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 Review of Cyclone @ Six Flags New England
1 Rating Posted by: ILoveWood on 7/22/2002 2:38:00 PM
According to Ultimatecoaster.com coaster designer Bill Cobb woke up one morning with indegestion, and that was his inspiration for designing Cyclone. Cyclone speeds up, slows down, speeds up, slows down, knocks you here, knocks you there, in a very successful effort to keep you from knowing whats coming up next. This coaster has been abused over the years (perhaps reflecting the abuse Cyclone heaps on its riders) by its owners attempting to tame its primordial heart. After time and again adding needless trim brakes, Cyclones famous twisting first drop was softened for the 2001 season (Six Flags chose this over allowing more money in Cyclones regular maintanance budget after they brought back the heavier Philadelphia Tobaggan Company trains.... that she was designed for!!!). In the end it hasnt mattered, trim brakes and new drop havent made this outstanding one of a kind any less savage. Steel coasters may be faster and the Gs more intense, but nothing instills sheer terror like Cyclone.
 

Review Comments

mrceagle on 10/28/2002 1:37:32 AM said:
PTC trains have never and will never be the main trainfor this ride. They may have had them in mind when building but the fact is PTC trans cant handle the designe. You need a Twister train and those are mad by Morgan(what was being used up till the flaging) or GCI
ILoveWood on 10/28/2002 12:16:18 PM said:
Cyclone opened in 1983 with PTC trains. Morgans ruined this coaster. The Cyclone is rough as it is with PTCs but with unpadded Morgans the ride was intolerable. Thankfully Cyclone got back the PTCs at the beginning of the 2000 season.
mrceagle on 10/29/2002 3:11:04 PM said:
My first time with this thing was withthe morgans and it wasnt hert fall. The PTC cant even handle the layout. so what good dos that do. They had to eded the first drop twice do to that fact.
ILoveWood on 10/30/2002 11:44:15 AM said:
The PTCs handle the layout quite well. Six Flags didnt want to spend the money for upkeep on Cyclone that is required for a coaster of its intensity. That is why the first drop was reprofiled, it saves them money. As for the Morgans, they used to get stuck trying to make it up the second hill at least once a week. Employees used to take bets as to what day of the week the train would get stuck half way up the hill. So you can see, the Morgans didnt work well at all. Cyclone was designed for PTCs, the old Riverside knew how much upkeep would cost, and they paid for it for years until they decided to try the (lighter) Morgans, this is perhaps understandable for a small privately owned park. But Six Flags is a HUGE corporation, and I find it ridiculous that they wont spend the money to maintain Cyclone in its original configuration. The only other reason I can think of is they are trying to make Cyclone more of a "family" coaster. This could explain the nasty new trim breaks as well as the far less intense first drop.
mrceagle on 11/1/2002 3:20:28 PM said:
in the last three years since Six Flags put the PTCs back on Cyclone acording to you(second time). They have been through three trains. and this is the third mdrop for this coaster. and as far as Six flags understanding PTC they have abandoned every other train for the PTCs.
ILoveWood on 11/1/2002 5:16:45 PM said:
What is "third mdrop"? I have no idea what point you are trying to make in your statement.
mrceagle on 11/2/2002 11:08:57 AM said:
The first drop off the lift hill. thiss is the thrird redesign of it. verry first one went to the ground, they then mooved it up to the drop it got famiss for, and then six flags moved it up even higher. That was my statment! I have riden this with both the morgans and the PTC on the famiss drop. I found the ride to be smoother with the morgans.
ILoveWood on 11/2/2002 12:47:52 PM said:
There has only been one reworking of Cyclones first drop. The original first drop lasted from 1983 until it was altered for the 2001 season.
Cyclonic on 11/2/2002 2:44:28 PM said:
Just to interject, PTCs are the best trains out there today for wooden coasters. So long as the ride is well mantained they will give a far better ride then either Morgans or Premier trains. They are heavier, have better restraint systems, and are altogether more comfortable.


When you ride a well mantained ride , like say the Pheonix or Raven, that use PTCs, you will find they are far superior. You can even look at the excample of the Legend, they started running that coaster with a Gerstlauer train, and since switching to the PTC trains many say the ride is much faster and more intense. And because the ride is well mantained, it will stay that way. The real issue is not so much in the trains, but in how well the ride as a whole is kept up, and Six Flags has a lousy track record when it comes to ride mantance, they seem to much rather build new rides then keep up with the ones they have.

ILoveWood on 11/3/2002 12:30:35 PM said:
Thats really sad that Six Flags is like that. I love new rides, but to me, a park is incomplete without its classics. I Love walking into SFNE and seeing the upright marquee for Thunderbolt, there as its always been since it was built in 1940. Cyclone was moving in that direction. Only 20 years old (as of next June) people were starting to look at it as a classic, which it certainly deserved. But its been so abused by SF these past two years I sometimes fear for its future. And who are they trying to please with these changes? Wood coaster enthusiasts hate the changes to Cyclone, and Kids raised on the banality of steel shy away from wood coasters in general. So, in the end, no one is satisfied. The final irony is that Six Flags has the money to maintain Cyclone properly, they just choose not to do so.
mrceagle on 11/4/2002 8:54:51 AM said:
Your wright PTCs do tend to be faster. That is why the ride is so ruff now and why the morgans in this particulare case were beter. The coaster is porly maintained leaving use with little to do. the PTCs cant handle the tracking so to have it the way it was they would need to be doing allot of maintanince on both the trains and the coaster its self.
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