WICKED Cyclone - Six Flags New England 2015

That end really does drag on. But the first few segments of this coaster are going to be really fun.

Man that video does not do the ride justice! Hope a new one is uploaded right away!
The s turn was lterally my favorite part! It was so badass!
Seemed to slow in the video. like I said that video does not do it justice. HOPEFULLY its the video.

The outside-banked S-turn looks much less crazy than I thought it would be. Still looks fantastic though! The first airtime hill followed by the overbanked 0G stall looks like it'll be the best part. I think it'll be like Balder but with more interesting maneuvers between the airtime hills.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Looking at the POV it looks like RMC just can't use a nice continuous banking during a turn. Even without using outside banking, the banking keeps swinging left and right.

[TTD03]

Yay, the official POV is here! Looks great!

I do agree that pacing looks slow from the video. Another thing I noticed was that the video was really shaky, could that mean that rmc might have rushed this project through?? Or am I just getting a bit too nitpicky. I don't know but I hope the ride gets faster by the time it opens, that last section was a bit too slow in my opinion.

I'm not sure though if it looked shaky because it's actually rough or if the camera was just poorly mounted. I'm hoping that it's the latter.

[Coasterkidmwm]

That double dip looks like it's going to kick everyone's ass lol. I think because the front of the train was moving so weird in the video that they mounted the camera to the side of the headrest or something.

I hope they release a POV with the camera set at the back of the train. Because that's where I'll be riding in a few weeks!

It really does remind me of Texas Giant meets Medusa.



It's RMC time.

One thing I'm really missing from this ride, as I thought I would from the animation, is some really hard/steep drops after the first. Medusa has a couple, Twisted Colossus has one, but Wicked Cyclone doesn't have any. Really would've been amazing if they'd included that feature to end the first overbank, same shaping as you see on Medusa's second turnaround after the first drop. I would even take it over the double drop, but the combination of a large-ish straight drop off the overbank (also closer to the original coaster's design intent) and the double drop would be great. The original ride is one of the few that really sets up large drops, but this new design doesn't do that at all. Too bad given RMC has set up some amazing drops as I mentioned before.

Also I feel even more now that they tried soooo hard to pack the world's supply of coaster elements into the design instead of having 1-2 more spots where riders can take in what's happening. Seems like the whole ride will be a blur and riders will come off excited but shellshocked lol. Also I don't like their new version of the S hill nearly as much...the previous design was seriously cool and the current design will be crazy, but again they tried hard to fit it in. Maybe it wasn't going to work for whatever reason (roll rates, too tall, whatever) so they had to change it.

On the positive side, the ride reminds me a lot of Balder, except with added variety. Actually I can't think of any ride in the world that reminds me of Balder more than this one, even the other Intamin woodies. Rides just almost never don't have that many little hills with sharp shots of strong airtime. It's sure going to be a wild coaster, and an absolute blast, and thankfully there isn't anything major that I don't like. To me, all RMCs look amazing, but for example Texas Giant's last 1/3 drags on slower than one would hope, Iron Rattler's middle section is awkward, but Wicked Cyclone looks solid throughout. It also happens to be in the same park as one of the other best coasters in the world...an excellent 1-2 punch IMO.

[Paradox]

2 more weeks!

It sucks that they changed the s-hill, but will it make the ride horrible? No the ride will be just as crazy and I cant wait to be there Memorial Day weekend sitting in the back seat!

I think the S-hill still rides quite nicely, and rather intense (just not as insane as the animation suggested)

It looks a little shaky and a bit slower paced that I thought or saw from some of the offride POV's. The last part especially seems a bit slow, (still has impressive airtime though) but lets not forget about what this ride is doing with a max height of 109 feet. That's some impressive stuff. Overall, I don't think this was exactly what we expected, but it's still going to be one intense ride that does some insane things with it's small layout and size.

To me it seems a bit weird that Medusa is 10' shorter, yet the elements seems so much larger/taller in pictures/videos. It still blazes through the layout though, whereas Wicked Cyclone is a bit of a question mark in parts. It's 300' longer, but at 10' taller and with much lower elements that should work out to have faster pacing through the whole ride. Maybe Medusa's elements are smaller than they seem, or maybe it's because of the wheels they have on WC. It'll be interesting to see how they compare when people ride and better POVs come out.

[Paradox]

Medusa does have some terrain.

I don't find the s hill change bad at all. It is still a one of a kind element and intensity would be great as there is nothing like this coaster anywhere in the east coast.

I reserve all judgment until I ride it. It has a very strong layout and these minor changes will not make the ride any less enjoyable.

I reserve all judgement...I'm just going to judge it a little bit in the next sentence.....

Kidding aside, the negatives I noted aren't near as good as the positives of the ride. I'm just calling out the different things I'm seeing, like we can and do with a NL design. It's just more interesting since it's real. I'm really looking forward to it and trying to figure out when's a good time to go. I only live about 2.5hr away, but that's long enough where it's tough to make a day trip, particularly because I like both to stay all day and to visit LC while I'm in the area.

I have a theory about why the train loses speed so fast. If you think about it, each wheel set is spaced around 3ft(or more) from eachother. With all the tight turns, banks and hills, is it possible that because the train doesn't have much flexibility with tighter turns, it can't maintain speed as its putting down more weight then it should on the rails, causing more friction to occur?

Is it a possibility that they are still using the slower wheels (I forgot the name, I think it was Polyurethane or Nylon) when the POV was recorded?

[Paradox]

Keep in mind the horrendous video quality could have contributed to the POV seeming slow.

That video was just weird. It's like they had the wrong settings on which made the ride look choppy and over controlled. This ride flies, and has one of my favorite layouts I've seen attempted lately.

I do agree that it would have been nice if there was a moment where they could have included another steep drop, but that's just a minor quibble.

As far as comparisons to Medusa go, it *definitely* uses terrain to its advantage:



The base of the first drop is probably 30'+ lower than the ground the lift stands on. Wicked Cyclone is pacing a bit slower than I expected, but it's by no means slow. It may not end up RMC's best but I'm sure it'll be excellent nonetheless.

Wow, I had no clue the difference in terrain height was that large. Certainly satisfies my curiosity. Thanks!

[gouldy]

Specifically regarding Medusa. Medusa seems all round a hugely superior coaster to Wicked Cyclone. Flow, pacing, layout, everything.

I'm a little bit unimpressed by the POV of Wicked Cyclone if I'm honest. I had very high hopes for this ride, and it seems to not quite live up to those hopes. I'm assuming it will still be awesome, but seriously, compare that POV with this...

Like we mentioned before, WC's POV is terrible, so it's hard to compare. However one can compare what they expect WC to be like based on everything else we've seen, and in doing so I'll agree. Medusa does look way better in most respects. WC will be great, but Medusa is really something special.

[TTD03]

Well we just have to wait for an experienced camera mounter to do it. Like CoasterForce!

I really wish this ride was as fast as we thought it would be. Perhaps if they make a wheel change or they record a smoother looking POV it will be slightly faster.

[TTD03]

Coaster Hero wrote:

I really wish this ride was as fast as we thought it would be. Perhaps if they make a wheel change or they record a smoother looking POV it will be slightly faster.

Remember, it did just start testing, remember how slow GateKeeper was when it started testing. It took a few weeks, and then it was up to speed.