#zierer

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Tac Talks Coasters - Bonus Post 4

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Catwoman Whip at Six Flags New England!

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Opened: 2000 Manufacturer: Zierer Height: 26.3 ft (8.0 m) Speed: 22.4 mph (36.0 kph) Length: 1,181.1 ft (360.0 m) Place in my rankings: #141 (falling between Harley Quinn Crazy Train at Six Flags Great Adventure and SandSerpent at Busch Gardens Tampa)

After a kiddie coaster yesterday, we move ahead into a family coaster today, continuing our stint at Six Flags New England. This is the same Zierer Tivoli coaster as Harley Quinn Crazy Train at Great Adventure, so my thoughts on that ride pretty much hold true here as well. The layout is Zierer's Large Tivoli model, with two side by side figure eights making up the square shaped layout.

As a pure family coaster, it's pretty good for what it is. It's nothing overly extreme of course, but it makes for a good stepping stone coaster in the park for kids who have outgrown Great Chase but aren't quite ready to move on to bigger rides like Gotham City Gauntlet, Pandemonium or Thunderbolt.

It has some fun sweeping curves that can build up a surprising amount of speed considering the size of the ride. Then it has a bit of side to side twisting transitions between the figure eights that can be a kid's first introduction to laterals or something like that. Almost like baby's first Pantherian or Maverick-style transitions lmao.

Like with pretty much all of the Large Tivoli coasters from Zierer, this one has an absurdly long train. It's 20 cars long, each seating two rows of two for a total of 40 people per train. It's a fun novelty to see a train that long and watch it slink around the course, but it also impacts the pacing of the ride a bit. If you're sitting towards the front of the train, you feel the train slow down a bit since the back hasn't crested the hill yet. It feels like you're sort of hanging there for a second before getting a little burst of speed bottoming out of the hill or rising up into the next one as the back of the train goes down the drop. The ride operator did send us around the course twice though, which was fun and helped to extend the ride experience.

Really the only factors here that put Catwoman Whip above Harley Quinn Crazy Train for me are slightly better theming and a better setting. This ride has a statue of Catwoman in the queue line and the station looks like a building slightly more in line with the DC theme. Harley Quinn's station on the other hand is still kind of a holdover from when it had a pirate theme and was known as Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train. Then the setting for Catwoman was surrounded by more trees and overall looks more lush and green compared to Harley Quinn.

But again, like with Great Chase yesterday, Catwoman Whip doesn't do anything inherently wrong, it's just down here among the family coasters, still filling the role it was designed for quite nicely.

Thanks for checking out today's coaster post! Keep an eye out for tomorrow's coaster!

[cringethoosie]

THEY'RE GONNA GIVE BARON 1898 A LITTLE BUUDDDY AWWWWW

Context: They're gonna add 3 family freefalls (whom I will personificate as 1 OC, like Joris en de Draak & Max & Moritz) near Baron 1898 to add to his lil theme and to let the youngsters experience a freefall if they can't go on the big boi yet.

My Baron 1898 OC is overjoyed.

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Tac Talks Coasters - Post 116: #54

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Impulse at Knoebels!

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Opened: 2015 Manufacturer: Zierer Height: 98 ft (30 m) Speed: 55 mph (89 kph) Length: 1,975 ft (602 m) My most recent ride: 2023

Knoebels is most famous for their fantastic trio of wooden coasters in Phoenix, Twister and Flying Turns, but in 2015, they did something no one had expected and built a modern, inverting steel coaster. Knoebels had had an inverting steel coaster before, with Whirlwind operating at the park between 1993 and 2004, but that was an old, relocated Vekoma looper, so I can only imagine how bad that must have been lmao.

But Impulse, as surprising an addition as it was, is really a fantastic fit for Knoebels. It compliments their wooden coaster lineup very well, brings a thrilling steel coaster with inversions back into the park, but isn't too extreme that it scares off younger riders. It's located right at the front of the park and it's impossible to miss as you drive in, with it's bright blue and yellow color scheme.

