previous post update

A couple weeks ago I posted asking about how rough beast and son of a beast are at kings island. The reason for the post was that I was debating on making the trip down to KI during our week at cedar point (my girlfriend and I) and she is pretty small and fragile.

From the responses to that post, I decided not to make the trip to KI and just spend the week at CP.

Well.......

Our first ride was of course Millenium Force.......slightly rougher than 4 years ago when I went to CP but still pretty smooth. The second ride was Magnum. At the end of the ride, my gf said that she thought she bruised her back and that she was in pain......

To make a long story short, she rode gemini once after that and that was about it for the trip. She actually had visible bruises along her spine in the mid area of her back. All she rode for the rest of the week was the merry go round.....I still got some good rides in most of the week but that sure put a damper on the whole trip.

Has anyone else had any problems like this with Magnum? I really didnt remember it being so rough 4 years ago.......

I think Magnum has been decent this year....depends on when/where you ride...

Take my advice when it comes to riding with girlfriends who are 5'6" and 108 lbs (like mine is) ONLY ride steel Intamin's and B&M's and only in the back or front...then, she'll stay a rider and you'll be fine!!

I'm sorry your trip didn't turn out to be all you had hoped. It is interesting that she has such physical problems with the rides, and to be honest I've never heard such of someone having such a physical reaction to rides. I'd have to say you probably just noticed the roughness because you were paying attention to it. You knew roughness would cause your girlfriend pain, so you were perhaps feeling for it.

Maybe she has some sort of physical condition? I would have something like that checked out. having ridden Magnum in 2000, 2001, 2005 and this year, it doesn't seem to be any more rough than it ever has been (to me).

She is only 5'-5" and 105 lb. which may play a big part of it........but she is in good physical condition. She's an avid volleyball player and goes the the gym at least a couple times every week. She is getting a little older though but for it to cause actual bruising on her back???

I am 6'-4" and about 210 lbs. I wasnt in pain after the ride, but I will admit that it was very uncomfortable. We sat in the 3rd seat in the first car. Would it have been better to sit more towards the middle?

I rode Magnum a couple of weeks ago and it was really rough so I only rode one time. Even my son said what a peice of crap it was. I thought Magnum, Mantis and MS were the 3 worst coasters at CP an i would not care if they got rid of all three. IMO they should take a year off of building 20 million dollar coasters and put some money into those rides. They are screaming for some attention and Magnums accident this year should open Dicks eyes.

^^Oh God!!! Maybe he'll open his eyes, but shut his ears to your ridiculous rants of over exaggeration!!

I being a huge fan of the magnum will be discreet about the ride. It does have its problems with bumpiness. It also does really depend on where you ride, especially over the wheels, because i rode it last friday and felt like i was getting bumped around.

The problem more so to me is the lapbar, it seems to go into the upper thigh area of your body on the bunny hops alot, i try to cheat and not get it so far down on myself. The really bumpy parts are on the second hill when you hit the top and twist out for the drop then you get bumped alot in the helix because of it taking lateral g's, but other than that its a case of taking the airtime, beating from the lapbar, by far its not the smoothest out there, but its still beats the arrow loopers in smoothness. Thank God then you didnt ride the beast or son cause you might have to carry her around the park.

Magnum can be very painful if you don't pull your seatbelt nice and tight (a trick I learned from here or the former Guide to the Point). Otherwise, those last bunnyhills will not feel very good at all. If you don't know this trick, I could see where your very light girlfriend would be flying out of her seat quite a bit.

While there's a lot of people in denial, Magnum is antiquated technology. Even a non-enthusiast who was on our midwest trip noticed that right away going into the pretzel turnaround. I think he was shocked by how square the turns were of the Pretzel turnaround.

So you essentially went from one overgrown minetrain to another minetrain in your riding of Gemini. I hope that went better.

My sister bruises easily as well (you should see the bruise she got from Runaway Minetrain at Great Adventure), so I think she'd be hating life on Magnum. By the way, I didn't notice any difference in Millennium Force this year in the three times I rode it, but it has been since 2000 since the last time I rode it.

I almost always ride Magnum in the very last row (a wheel seat) and have never found it to be overly rough. It will be smoother in the middle seats of each car as typical of all three-bench car coasters, but IMO there is nothing wrong with the wheel seats either. I love it the way it is and feel the roughness adds to the experience and sets it apart from the other smoother, less exciting steel coasters at Cedar Point.

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SpiketheVB23 said:We sat in the 3rd seat in the first car. Would it have been better to sit more towards the middle?

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While I almost always ride in the 3rd row (right side), it is supposedly the roughest seat on the ride.

During Joe Cool ERT, I think I actually liked that our train had the trims on for most of the rides. The third row can get a little rough on an untrimmed ride. (Before anyone complains about that comment, I prefer an untrimmed ride in most cases, but on that night, the trims came in handy).

They do call that row the "Ejector Seat!"

I always try to yank my belt as tight as possible, since the air time is explosive in that seat!

Next time, try the first or second rows. Don't try the 4th. I don't ride much in other rows, so you'd need to check with someone else on how those are in terms of pain.

-Sam

Wow. I personally haven't been to CP for quite a number of years (well, since my charter bus driving days, actually)... I am really surprised to hear about the Magnum being considered rough... last time I rode it was silky smooth ...that was a number of years ago... but it scares me to see how soon the riding quality deteriorates of newer coasters compared to the older ones.

How come coasters that have been around for decades don't fall apart and tear your innards up like the ones being built today? Villain at GL isn't that old, and tears you up. Wildcat at Hershey was no smooth ride, either, and I heard the old cars were worse. What gives? Too much "trial and error", shoddy workmanship, or what? Or just like anything else..."they just don't build em like they used to"

"Smooth" means "dull" to some of us...

And the "they don't build 'em like they used to" thing is exactly why I like Magnum as opposed to some of the newer, over-engineered to be smooth rides.

Just don't take her down to Holiday World!

New trains and/or a new restraint system could make all the difference in the world for Magnum. It's the case of putting a stock vehicle on a ride that needed something completely different for the speed and the airtime. The minetrain lapbars are just completely wrong.

Er...

Magnum's train is noticeably larger than the earlier mine trains, the lap bars are a bit wider, the road wheels are 50% larger than on earlier models (and use aluminum wheels), the ornamental design was completely new, and Magnum has padding in places Arrow never thought of (it didn't originally, and later Arrow mine trains still don't).

If anything, Magnum demonstrates why it is a bad idea to ever get your lap bar too tight. At least Magnum's lap bar will come back up a half a notch, and it *can't* squeeze against...........

--Dave Althoff, Jr.