CoasterBot Poll - 2022 Open

[SilverArrow]

I don’t have strong views on either of those as I haven’t ridden them, but I appreciate they are supposed to be good. I expect to personally rate Helix slightly higher than Taron and then Taiga somewhere around Taron (depending on whether it’s more like Lech or Abyssus - different manufacturer of course but if you’ve done both, which I think you have, you’ll know what I’m getting at).

As I said, I think at this stage in my experience I’m heavily drawn to extreme bombast and a raw pop of aggression/thrill will trump a longer, meandering ride.

I do still rank Taron far higher than, say, Abyssus, so I’m not lumping them all together. I do think Abyssus’s placement at 139 is pretty generous…

I have high hopes for Velocicoaster.

It's an interesting concept about the different stages of enthusiasm (or enthusiast tastes) that people go through, and it's all highly personal depending on what and when you ride things. Probably a good idea for a thread there if anyone is bored.

I would have been disappointed by Helix if I hadn't ridden Operation Enterprise, Blue Fire and Icon beforehand and consequently lowered my expectations for the speed. A night ride on Helix however is without a doubt a magical experience though and it's extremely re-rideable. A real masterpiece of a ride.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

@Nicky Borrill interesting to hear your views, thanks for sharing.

I haven’t actually heard of anyone being disappointed by Helix before your post so that does help curb my expectations.

I doubt I’ll get to the Scandinavian parks anytime soon - feels like there are much bigger fish to fry

Oh I know exactly what you mean! 2022

 

[Nicky Borrill]

It's an interesting concept about the different stages of enthusiasm (or enthusiast tastes) that people go through, and it's all highly personal depending on what and when you ride things. Probably a good idea for a thread there if anyone is bored.

I would have been disappointed by Helix if I hadn't ridden Operation Enterprise, Blue Fire and Icon beforehand and consequently lowered my expectations for the speed. A night ride on Helix however is without a doubt a magical experience though and it's extremely re-rideable. A real masterpiece of a ride.

It literally was my own fault, I'd let all of the reviews, opinions and vlogs get my expectations sky high... I went into the first day almost 'expecting' it to feel infinitely better than Taron. I think it was around the time the PBE guys had pretty much declared Taron to be rubbish in comparison to Helix. So it got me thinking 'Wow, if Taron is my current number 1, what will Helix feel like?' Almost a perfect recipe for disappointment.

I'd only done Icon, the other 2 came later. Which I guess further supports that theory! My expectation was Icon, on drugs, that will absolutely smash Taron. But found what I initially felt was just a better version of Icon, on a hillside, with an awesome station and some damn cool music, but little else in the way of theming.

Anyway, it is a damn good ride, I really enjoyed it once the dust had settled, and I'd love to go back (when Balder is open.) Plus... I think I've learnt to manage my expectations now... To some extent, haha.

 

[FistedColossus]

Must admit I found Helix a tiny bit of a let down too. Can 100% see why people love it though in fairness, it just felt a bit tame and floaty for me.

With Taron I still get the wow factor.

 

[Pokemaniac]

Must admit I found Helix a tiny bit of a let down too. Can 100% see why people love it though in fairness, it just felt a bit tame and floaty for me.

With Taron I still get the wow factor.

Heh, I remember the CF Live back in ... 2015? when everybody got ERT on Helix in the morning. I arrived in Gothenburg a little later in the day, and met up with the others an hour or so after the ERT session. The general consensus was that Helix was fine enough, but nothing special. Little did we know how well it warmed up over the day. I went to ride it with a couple others after lunch, as I had missed it earlier, and in the meantime it had turned into quite a different beast. We came back to the others, singing its praise, and I think it leapt up people's top lists when they got to ride it again. Moral of the story is, don't base your opinion on Helix on a "cold" ride.

 

[Nitefly]

Heh, I remember the CF Live back in ... 2015? when everybody got ERT on Helix in the morning. I arrived in Gothenburg a little later in the day, and met up with the others an hour or so after the ERT session. The general consensus was that Helix was fine enough, but nothing special. Little did we know how well it warmed up over the day. I went to ride it with a couple others after lunch, as I had missed it earlier, and in the meantime it had turned into quite a different beast. We came back to the others, singing its praise, and I think it leapt up people's top lists when they got to ride it again. Moral of the story is, don't base your opinion on Helix on a "cold" ride.

Yup - it is remarkable the difference a hot / cold ride can make.

Last year when I rode Lech on a hot summers evening, I could barely shut up about it, it was legendary. @Howie then did a run a few days later on an average morning and was underwhelmed, possibly because of my hype.

Comparing POVs, we agreed that my one was 4 whole seconds (around 10%) faster - no wonder we had such different experiences.

I was the cynical **** that made the “do rides actually warm up?” thread too

 

[Nicky Borrill]

Heh, I remember the CF Live back in ... 2015? when everybody got ERT on Helix in the morning. I arrived in Gothenburg a little later in the day, and met up with the others an hour or so after the ERT session. The general consensus was that Helix was fine enough, but nothing special. Little did we know how well it warmed up over the day. I went to ride it with a couple others after lunch, as I had missed it earlier, and in the meantime it had turned into quite a different beast. We came back to the others, singing its praise, and I think it leapt up people's top lists when they got to ride it again. Moral of the story is, don't base your opinion on Helix on a "cold" ride.

This is very true, it does improve throughout the day... Sadly my first ride was in the mid afternoon, so not really a factor for me. :/

 

[Will]

My first ride on Helix was in the evening and I'm fairly sure it was after a couple of pints, so this is a fair point.

TBH, the mood I'm in when I ride stuff affects my rankings more than it should (hence my first North American cred ranking so high) - but that still doesn't account for why Taron, Piraten and a few others have never blown me away.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

My first ride on Helix was in the evening and I'm fairly sure it was after a couple of pints, so this is a fair point.

TBH, the mood I'm in when I ride stuff affects my rankings more than it should (hence my first North American cred ranking so high) - but that still doesn't account for why Taron, Piraten and a few others have never blown me away.

Well... It's a good job everyone likes different things, or we'd be stuck with the same thing over and over... No matter what our favourites, it's variety that makes this hobby so interesting.

 

[Nitefly]

Probably no need to create a new thread, but the 2022 poll is open and closes at the end of the month, for anyone that enjoys fiddling with a list.

 

[Hyde]

Just updated my rankings!

 

[Gazza]

The impression I had of helix is that it was almost like the last of a generation of large traditional launch/looping coasters.

It's all your favourite classic elements, good airtime, put together really well. B&M design in a similar mindset.
Nothing wrong with it at all.

But then a year or two after the world moved on. RMC really started being proper crazy, Intamin started updating their designs in time too.
Mack started being a bit out there with Lost Gravity and DC Rivals and have fully crossed over with the design for the Thorpe hyper.

I feel the same way about rides like Piraten/Kawasemi. Great traditional design and technically ticks the boxes, but the design lacks flair when compared to what is being built now.