The "Clones"

I'm not particularly fond of Vekoma SLCs. The layout is bizarre and I have my doubts that they'd be a good coaster without the head banging.

There are just a few SLC's that are just a little bit better than the others so I can actually ride them. Gauntlet at Magic Springs and Fly the Great Nor'Easter at Morey's Piers have made some serious improvements to the track and restraints. Their head banging is almost reduced to the point that the rides are fun. T3 has less head banging but now my legs were being crushed.
While we are talking about Vekoma, there are just a couple of Boomerangs that didn't try to kill me. They were Sidewinder at Hershey and Bat at Canada's Wonderland. I herd that Flying Cobras at Carowinds has new restraints that make a big difference, but I don't know that I was able to ride that with them.
Anyway, I'm sure that most of us are still not ready to use "SLC" or "Boomerang" along with "good" in the same sentence.

Eric_Gieszl said:

I'm not particularly fond of Vekoma SLCs. The layout is bizarre and I have my doubts that they'd be a good coaster without the head banging.

I still remember riding Kong at what was Six Flags Marine World at the time (now Discovery Kingdom). It was the first time I'd experienced a smooth SLC with no head banging at all, and it wasn't a bad ride at all. It wasns't anywhere near a fantastic ride that I was raving about, but it was one that I liked well enough to go reride again twice that day.

It's also left me wondering ever since why that one was smooth on that day and almost none of the others were.

I enjoyed Thunderhawk at Michigan's Adventure, however I'm not sure if that's a clone or not.

A definite clone that I enjoy, is Batman: The ride at Six Flags parks. The G forces feel insane to me now (just turned 30). Never used to affect me but now it feels super intense. Love it!

RCDB calls Thunderhawk a "689m Standard" SLC of which there are 20 others so that seems to be a clone to me. I have ridden seven of those, and they seemed all the same. I have been on one other that was improved. Gauntlet at Magic Springs was said to have a redesigned wheel assembly that seemed to give it a more comfortable ride.

The Batman clones are very intense, more so than a few of the other longer B&M inverts. The very first one at SF Great America and the one at La Ronde ride a little better. The one they call Great White at SeaWorld San Antonio seemed painfully rough when I was last there in 2014.

What about the Cyclones?

Not many around anymore with all of the reworking of woodies, but Viper at SFGAm comes to mind as one of the better clones of the NYC coaster.

-Tim