During the weeks leading up to opening day I was very excited about the news that new restraints would be added to the Son. We are now nearing the start of daily operation and there are still no new retraints to be found. Has the plan been scrapped, was it a bad rumor, or must we wait a bit longer? Ialways sit in the middle row of each car for it is the least turbulent..but I feel sorry some, especially tall people like me, who do not know this little secret and continue to get ocassional nicks and bruises from the old restraints.

My guess is we'll have to wait a little longer. They are supposed to be installing them now, but I havent heard any news on the progress. I hope they will be on there by daily operation.

I still don't understand about the new restraints. Are they going to be like an Intamin restraint, as on Millenium Force? Those don't look like they would fit. I think it is the lack of leg room that's the problem, not the lap bars. How could they fix that?

They could re-design the interior of SOB. And they should remember Quality over quantity. I'd rathe rwait a few mins longer if I get more leg room.

I still don't understand about the new restraints. Are they going to be like an Intamin restraint, as on Millenium Force? Those don't look like they would fit. I think it is the lack of leg room that's the problem, not the lap bars. How could they fix that?

The plan is to take out the floorboards on the train that limit the amount of space your legs have. This would make some more space so your legs will be able to fit nicely.

The plan is to take out the floorboards on the train that limit the amount of space your legs have. This would make some more space so your legs will be able to fit nicely.

Oh, I hope this is true...I rode SOB at the beginning of last season and haven't been on since - both of my knees were black and blue...

Only the floorboards? No new bars?

Probably Both bars and floorboards. If I were to do It, I would rip out the entire inside of the train and re-design.

There are new bars coming, but they were delayed. I got that from Jeffrey Siebert. As for the annoying floor boards, I don't know if they're being taken out. Personally, I think they need better padding inside the car as well. Any way you ride that you walk off in pain. I can't even enjoy it anymore.

Ryan, I rode that sucker 113 times last year, and only walked away with pain on a couple of occasions. You just gatta really know how to sit compact.

Ryan, I rode that sucker 113 times last year, and only walked away with pain on a couple of occasions. You just gatta really know how to sit compact.

Not necessarily. I am way tall, and no matter how I ride it, I always end up with a pain in at least one leg, if not two. I think there are serious design problems with the interior trains for the ride. Heck, even The Beast trains on SOB would be way better than the badly ergonomically engineered trains on SOB now.

The only thing is... there is no other trains PKI could use on SOB unless they get completely new custom trains. The track gauge on SOB is MUCH wider than most wooden coasters, and with the loop in there, you also have to have a specially designed train that would be able to traverse the inversion.

Personaly, I don't think any part of SOB is uncomfortable, excluding the first dip down the helix. I'm a tall, average build teenager and I fit perfectly. It's actually sometimes more comfortable than other traditional lap bars because you are more snug and your knees can't hit the front of the car. I just tuck my legs back and it's fine. I don't know about the rest of you.

I think a lot of it has to deal with how you are proportioned. If you are tall, but wll proportioned, the ride may work better for you, than if you are tall like me, and have really long legs. I think this is the big fator whether or not people are comfortable in the cars.

Also, One would have thought PKI would have considered comfort as a factor before installing those trains on SOB. By selecting a varying group of people, they could have easily discovered, how uncomfortable and tight fitting the trains would have been for some people, and then they wouldn't be going through the whole replace the restraints thing.

But the whole reason they are so uncomfortable in the first place is safety. They substituted comfort for saftey, with SOB being the first looping wooden and all. They had to take extreme precautions to make sure there was absolutely no possibility of anyone falling out.

They need to send the trains back to premier and have them fix them up. Im sure premier will get it right the second time. I think some of the problem is that the train is so short. The seats are so low, If they could raise the seat and get new lap bars, it would be perfect.

But the whole reason they are so uncomfortable in the first place is safety. They substituted comfort for saftey, with SOB being the first looping wooden and all. They had to take extreme precautions to make sure there was absolutely no possibility of anyone falling out.

It's not the restraints that hurt it's the vibrations. It's a wooden coaster, they vibrate. This one's just the tallest and fastest on earth so you have to expect it to be worse.

Pki_guy, I would just like to ask these simple questions: 1) would you be willing to pay for these new cars, and would you like to redo the entire station? Cause its a lot for those trains (I heard the price on one car, and about had a heart attack) and the station is built to the car. To change the cars now would mess up the entire station.

I am a tall fairly well built guy (6'2", 230), and the SOB trains are extremly uncomfortable to me. I don't think the ride is rough, I think it's smooth as glass, but the trains are very uncomfortable. Ne lap bars would be great, but the ride will still be terrible (if you wanna know why its terrible, just ask and I will tell! :-)

Maybe I said it wrong. I didnt mean to say to buy new trains, I meant to use the existing trains. Just redo the interior of the train. I cant even imagine how much one of those trains would cost, I dont even think I want to know.

I'd like to see that price