Which do you prefer Twisted Colossus or Wicked Cyclone?

I wish WC has the colors of TC

All that flat brake section is going to do is slow down the train so it can approach the lift at a relatively similar speed compared to the lift hill speed (and OBVIOUSLY the green lift will extend all the way down). Do you understand how much stress those chain lift dogs go through? If that train has enough speed to fly halfway up the lift, the lift dog is going to be beaten a bunch of times on the front side as it flies up and then absolutely slammed on the hook side when the train has to catch on. Arrow coasters do this frequently (we've all felt it) and I'm sure those parts are replaced disgustingly often.

I haven't heard anyone complain about any other roller coaster that has two lift hills--Beast, most Arrows, etc.--and those are there just to make the ride longer. This double lift hill not only makes the ride longer, it serves an important purpose: makes it a dueling-racing coaster, with itself! They had a budget and this is the amount of steel they were allowed to use. If they had made this a traditional racing coaster with the same amount of track, each side would have a ride time (including lift) of like 1:15 and it'd be over. Now, each train gets to ride for 3+ mins (including lifts) and it is still a racing coaster. It's absolutely, unequivocally ingenious and I cannot even fathom a worldview of not being onboard with this concept in any way.

Also, I do think the brakes before the green lift will aid with the timing of the trains, and here's my rough hypothesis. According to that POV animation, the time from the blue side's departure to hitting the green lift is about 1 minute 20 seconds. That's unreasonable for Six Flags standards (Goliath SFGAm's loading time was on average 2 minutes 30 seconds per train). So if the blue side at the end is able to slow down to 5 mph (saves ~3 seconds), approach the green lift (saves ~2 seconds), and then have the green lift run slower than blue for the entire length and not just the top half like in the animations (saves an additional ~10 seconds), that would give the currently loading blue train at least 15 more seconds to load and depart. This is all just postulation though, of course.

^ That's actually very good, and makes perfect sense. Thank you.

[TTD03]

tiepilot35 wrote:

All that flat brake section is going to do is slow down the train so it can approach the lift at a relatively similar speed compared to the lift hill speed (and OBVIOUSLY the green lift will extend all the way down). Do you understand how much stress those chain lift dogs go through? If that train has enough speed to fly halfway up the lift, the lift dog is going to be beaten a bunch of times on the front side as it flies up and then absolutely slammed on the hook side when the train has to catch on. Arrow coasters do this frequently (we've all felt it) and I'm sure those parts are replaced disgustingly often.

I haven't heard anyone complain about any other roller coaster that has two lift hills--Beast, most Arrows, etc.--and those are there just to make the ride longer. This double lift hill not only makes the ride longer, it serves an important purpose: makes it a dueling-racing coaster, with itself! They had a budget and this is the amount of steel they were allowed to use. If they had made this a traditional racing coaster with the same amount of track, each side would have a ride time (including lift) of like 1:15 and it'd be over. Now, each train gets to ride for 3+ mins (including lifts) and it is still a racing coaster. It's absolutely, unequivocally ingenious and I cannot even fathom a worldview of not being onboard with this concept in any way.

Also, I do think the brakes before the green lift will aid with the timing of the trains, and here's my rough hypothesis. According to that POV animation, the time from the blue side's departure to hitting the green lift is about 1 minute 20 seconds. That's unreasonable for Six Flags standards (Goliath SFGAm's loading time was on average 2 minutes 30 seconds per train). So if the blue side at the end is able to slow down to 5 mph (saves ~3 seconds), approach the green lift (saves ~2 seconds), and then have the green lift run slower than blue for the entire length and not just the top half like in the animations (saves an additional ~10 seconds), that would give the currently loading blue train at least 15 more seconds to load and depart. This is all just postulation though, of course.

Dang, good post.

Rickrollercoaster wrote:

I doubled checked the Animation to make sure, and it's no longer banked.

What I want to know is why they couldn't have put the block brake on the lift hill itself. It has enough speed for the chain to start later up the hill. That way they could keep that twisty element thingy.

I need a better look at this, guess I'm heading to SFMM this Sunday
If this is indeed a block brake, then the whole lead up to the 2nd hill could be different.
and rick, I thought you meant the animation was changed too guess i misinterpreted.
This is kinda a big thing, it was short footage, I need better angles to begin speculating. Kinda liked that the train shot up the track passed the other train.

On another note, how about the those airtime parabolic looking hills leading to the "high five" turns. Wow, that looks fantastic!

I've come to the conclusion that Twisted Colossus and Wicked Cyclone are simply two different types of RMCs. Their perspective layouts are going to give very different rides.

WICKED CYCLONE looks like one mean twister. It's a twister design meant to emphasize relentless sensation of speed, disorienting tight squeeze turns, headchoppers and monster airtime. It really is an enthusiast's dream coaster, and will by far be the more intense of the two rides. I can see why people are favoring it, because it looks like it's going to deliver a powerhouse ride for people looking for it.

I've heard people say that TWISTED COLOSSUS has a very simple layout (or in a few cases, boring), and I don't completely disagree. It's a simple out and back design, doubled up in order to race twice. The design of this ride is meant to do something very different than CYCLONE. This one is RMCs first racing/dueling coaster, and where they have become experts at delivering intense rides like CYCLONE, they're in new territory with COLOSSUS. And I just don't think that point can be overlooked.

Where CYCLONE will be about "intensity" as that coaster navigates within it's structure, COLOSSUS will be about "interaction" as two trains duke out the elements. That's not to say COLOSSUS won't have intense moments, especially in the airtime department. But that's not it's ultimate goal in my opinion. If I could classify both rides in movie terms, CYCLONE would be the pulse racing "action film" and COLOSSUS would be the "crowd pleasing comedy". SFMM already has it's share of super intense coasters. I think they needed one that will be insanely fun. No wrong or right, just different.

I think both ride are clever creations by RMC, and both will be big hits in their respective parks, despite what we think.

[TTD03]

^ Nice explanation!

At first I thought Twisted Colossus looked better, then I changed my mind to Wicked Cyclone. Now, after seeing the off-ride videos, I'm honestly not sure which one I should like more because both look like they'll be equally amazing rides.

I agree VF15, they both look equally great. Although it DOES look like TC goes a bit faster, WC has all those charlie-horse airtime hills that will definitely pack a punch, oh boy I can't wait. Only 3 more weeks!

I think Wicked Cyclone is for those who seek a lot of lateral actions (not "lateral g's" but a fantastic collection of turns) while Twisted Colossus is mainly for vertical actions - those iconic inverted hills are more than impressive!

It's pretty hard to pick up the best.

[TTD03]

I'm at TC because of the INSANE Airtime I think it will have.