Ride Review: The Silver Bullet
The Giant Loop On Silver Bullet: Kickin' The Sky
The beginning: walls and dirt, and the summer of construction
I used to go to Knott's a lot years ago, 1990-1994. I did the after 5pm-12 midnight for half price on Saturday nights, and did it every few weeks or so. But although the park was fun, there were a lot of things missing.

The major thing was a serious lack of full circuit roller coasters. Yeah, Soap Box Racers was a cool ride, but not terribly thrilling. Boomerang and Montezoomas Revenge were cool, but too short and with one train, the lines were too long. I chose instead to start driving to Magic Mountain, which I did not do that often because of the two hour-plus drive, so I could ride Viper and the other coasters.

Even when Knott's got GhostRider, an awesome wooden coaster in my top five, and Xcelerator, a heck of an adrenaline rush, the park still was missing one thing: a full circuit steel roller coaster with inversions. That's why when I first heard about this coaster, the Silver Bullet, I was thrilled. Not only was it made my B&M, whose rides I knew were known for reliability, safety, and a good hourly capacity that led to short waits, but the layout looked to be a good one. Turns out this had been being planned for a couple of years.
Through the summer, I watched as the former lake area was razed and huge cranes and construction equipment, both when I visited the park and from the photos taken by online sites like Westcoaster that were following the construction. Each time a new part was added to the ride, the enthusiasm seemed to grow as this huge new coaster was taking over the Knott's skyline. It never has been determined why exactly a coaster called the "Silver" Bullet is red and yellow and why some of the track is all red and others are red and yellow, but who cares.

By September 31st, the track layout was completed, and work had begun on the new mining themed area around the ride; the park and the crew had to deal with the huge Halloween Haunt event as well as the deadline of having the coaster open by December 7th instead of the originally planned December 24th. In fact, one week before the opening, the lake below the ride as well as the trrain and boat ride were piles of dirt and mud.

Although the park was beset by heavy rains and a tight deadline, they did an amazing job pulling it all together for Opening Day, and I was there to get about nine rides in. Was it worth the wait? In my opinion, without a doubt. It quickly made it into my Top Five Coasters, right up there alongside X and Xcelerator.

Taking shape: August 2004
Flying from the loop into the overbanked turn and into the second much steeper drop
Ok, so you might have heard a few reviews from people who say this coaster is "boring" and "forceless" and "tame" (although I find it amusing that many of those same people seem to want Knott's to be more like Disneyland with more "family" rides and few or no coasters at all, or are those who think that other coasters that many consider rather extreme are "tame") or "mediocre" or "just ok", but I say the same thing I say about other coasters: ride it yourself, and make up your own mind.

I am not alone in thinking this is a very well done coaster, and although it is nowhere near as intense as coaster like X, Goliath or Xcelerator, it is a downright FUN ride, and it is not "forceless" at all; it pulls some solid G forces......but not enough to make you unable to ride once or twice. It has that balance where you can get right back in line and go again and again, because it is so smooth and intense-without-being-too intense. I like that. If I want the "OMG!" factor, Xcelerator is about a three minute walk away.

You enter the ride, which has a unique theme to a device invented by the fictitous "Jacob Mining Company" (named after Jacob "Jack" Falfas, who was the VP of West Coast Operations and in charge of Knott's at the time the ride opened) through the "Jacob Mining Company" sign and a nicely themed area, complete with a sign giving the "Legend Of The Silver Bullet". From there, you have a quick wait through a line underneath the brake run and transfer track, and when the line is full, under parts of the coaster as well. Even if the line is full, it moves faster than any at the park (as long as two trains are running) and once you get to the three flights of stairs to the Western themed station about 30 feet above ground, you are about ten minutes away from getting on the ride.
Once you get to the top, you get to choose front or back. Of the seats on this one, front is the best for the visuals and the feeling of flight, and the back is better for a little more intensity. Videos show you how to board and the rules of the ride, and you will get to hear the operators with a headset mike offer entertaining spiels and get people worked up for the ride (this is something I wish Magic Mountain did; this would be great on X or some of the others there).

There are convenient cubicles for any loose articles, and the park seriously enofrces this policy. If they see a train leave with them, I have seen them stop the train on the lift and have an operator go up and get them before the ride continues. Once everyone is secure and strapped in, the floor drops, and the train leaves and makes a hard right turn to the lift.

