First let me state that im a huge fan of B&M, my personal favorite coaster company but in a way im glad they didn't go with B&M. Central Florida is really saturated with B&M so I was glad they went with someone else to add some diversity to CFL's coaster lineup. Me personally, I really enjoy Rockit, i know im one of the few
and have yet to have a bad ride on it.
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Haha well you're lucky. Out of the twenty rides or so I've had, only like two of them have been smooth. As someone who has ridden around 200 coasters, I hate to say it, but that ride isn't even in my top 40.
I'd take a nice B&M hyper anyday. Florida doesn't have one of those, a wing rider, or a stand up yet. (Though I'm not a big fan of stand ups)
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There were 2 main issues with HRRR. One of them is a Maurer design issue. The other was with the state of FL. The State of FL issue was the lift hill. HRRR was designed with a reverse cable lift system. The system was designed so that if there was an E Stop, they could easily back the cars down off the lift hill. The state of FL decided that that wasn't good enough and made them install roll back stops. That made it IMPOSSIBLE to back the cars off the lift hill as designed. That is why they had to redesign the lift hill. The other issue is strictly a Maurer issue in that the "inverted" loop is causing an unexpected torque issue with the ride vehicles. This is causing excessive wear on the neoprene wheels resulting in the rough ride problem. Aside from that it is causing stress fractures on the ride vehicles and the vibration is wreaking havoc with the on-board electronics.
I told everyone that the ride vehicles were cracking before the ride opened and everyone said I was crazy. We will put that in the bin with me telling everyone in July 2008 (almost 2 years before the WWOHP opened) that if Potter is crazy successful (my exact words), Phase II would involve Potter replacing Jaws and there would be a train through the backstage connecting the 2 parks.
I remember you saying that way back when I was just a lurker and I thought it was crazy...though the drop to seasonal operation of Jaws years ago got me kind of nervous thinking you were right...and of course years later it actually happened.
You know your stuff! It's much appreciated!