Single rider got me 3 back to back walk on rides today. it seems to be running rougher than ever though - my bones ache
Interesting to hear you say the ride was "rougher than ever"; what row did you ride in, out of interest?
As for my opinion on The Smiler's roughness; I don't think it is quite as rough as some say it is (I found Saw at Thorpe Park to be far worse!). I'd personally say that I only really feel a rattle and a couple of light kinks here and there; nothing unbearable, by any means! However; I will certainly admit that I have seen a noticeable deterioration in the coaster's smoothness since it first opened in 2013, and oddly, I seem to have noticed this more after the incident; did they change the wheels or something, as I'd also say the coaster looks to run more quickly through some elements and makes a different sort of noise while running to what it did pre-incident?
While The Smiler has yet to teeter into the "rough enough to majorly impact my enjoyment" territory for me, I will certainly agree that it is not the smoothest of coasters; there are a couple of kinks here and there, and there are a couple of portions where you can definitely feel the train shaking. Not unbearably, but you can definitely feel it. I'd also say that the coaster has not exactly aged brilliantly compared to other coasters built in the same time period. I'd certainly say that I've seen more of a noticeable change in The Smiler's smoothness in the time it's been operating than I have with Thirteen and The Swarm, for example, which I'd say still run just as well as (if not better than) when I first rode them. I'd also say that Speed at Oakwood is smoother than The Smiler, despite being 7 years older. However, The Smiler is certainly far less rough than Saw at Thorpe Park, in my opinion, as I mentioned above. And I'd imagine that a few kinks here and there was probably difficult to avoid given the nature of the ride; I wouldn't imagine it would have been easy to cram close to 4000ft of coaster track in a space little bigger than the one your average Vekoma Boomerang takes up! From an engineering and layout standpoint, I'd say that The Smiler is almost a technical masterpiece in terms of how much they managed to cram into the area!
While we're on the topic of smoothness, I'd also like to mention another personal drawback of The Smiler; I personally feel that it is somewhat inconsistent, especially in recent years. While it is always a great ride to some extent, I feel that I certainly enjoy it noticeably more on some rides than I do on others. With some of my favourite coasters; Mako, Icon, The Swarm and Nemesis, to name just a few, you know that you are going to get a top-class ride on them before you ride them. As stupid as this may sound, I personally feel that with The Smiler, you don't know quite how it's going to ride until you ride it. For some demonstration of my personal ideas about The Smiler's lack of consistency in recent times, here is a summary of all of my rides post-incident:
- In April 2016, I rode the coaster in the front row and found that it had developed a bit of a rattle that it never had pre-incident, but I certainly wouldn't have called it unbearable by any means.
- In July 2017, I rode the coaster 3 times in a mix of rows 2 and 4 and found that those 3 rides were probably the roughest I have had so far on The Smiler.
- In March 2018, I rode the coaster in row 3 and thought it was absolutely brilliant; the rattle was there, but seemed less noticeable than normal, and the jolts seemed less noticeable than normal! That ride was probably the best I've had on The Smiler post-incident!
- In September 2018, I rode the coaster on the back row and it seemed to be more towards what it was in July 2017 from a roughness perspective.
Despite this, The Smiler has never been unbearably rough in my eyes, and I still enjoy the ride. That layout just provides a real intensity rush, and when on top form, I personally feel that The Smiler is almost as good as the likes of The Swarm and Nemesis! The coaster still sits solidly at the #7 spot in my coaster rankings and I would still give it a solid
9/10 if I was asked to score it out of 10; it's just that I felt the issue of the coaster's smoothness might be an interesting one to discuss from an analytical point of view. Do you guys agree with me?
P.S. Sorry for the long post!
