Ride Profile: Ninja

Ride Type: Roller Coaster

Manufacturer: Arrow Dynamics
Model/Style: Suspended Swinging
Year Built: 1988

Back in the late 1980′s, the roller coaster wars had started to heat up again and Six Flags Magic Mountain was determined to be a part of it. They already had Gold Rusher, Colossus, and Revolution, but those were all at least ten years old. Shockwave, a stand-up roller coaster from Intamin, was their most recent addition and it was installed in 1986. Six Flags decided it was time for a new record-breaking coaster and on May 21, 1988 Ninja made its world debut.

Dubbed the Black Belt of Roller Coasters, Ninja is a suspended swinging roller coaster built by Arrow Dynamics at a cost of $6,000,000. It was the fastest swinging suspended coaster in the world at 55 MPH, and a record it shares today with a sister coaster in Canada. It is also the only coaster of its type west of the Mississippi River. It has 2,700 feet of track, a height of 60 feet, and lasts 1:30 minutes. Each car seats four riders in a 2×2 configuration.  There are seven cars per train, for a total of 28 riders. With up to three trains, the ride can theoretically handle up to 1600 people per hour.

Like some of Magic Mountain’s other coasters, such as Gold Rusher and Revolution, Ninja was custom built to take advantage of the unique hill in the middle of the park. The entrance to the ride was placed on top of the hill, known as Samurai Summit. The entrance, seen here, is close to the Sky Tower and directly across from the upper station of the Orient Express:

Looking down from the top of the stairs in the above photo, there is a small plaza that leads into the first of three queuing areas:

This is the first of three queues. I have never seen it so busy that this queue had to be used. People usually just walk all the way down the left-hand side to the next queue, which you can see in the top-right of this photo:

This is the second queuing area, that wraps around the outside of the loading station. Again, I have never seen anyone ever have to use this area either:

Once you turn the corner after the second queue area, you are at the top of the stairs that lead down into the third queue and the actual loading area. I have seen this area get quite backed up, but the line moves fast if they are running multiple trains and doing a good job at getting them dispatched in a timely fashion:

This building used to be the upper station for the old Dragon people mover, which was similar in concept to the Orient Express but for the backside of the hill. It was closed in 1981 and the station sat unused until Ninja was built in 1988. I’m not sure if the Asian theming was already here from the Dragon ride or if it was added/changed for Ninja, but it’s quite nice. Unfortunately, it’s also showing its age and lack of maintenance. I know the coaster track was repainted in 2007, but I do not know if that also included the station. As you can from the following photo, the walls are filthy, the paint is peeling, and the banners that used to hang from the ceiling have been reduced to ripped remnants:

The following shot was taken from the top of the stairs, to show the loading stalls/air gates. You can also see that the lift hill begins as soon as the train is dispatched. Ninja is unique in that the initial lift hill is fairly short. Because the ride starts at the top of a hill, not much height is needed to get the coaster rolling:

This is an aerial shot of the Ninja station. The people you see are just rounding the corner and starting down the stairs:

Each car has over the shoulder restraints, but there really isn’t any discomfort because the ride does not feature any inversions. They actually make for pretty quick loading/unloading. You’ll also notice the yellow shocks/dampeners on each car. Because each car swings throughout the ride, up to 90 degrees each direction, these help keep things swinging smoothly:

An aerial view shows the red and white coaster twisting in and out of the trees as it makes its way down to the bottom, over the entrance to Jet Stream. The red hexagon building at the bottom of the photo is the Ninja loading station. You’ll notice a similar looking brown building almost straight up from it. That was the lower station for the Dragon ride at the bottom of the hill. It has sat unused since 1981:

Because it sits on a hill, the ride designers were able to take advantage of the terrain and really give the coaster some great high-speed banking:

Lots of mature trees for the coaster to slide in and out of:

This is Ninja peeking through the trees with the Sky Tower shadow looming large:

This is a good shot that shows the cars actually swinging. If you look at the post support on the lead car, you’ll notice that centrifugal force has swung the car up past the 90 degree mark compared to the part of the car attached to the track:

This curve of the track is low and fast, making you think you’re going to go right into the water. When the lake is full, all the way up to the water stain mark on the concrete pillars, it’s even more exhilarating. This is the fastest curve of the ride, with the official Ninja press release stating it as being close to 4 Gs. However, the Wikipedia entry on the ride pegs it at only 2.9 Gs. I’m not sure which one is correct:

One of my favorite things about this roller coaster is that there are no brakes. At least not during the ride. Once you clear the lift hill, there is nothing to slow you down until you hit this brake run at the very bottom of the hill, just above Jet Stream:

Once stopped at the bottom, you round a corner and start back up another lift hill that takes you back up to the loading station. Remember I said the first lift hill was fairly short? That’s because the bigger one is at the end of the ride:

As you can see from the preceding photo, the transfer track and maintenance area are also located at the bottom of the hill. In addition to the primary track heading back up to the loading station, there are three additional maintenance tracks:

If you take a ride up to the top of the Sky Tower, you’ll see some items put out on display as part of the Magic of the Mountain Museum. One of the items is an old Ninja uniform. Back before the park made everyone wear ugly neon yellow polo shirts that double as walking ‘do not litter’ signs, they had unique uniforms for each ride. I don’t think the following uniform conveys much of an Asian theme, but I like it a whole lot better than what they are wearing today. It added character to the park:

Ninja may be 23 years old, which is getting to be pretty long in the tooth in the coaster world, but it’s still a people pleaser. It’s a fairly smooth ride, it’s pretty fast, and there are no inversions so it makes for a great training coaster for younger kids. It’s one of the few rides that I don’t mind going on every time I visit the park.