The lift moves fast and is incredibly quiet, and offers a nice view of the ride to come on the right, and of the park on the left. Once you reach the top at 146 feet, take in the view and get ready, and hold on. You do a short dip and a heavily banked turn over Fiesta Village, and the drop begins.

The drop is not that steep; it's only at a 40 degree angle, but you pick up a lot of speed very fast, narrowly missing Jaguar's track right below and pull a lot of G forces as you soar into the 105 foot tall loop. In the front you can feel yourself floating in your seat as you dive from the top of the loop back towards the ground. You level out still about 30 feet above the ground, which is an interesting effect.
This is one twisted layout indeed and the park did a nice job making it fit without having to retire classic Knott's attractions
If you sit on the right side of the train, you go upside down on this part.
Coming out of the loop, you rise up, high above the plaza and the stage coach ride and then into one of the ride's sweetest moments: the overbank. If you're on the right side of the train, you will be fully upside down at this point, then the train floats into a rather steep dive down until it looks as if your feet are going to skid into the ground below, just in time for you to fly high above the entrance plaza to the park into the Cobra Roll; you do two corkscrews high above the people walking underneath and then fly face first towards the people watching below, right down to the ground again. Smile for the camera if you can.

In the front it briefly looks as if you will smash right trhough the fence in front of you, but then you zip up again and into one of the best parts of the ride, the zero-g roll, where the train rotates left 360 degrees, causing you to float out of your seat once again, before diving back down into a spiral over the Indian Dancing show and the people watching below.

And it's only half over.

What follows is a little disorienting, but nicely paced; you enter a "wingover" which is an inverted corkscrew to the left over the path of the stage coach (which you think might scare the horses, but worry not-this ride is quieter than the stage coach wheels) that lifts you out of your seat again. Now you are over the plaza in front of the ride entrance, and you do a "bunny hop" that is banked a little, that offers a nice little pop of airtime, putting the track over the water.

Then you enter the most intense part of the whole ride; you do another "wingover" to the right this time, but the exit to it leaves you mere feet above the water. Then you enter a very tight helix as you spiral upward very quickly. It is advised that you keep your head against the headrest and look forward here; nearly every time during this part it feels like my facial features are being pressed forward.
From there, you glide into the brake run, complete with smooth magnetic brakes, and then a little dip over the midway and ride entrance and back into the station. The ride could be slightly longer, but it offers a nice punch during the 2 minute and nine second journey. Often the lines are short if they are running two trains, and you can go around again; stop and take a look at your on ride photo as you exit through the gift shop.

I think this is a great ride, and it made number three on my top five because it is smooth and because the theming and the visuals of sailing over the midways, other rides and parts of the park really do add to the ride. Many disagree with me on this but I think that overall, it is a far superior coaster to Batman: The Ride (even though that one is in my top ten coasters), but that is just a matter of opinion; I like rides that I can ride over and over and not get queasy or have to take a break.

No, it's not the "tallest or fastest in the world", the drop is not uber steep, and it does not fly through the inversions so much as it glides; but it is very well engineered and the smoothest coaster I have ever ridden, and it's quiet as well; a good thing as it keeps the residents who live near Knott's more likely to approve plans for a future coaster, and it does not detract from the Knott's theme.

The most intense part of the ride comes at the end, with this "wing over" inversion into a very tight helix
This is GhostRider's evil steel twin at night; at night both rides offer a far more intense ride than in the daytime
But even many of those who I have talked to who feel that this ride lacks intensity have been blown away by night rides on this coaster. At night it becomes an entirely different beast, and even if it is just an illusion created by the well configured way the ride is lit at night, it really does seem to whip through the course a lot faster. Even so, I was able to get about 20 rides in a row on this during the ERT (Exclusive Ride Time) at the Winter Coaster Solace without feeling ill (although I may not be the person to judge on that, as I can ride X over and over without feeling ill). Part of it is leaning into the direction of the inversions when you go through them; that will prevent you from getting too disoriented. At night, this ride packs an even bigger punch, just as GhostRider does at night.

Overall this is a stellar addition to an already great theme park and brings an even better coaster selection to the park. It's intense enough for thrillseekers but also will have appeal to those who want to get to the bigger rides; as long as you don't mind going upside down, it is thrilling but not "scary".

This is one Silver Bullet that hits right on target. Here's hoping that Knott's will call on the coaster expertise of B&M again in the future for another one like this when it's time to add another coaster, as they did a great job of fitting this one in.
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