Mantis Future

^ And don't forget the free fall drop.

^ And it'll be a woodie! And launched!

I think that the "Camp Rou" is a decent sign that Rougarou (sp?) is on its way to Cedar Point vs. another Cedar Fair park.

I don't believe that they will rename Mantis "Rougarou" unless the ride is indeed converting to floorless/sitdown. Why invest in new merchandise, trade marking the name, etc. if its just getting a new color change. The experience will still be the same.

If the rumors are true about the conversion, the park can remarket the entire ride as new. The only people who know if the conversion can happen or not are the engineers at B&M, until I hear official statements from B&M that the ride cannot be changed, then I think it's fairly possible that a retrofit can happen. Sure it will probably cost several million to do it, but the park would get an entirely new ride without the $23 million price-tag. It's a win win.

Furthermore, this seems to be the trend in the industry right now. Taking rides that are currently in a park and updating them completely, and marketing them as new experiences (The Six Flags parks changing their wooden coaster arsenal, Disney's frequent job of updating existing attractions i.e. Test Track, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, etc.)

I am not a Mantis fan. However, I do think the ride has a great layout, and am a firm believer that converting it a sitdown/floorless coaster would certainly make the ride better.

One thing Mantis needs, which it may be neglected on purpose..Those on ride photos..just..wow. I think Polaroids may take better shots.

Also, a station makeover is needed. This would happen if the ride gets converted to floorless trains.

Have any of you checked what Screamscape posted today. You might wanna take a look at it

Because everything they post there is accurate. Welcome to PB btw..

I know. They posted last year that they confirmed that KI would be getting a wing rider

Converting a standing coaster to a seated coaster involves structural track re-design and replacement not necessary when making track changes to a seated coaster. Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? No.

Whenever Lance is wrong, you will quickly see an edit to make him look right as well.

^^ Noggin, I am not saying you are wrong, but what proof do you have that the conversion would require structural track redesign? Yes, the station would need to be completely redone- but Mantis' station could use a rework anyway. It's not like we are putting a floorless train on say, Magnum.

I've heard the heartline theory, etc. From what I can tell when I look at a Floorless coaster pictures and standup pictures, the heartlines are very similar. On Mantis- a person is standing almost directly above the track: https://www.cedarpoint.com/images/rides/mantis_close.jpg

On a floorless, riders are seated far above the track--- making the heartlines almost the same: http://www.coastergallery.com/2000/Dominator09.jpg

Again- I'm not saying you're wrong- but really the only people who can speak with authority over whether the coaster can be changed are the B&M engineers.

I'd be surprised to see if they were to do a floorless conversion how much the station gets redesigned. Considering it just got repainted & whatnot.

Ride op says that in 2015 will change forever

Mantis is gonna be re-tracked to a floor less and be named King James. :) Speaking of that stupid bet, what ever happened to it? Hopefully it was swept under the rug.

Similar, but not the same. And the heartline is not the only concern. People who are standing and people who are sitting are bearing their weight on different parts of their bodies, and experiencing the forces in different ways.

Imagine sitting in the back of a pick-up truck as it goes around a corner at a high speed, compared to standing in the back of a pick-up truck doing the same. How your body reacts to the forces playing on it are different; how you brace yourself against the forces are different.

It may be that only slight changes to the curve or arc of the track would be necessary, but even slight changes would require manufacturing and installing new track and new support structures, making this type of conversion much more expensive than swapping out track on a wood coaster (even when adding inversions; since the ride position, and the heartline, of the riders doesn't change, only the specific area(s) of the track getting inversions need to be changed, rather than the track (and supports) leading up to and away from the inversion needing to be re-built).

I would be surprised if the park had to get new supports. I'd be curious to see what would be done considering Mantis uses the old style support system with the bearings that connect it to the track. Now with stricter tolerances I'd wonder if they'd still use the bearing setup or just bolt directly to the support. Also, would be surprised if they added new footings as well.

they were right about Maverick a few years back though....who knows....I just hope we find out soon!!

Seems unlikely but hey, I guess it's possible. Just not probable.

noggin said:

Imagine sitting in the back of a pick-up truck as it goes around a corner at a high speed, compared to standing in the back of a pick-up truck doing the same. How your body reacts to the forces playing on it are different; how you brace yourself against the forces are different.

This example is horrible. In no way does it help support your argument. Your example has to do with center of gravity. Yes when your center of gravity is farther away from your axis of rotation it will be harder to stand up, but what does that prove? In theory the center of gravity between standup and sitdown coasters are just as similar to the difference among people riding a standup coaster. The idea that changing the distance between the riders center of gravity and the track by an inch or two would cause the ride to be completely re-profiled is laughable. Another thing you need to think about is that B&M being a big and smart company probably designed all of their trains (except flying, wing, and invert) the have a similar heartline so that designing the coasters would be easier due to the similarities.

If it were easy to convert rides from one form to another you would see it happen more often than it does. Someone show me one instance of a stand up train being converted to a different type of train because I can't find one.

There are instances where sit down coasters have been changed to stand up coasters, however it does not appear to be very successful. There are 5 known conversions from a sit down to a stand up, 2 in the US and neither lasted a full season. The other 3 were overseas, apparently 2 are still in operation while the 3rd closed. 2 out of 5 conversions succeeding isn't a very good percentage.

Out of these a telling fact is that there hasn't been any conversion since the late 90's. Of course this means that conversions are indeed possible - but not as easy as some here tend to think they are. After all, if it were so easy, and cheap to convert a ride then why didn't more parks do it?

Instead of being converted into a great and awesome ride that everyone will love the old stand ups have instead been torn down, and sold for scrap or parts. There has to be a reason for that.