, Michigan's Adventure, Dorney, etc.).

There are two issues with an RMC coaster at a larger park. Issue #1 is reliability. I can't tell you how many times this year their coasters were down with "technical delays". Cedar Fair has shown recently they want nothing to do with ride manufacturers where this is the case. Issue #2 is capacity. None of the RMCs can really push through large amounts of people. Outlaw Run was OK, as they were dispatching on average about every 1:45 (for about 820 pph capacity), but every other RMC was being run from 500-700 pph. There's no way that would work for a signature attraction at a large Cedar Fair park. Imagine if Fury were being run with half the capacity. That's essentially what you're getting with RMC right now.

[coasterbruh]

I think Lightnin Rod's price tag has a lot to do with it being a ton of land prep having to go into the entire scheme of things. I dont think the coaster itself cost 22 million.

Also the capacity thing, you have to look at it like this as well . . . virtually of of the RMC's in existence is at a six flags park. We all know they are not known for pushing trains out with a sense of urgency. I do believe we will see one at a cedar fair park sooner than later. I feel after lightning run opens the door for the launch aspect of things, lots of other chains will be looking into it.

[gad198]

I think Lightnin Rod's price tag has a lot to do with it being a ton of land prep having to go into the entire scheme of things. I dont think the coaster itself cost 22 million.

I agree with this. I know that the terrain for both Wild Eagle and Lightning Rod wasn't the easiest to try and work with, and I figured that a decent portion of the cost for both coasters is site clearing and prep. Having said that - Lightning Rod still cost more than Wild Eagle. The fact that RMCs are approaching the cost of some B&M coasters means that they are now nearly direct competitors. I remember seeing more than one source indicate that there are no other Six Flags RMC conversions planned after Joker at SFDK, partly due to demand elsewhere but also because the price on their work is due to go way up. The true price of new RMC coasters is likely to slot in between $15 and $25 million now. I don't doubt that Cedar Fair is going to use RMC at some point, but it's really unlikely they would be able to get the sweet $10 million/coaster deal that Six Flags got now that RMC is more established. As such, you're simply not going to see that many installed in the short-term, particularly with the success they've had with B&M installs.

Also the capacity thing, you have to look at it like this as well . . . virtually of of the RMC's in existence is at a six flags park. We all know they are not known for pushing trains out with a sense of urgency. I do believe we will see one at a cedar fair park sooner than later. I feel after lightning run opens the door for the launch aspect of things, lots of other chains will be looking into it.

Iron Rattler is the only RMC at any Six Flags that had even decent operations. The others were absolutely glacial. For reference, Goliath's best hour of capacity since it opened last year is 700 pph. Unfortunately, one of the issues with RMC coasters is the block setup. They've set all of of their rides much like the Intamin megacoasters; i.e., that the train in the station can't dispatch until the train on the course has completed the course and is back in the block where it can advance into the station. This means that even if you have a really good dispatch that you have to wait for the coaster out on the course to fully finish before you can dispatch. Notice that Banshee and Fury, the two most recent B&Ms with three train-op and no MCBR can dispatch a train well before the train on the course is in the final brakes. The capacity that adds is enormous, and on the flip side, it's one of the reasons why the capacity of RMC coasters isn't good no matter who is operating them.

[pproteinc]

^ Remember the newer B&Ms have millions of sensors throughout the course. Fury has a block at the transfer track allowing a train to pull out the station then sit and wait for the train ahead to clear the lift and first turn before it can head up while the third train loads in the station....Banshee can head up the lift once a train passes the hearltine roll that leads to the back half of the ride while one is in the load station.