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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Baco makes any ride other ride look smooth as silk, surely!

I tend to find Colossus is more a vibration issue where as Saw is smooth to a point, but the train 'snaps' around the layout and throws you around the car into the restraint, rather than vibrates.

The Smiler goes the whole hog and does both!
 
shawnoc said:
Colossus has a simple fix, get the trains converted to lap bars. Oh wait new trains with more leg room and lap bars.
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You could do the same for Saw and it'd be much better.

Although Furius Baco makes them both feel like B&M's in comparison.
 
shawnoc said:
Colossus has a simple fix, get the trains converted to lap bars. Oh wait new trains with more leg room and lap bars.
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Just £400k or so then *rolls eyes*

The new(ish) soft belt restraints employed on I305 and recently retrofitted onto Maverick and Storm Runner would be a welcome treat and one assumes, much cheaper.
 
They use a totally different design of train though, so it wouldn't be a straight swap out for the restraints. It would almost certainly be cheaper (and safer) to get all new trains than to try and bodge new restraints on to the existing ones.
 
Wait, for all the rough rides mentioned, why has any mentioned the offspring of Satan known as Mer-Um, I mean Tornado!

Truly the worst ride to hit these shores.
 
Sku said:
Haha agreed, once you've been on that, Colossus, Corkscrew, Baco, and anything else you can name seem tame. Can't believe after all these years it's even still operating. For the record, I also don't find Colossus to be particularly rough, just keep your head forwards and brace, like on plenty of other rides.
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Think colossus (also rita) totally depend on height of the rider. I'm small, so I hit my head on the restraints. Rough rides I can just about deal with, it's just head bashing rides that I can't stand (or painfully restraints, smilers about my limit for that as I find it really tight on my legs)
 
Colossus isn't that rough. You do however have to ride with it, keeping your head forward and bracing properly when necessary. It's half a good ride if you get it right. Selecting the first of a car's two rows is usually a good idea too.

The issue for me with Saw is that it's unbelievably variable in terms of ride comfort. The jolt at the bottom of the beyond vertical drop is always there, but aside from that I've occasionally had relatively smooth, pleasant and enjoyable rides on it. On the other hand, I've sometimes gone round grimacing, yelling and swearing as my head gets treated like a Vodka Martini being made for James Bond. On those rides the stupid entry speed that you're fired into the final dive loop at is particularly awful, neatly concluding your miserable experience and reinforcing your Gerstache. Usually the ride falls somewhere in between the two extremes; the only constant is that the back row of a car always seems to dish out less discomfort than the front.
 
I really like the indoor section of Saw, but then it takes its theme a bit too far by trying to snap my head off at the bottom of the outdoor drop. I also find the layout bland and boring.

Controversially, I really enjoy colossus and don't really find it that rough at all :p
 
@Dar loving your idea about saw actually being torture devise.

Thing I find frustrating is that you seem to have to learn how to ride a coaster without damaging yourself. Surely people are paid shed loads of money to develop these contraptions??? Would it not be nice for them to get it right?

If not put in a ip for solpadeine the ride.
 
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Cheese said:
Colossus isn't that rough. You do however have to ride with it, keeping your head forward and bracing properly when necessary. It's half a good ride if you get it right. Selecting the first of a car's two rows is usually a good idea too.
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See, this drives me nuts. If you have to have to ride in such a way, there is a problem, riding defensively like that isn't OK. Not least because if you have to ride in that manner to prevent discomfort, or even minor injury - you can only do that if you're a veteran of a particular ride/park.

DiogoJ42 said:
They use a totally different design of train though, so it wouldn't be a straight swap out for the restraints. It would almost certainly be cheaper (and safer) to get all new trains than to try and bodge new restraints on to the existing ones.
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The trains aren't all that different under the shell and we're talking about Intamin here, they'd send an apprentice over in a transit van with a blowtorch - rogues!

These could be implemented on the existing Colossus chassis - I've not ridden anything with them on, but from what I understand they're pretty comfy. Altair uses them, it's almost exactly the same as Colossus with a couple of mods.

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I'd argue that there's a difference between riding defensively, which is what's necessary on something like Tedious Baco and definitely isn't fun, and going on a coaster that isn't uncomfortable per se but which you don't just sit and ride passively. Yes, I have been going to Thorpe for long enough to perhaps be considered a 'veteran', but for me Colossus is the latter. For once though I do agree with you that it isn't OK as it is for an occasional park goer in any way. The trains are a pig to board, they vibrate a lot, your knees and ears are in the firing line, and the low throughput adds insult to potential minor injury. The Altair style of train doesn't sound perfect but would be fantastic by comparison, and given how long lap restraint trains had been rumoured for new installations of that ride system, should have been introduced along with a repaint for the 2012 season to celebrate ten years of ten inversions.
 
I don't find Colossus or Saw overly rough - I'd say neither of them have ever given me a particularly bad time.

However I'm slightly different when it comes to roughness. I don't tend to experience the head rattle many do since I'm 6' 5" and so my head is rarely low enough to smack against the restraints :p


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The massive problem I have is my legs are just too long. It's been a while since I last rode but from memory I find the front seats incredibly uncomfortable and the back rows still over-bend my ankles. All that discomfort before the trains even dispatched.

The more rides which have Blue Fires raised seating the better! I hope Taron proves popular.
 
Rick said:
Not least because if you have to ride in that manner to prevent discomfort, or even minor injury - you can only do that if you're a veteran of a particular ride/park.
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I think this is where my opinion is useful. I can not be considered a thorpe veteran. I visited once, and that was last year just before I joined this site (so I wouldn't have been told what my opinions of rides should be before I rode them). I'd found rides like rita extremely rough in the past (I don't mind it too much now that I've worked out how to brace), so as soon as I saw the restraints on colossus I realised it might be the same. I had no idea where or when to brace, and I think once you've hit your head once of the restraints it's hard to brace for the next.

That said though, I did enjoy some of the ride. The last five inversions were fun in comparison to the rest of the ride, as they aren't rough. Can't remember too much of the ride, but I remember some nice tunnels.

Thorpe should really consider new restraints for colossus. It's not like it's just us suggesting it either, lots of people on Facebook are telling thorpe how bad it is.
 
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