I've been going to Knoebels nearly every year since about 2007, and it's probably the most sentimental park out there for me. Even though it's not my home park, it's the park that I feel that I grew up at and where I first found my love of roller coasters. So when I first heard that they were building Impulse, I was so excited, and the result absolutely did not disappoint! Although I will say, I do sometimes kinda miss the bumper boats Impulse replaced lol

Impulse has a really great variety of forces and elements. The vertical lift immediately into a vertical drop offers some awesome airtime, and then goes right into some really strong positive Gs going into the cobra roll. The vertical loop after the cobra roll is also solid. The following sweeping turn and helix around the lift hill are a bit of a chance to catch your breath before the ride's best inversion: a super slow heartline roll passing through the vertical loop. This roll offers some fantastic hangtime. It's not quite as long as the jojo roll on Hydra at Dorney, but that's the element I'd compare it to the most. After that, you go through a helix that offers some more solid positive Gs and then you head on into the brake run.

Impulse is not a very long ride, which I think is the only notable thing I'd critique about it, but outside of that, I think it's really solid. I always love getting some rides on this any time I go to Knoebels, and it makes me wonder what kind of coaster Knoebels might add next. If they do something unconventional and outside their comfort zone like this, I think whatever they might add next could be even more unique. And when they do that, you know I'll be first in line for it hehe

Thanks for checking out today's coaster post! Keep an eye out for tomorrow's coaster!

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Tac Talks Coasters - Post 30: #141

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Kōmbo at the Indianapolis Zoo!

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Opened: 2001 Manufacturer: Zierer Height: 19.7 ft (6 m) Speed: 19.9 mph (32 kph) Length: 652.9 ft (200 m) My most recent ride: 2022

Imagine my surprise when my family and I were walking through the Indy Zoo and surprise! Roller coaster! Yeah, not a setting you would expect, but they've got one there! It's nothing crazy of course, just a medium size model of Zierer's Tivoli coaster but it's still fun to ride something in a zoo rather than a full amusement park lol.

It serves it's purpose well as a little family coaster here. With it's twisty figure eight shaped layout hidden among the trees between the zoo's train and skyride attractions, it makes for a neat little area. Since it's all surrounded by bushes and trees, you can't see any of the animal exhibits while on the ride, which would have been cool, but it's still a fun ride. The name even works well for this kind of ride, with Kōmbo meaning "curved" in Swahili.

If I recall correctly, you get three laps around the course, and unlike some of the other kiddie and family coasters I've covered, I don't remember this one being jerky, rough, or uncomfortable at all. Given some of the others we've covered, that's definitely a plus haha. So overall, not a whole lot else to say about Kōmbo. It's a perfectly fine little ride in an unexpected place. Of course, it's not the main draw to come to the Indy Zoo for, but it's a nice bonus for sure lol.

Thanks for checking out today's coaster post! Keep an eye out for tomorrow's coaster!

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Tac Talks Coasters - Post 36: #135

Photo Sources: x

Flitzer at Jenkinson's Boardwalk!

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Opened: 1972 (Relocated to Jenkinson's in 1992) Closed: 2018 Manufacturer: Zierer Height: Not listed Speed: Not listed Length: Not listed My most recent ride: 2008-09(?)

The is one of the coasters on my list with the longest time since my last ride, so my memories aren't the clearest. And apparently no one else knows a whole lot about the model since I couldn't find any of the stats above lol. But anyways, if my guesstimate date of my last ride of roughly 2008 or 2009 is right, I was maybe 7 or so at the time. So I have some vague memories of the ride, like I specifically remember riding this with my younger brother, and generally enjoying it, but that's about it. For this, I'm mainly going off of on-ride POV videos and my experience on similar coasters I've ridden since to make my best judgement.

