Joey said:
Mysterious Sue said:
None of the 'shakes your brain in your skull' stuff that Saw does to me. Saw's the only thing that I've ever found to do that.
Does anyone know why this actually happens? What causes it?
I know some theorised it was because there's not enough space between the two cars and they can't flex vertically, only horizontally... But Speed and Mystery Mine, whilst hardly comfortable, are nothing like Saw.
Saw is an odd-one. I have a very high pain threshold and have only discovered two rides thus far that I find "rough" or even uncomfortable beyond the logistics of me sitting in a Big Apple. Saw being one and El Condor being the other.
El Condor is just traditionally rough, it throws you around, it's not aged well and it's a type of coaster that isn't the best for rider comfort in the first place. But it
is something we understand.
Saw is a bit of an enigma. Does Gerstlauer even know what's wrong with it? Probably not, or it'd have rectified it at Thorpe and we already know it isn't a problem that any of their other coasters suffer. It doesn't "bounce" or "rattle" like you expect from a rough roller coaster, which is the main confusion. You watch it go round the track, and apart from the visible bump at the bottom of the main drop it
looks absolutely fine. The bottom of the drop, I deal with, it's standard head banging and traditional bumping around. Then the ride continues and all hell breaks lose.
Through the higher-speed sections of the layout, there's this HORRENDOUS searing pain that runs from your neck into the base of your skull and all the way up the back of your head. It's consistent and intolerabe INSTANTLY. But what on earth could cause it? Is the coaster just "too fast" for its layout because it DOESN'T happen when it's warming up? Probably.
Perhaps we'll never know. But the main issue with Saw is that it's not "normal".
Joey said:
Something is wrong with Saw, and yet the public absolutely love it.
RGTHFHHRGHSRDFGS!!!
I think part of the problem with "the public" (hate that term, especially when there's no such thing as "professional enthusiasts") is that general consensus is that roller coasters are supposed to bash you about a bit. The flip-side of this coin is that nice and smooth coasters (read: Swarm) are perceived as underwhelming because they don't bump you around.
This has created a blurring of what
is seen as boring but what
should be seen as smooth. Whilst I do understand that it is somewhat underwhelming for a large and threatening looking coaster to not bash you about and you sort of just sit on it and it goes; it is still a mightily silly apparent perception.
So, rough rides are popular because rough = exciting and smooth = boring & underwhelming.
Sticking to Thorpe, of their four big coasters (excluding Stealth because, well, it's not your traditional roller coaster) we have Colossus, Nemesis Inferno, Saw and Swarm. Interestingly, the two of these that are far and away the most popular are Colossus and Saw amongst the public (the rough pair). Yet us all-knowing enthusiasts (as a whole) prefer the other two. I find it intriguing, but this does go a
long way to explaining why sometimes as a community we just can't comprehend why certain terrible rides are loved and brilliant rides are walk-on.
