Please put floorless trains on Mantis Please
Jim-
I've been advocating floorless trains on Mantis for about 2 years, but I never stopped to think about that before. The ride is designed to be as smooth as possible with a rider's center of mass a certain distance above the track. Sit the person down and their center of mass will change position. There shouldn't be too much of a change with floorless trains since the seats are further above the track than sitdown trains, but sitdown trains would probably be quite a different ride.
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Welcome "aboard" Wicked Twister. Please keep your hands and arms inside the midway at all times.
FWIW, I also find BKF to be better than Medusa East...add a zero G roll to it, and it becomes the perfect looper.
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Jman
Webmaster: Gravibulb Coasters - Home of Professional Quality Coaster Photos
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Top 10:
10)MF 9)Medusa 8)Raptor 7)DD Fire 6)S:RoS 5)Boulder Dash 4)Hulk
3)Beast2)Nitro1)Magnum
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"There's nothing sweeter than a bowling ball with a liquid center" - Homer Simpson
PittDesigner said:
Mantis is...my favorite steel coaster of all time.
Right on...couldn't agree more. For me no other coaster type -- not a floorless, not anything else -- can provide the great lateral G's that a stand-up can dish out. And Mantis is the best on the list of stand-ups I've ridden (which doesn't include RR though).
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PLEASE READ: This post wasn't meant to offend or anger anyone; I apologize in advance if it does. So please don't post a reply just to rant about it. :)
Not to get off-topic, but what does being gay have to do with being a good ride op? Given the current accepted standard that 10% of the population is gay one can guess that 10% of ride ops are, too. Given the percentages it would seem there are many more bad heterosexual ride ops than bad gay ride ops.
Now, back to coasters....
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"There's nothing sweeter than a bowling ball with a liquid center" - Homer Simpson
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.:| Brandon Rodriguez |:.
http://www.coasters2k.com
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Tommy Penner - Variable X
Track Record in Repair...
Mantis would suck as a floorless, it's not spread out enough. However, they must do something about the banging.
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D-Mon of Darkness
LIVE LIVE INVERTED - ALPENGEIST
Still not understanding where people get this "banging" from? I have yet to ever experience myself or anyone else in my groups banging anything except what those bicycle seats can get to ...
If you look at the layout of this ride, floorless would be a totally unexhilerating (sp?) ride. It is designed from start to finish to snap you left and right, to give you that totally odd feeling of standing at a very slow speed, upside down, something like 110' off the ground ... floorless makes that seem rather boring to me. The snaps right before the trim brake and where the second interlocking corkscrew was probably intended to go (if you look at the layout, it would have taken out some of the Frontier Trail, but the possibility of another corkscrew instead of a snap is there), those would turn Mantis as a floorless into a pain machine ... right now, those are just fun because you're standing. If CP gets a floorless, it will be a new design, but I doubt we'll see that for the next few years.
And why is that trim on the first hill - I've heard its a blocking issue and that its a safety issue. If it was a blocking issue, couldn't they remove it now that they only run 2 trains? Either that or put the crew on sweep duty where they belong, get an efficient crew in there and put the 3rd train back on the tracks.
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Steel - #1 Mantis, #2 Millie, #3 Wicked Twister ||| Wood - #1 Thunderbolt, #2 Villain, #3 Beast
"The key to a happy life is moderation" -- Jon Stewart
I don't know if this was mentioned because of the length of the thread, but someone said something about the line length earlier. It was commented that "it's near MF and that's why it's longer," or something to that effect. I don't really think the location to MF is the full reason, I have yet to see an MF line this year past 1 1/4 hour. What I noticed on the Mantis platform this year compared to the last 5 years, is a) 2 trains, which really does not make a difference in dispatch times if it were 3, and b) a slower technique of strapping the body in. Help me out with the terms here but doesn't the operators make TWO different types of clear signals on the platform. I mean, we sit in our bike seats, they lock it. Next, they check our restraints and out the door. Last season, the process was different and much faster to approach the lift.
Now, the Floorless versus Stand up arguement: Yes, Batman at WoA is amazing as a floorless coaster, would that be a good stand up? I really don't think so. Mantis' course was not engineered to be a floorless. I would love to see floorless trains on it, but that would bring up two questions. 1) By placing floorless trains on the coaster, do they have to rearrange the track to create different elements or make it longer? Or if they leave it as is, would the bottom portion of short helixes be too slow for sitting riders? And, 2) What would the GP, not enthusiasts, think if they would reconstruct this ride? It would be "new" to them, but it would be like a "Mantis' Revenge" in my book, keeping the first portion in the ride, taking some elements away, adding a new portion like at Kennywood. I love Phantom's Revenge, but would hate to see Mantis go down and it's 'revenge' show up. Personally, as an enthusiast, I would want CP to spend money on a new coaster instead of pulling out the tinker toys for an old one (ie: Avalanche Run). Plus, if the lines are long, doesn't that mean that it's still popular, thus none of this discussion would really take place, but it's so FUN talking about it.
Now, I'm not an engineer, but a math and physics teacher and I know some of you will rip me for the "Mantis was not engineered to be a floorless" comment, but think about it......what exactly was Mantis designed to do to your body? Not the same thing that Batman was designed for an hour East of Sandusky.
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There's nothing like a woodie...
And, Mr. Pitt Designer beat me to most of my punches.....thanks PD!
Now, I'm not sure here, but I believe the brake on the first hill was installed because the train was going 'too' fast through the first 3 elements. I remember that there was no weightlessness feeling in the first loop during the first couple years of operation, now it feels like you're falling out of your 'stand'.
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There's nothing like a woodie...
*** This post was edited by Woody on 7/30/2002. ***
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The worst day at Cedar Point is better than the best day at work.
Sure thing Woody - this is a discussion about ruining my baby, so I make sure I know what I'm talkin about ;) And I now get what you're saying about the trim - but I would say thats a terrible place to put it, stick it at the top of the hill instead of the middle - although thats a structural nightmare (curved brake run 160 ft in the air) which leaves it exactly where it is!
No, the trims don't actually slow it to 3 mph. If they did, everyone on the train would be a gooey mess on the shoulder restraints going from approx. 35 or 40 to 3 in a matter of a split second, plus the train would never even make it halfway up the loop. I still want to know what is (apparently) wrong with me that I feel no pain in my legs or head in any part of this ride?
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Steel - #1 Mantis, #2 Millie, #3 Wicked Twister ||| Wood - #1 Thunderbolt, #2 Villain, #3 Beast
"The key to a happy life is moderation" -- Jon Stewart
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The worst day at Cedar Point is better than the best day at work.
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Steel - #1 Mantis, #2 Millie, #3 Wicked Twister ||| Wood - #1 Thunderbolt, #2 Villain, #3 Beast
"The key to a happy life is moderation" -- Jon Stewart
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