Anyways, with that out of the way, Flitzer looks like a relatively fun family coaster, perhaps bordering on being a lower level thrill coaster, since it is a bit bigger than most family coasters. Looking at it now, it sort of looks like a combination of E&F Miler's Hi-Miler model (like Hurricane at Fun Spot Kissimmee) and Schwarzkopf's Jet Star 1 (like Tig'rr at Indiana Beach). It's not quite as big, long or dynamic as those two models, but seems to be of a similar style. There used to be multiple Flitzer models along the Jersey Shore, with clones at both Morey's Piers and Playland's Castaway Cove, but they've all since either closed or been relocated.

Jenkinson's Flitzer originally opened at La Ronde as La Course before coming to Jenkinson's in 1992. After Jenkinson's was done with it, it was relocated again to Jolly Roger Amusement Park in Maryland, where it actually still operates today as Barracuda. It's the last Flitzer to still be operating at a permanent amusement park, though a few other models still make the rounds with various traveling fair circuits. Maybe I'll make it down to Jolly Roger sometime and give this one another ride for old times sake lol.

Thanks for checking out today's coaster post! Keep an eye out for tomorrow's coaster!

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Tac Talks Coasters - Post 43: #128

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Harley Quinn Crazy Train at Six Flags Great Adventure!

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Opened: 1999 Manufacturer: Zierer Height: 26.3 ft (8.0 m) Speed: 22.4 mph (36.0 kph) Length: 1,181.1 ft (360.0 m) My most recent ride: 2021

Here we have another pretty solid family coaster! Harley Quinn Crazy Train is a very similar model to Kōmbo at the Indy Zoo, which I had talked about a few weeks ago, as they're both Zierer Tivoli models. Though where as Kōmbo was the medium model, Harley Quinn is the large model. This gives it a longer layout consisting of two figure eights side by side compared to the single figure eight of Kōmbo.

That extended layout also helps the ride to feel more complete and dynamic compared to the medium model. Beyond the layout, the ride's other noteworthy point is it's ridiculously long train lmao. These larger Zierer Tivolis are known for having stupidly long trains, with this one having 20 cars, seating 40 passengers total per train. That makes the ride really neat to watch from off-ride as it looks really serpentine as it winds through the layout.

The length of the train, while being the ride's biggest distinguishing feature, is also its main drawback. Because the train is so long, it makes the pacing of the ride really inconsistent and wonky with the train speeding up and slowing down at unexpected points as the back of the train ascends or descends a hill that the front of the train is already well past.

All things considered though, that's a relatively minor problem, especially for a ride that's meant to be appealing to families rather than thrill seekers. I don't remember the ride being uncomfortable at all, it ran smooth and had some decent forces. Definitely a nice fit for a family coaster here at Great Adventure.

Thanks for checking out today's coaster post! Keep an eye out for tomorrow's coaster!

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Have you ever heard of the impulse? I rode it at Knoebels

I have, and I love it! Knoebels is sort of one of my home parks (I live abt 2 hours from it) and I like to think of it as the park I grew up/found my love of roller coasters at! So needless to say, when I heard they were getting a modern, inverting steel coaster for their 2015 season, I was very excited! And I love how they did it! Having it right at the front of the park as one of the first things you see coming in, with its vibrant colors scheme was a great choice (though I will say I do miss the bumper boats it replaced lol)

But I think Impulse is great for what it is! Love the airtime you get from the vertical lift to the vertical drop, and all the forces it has! Great negatives on the aforementioned drop, along with fantastic hangtime on the vertical loop and heartline roll, then nice positive Gs on the helix at the end! My one critique would be for it to have better restraints that don't tighten on your thighs throughout the ride, but since the ride as a whole is fairly short, it's not a huge problem for me ^^

Overall, Impulse ranks at number 52 out of 170 on my rankings! Between Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America and Hydra at Dorney Park!

I almost rode Impulse when I was at Knoebels about two weeks ago with my friend (see this post hehe) but I didn't have time. Would love to give it another spin next time I'm out there!

Thanks for the ask! :D

Here are some of my own photos of Impulse too :3

[3y3-jesters]

Hexxa!