Mantis pain

The ride is not rough, it just has quick direction changes. With the distance your head is from the track, that's going to make those direction changes feel a lot harder.

Feet all the way back, lean into the harness a little, and for the direction changes, press your head against the harness. It'll be fine.

I also lean with the direction changes (actually I do this on quite a few coasters) in addition to my other technique. It's also important to brace your feet tight against the ground standing up. Half the people I see ride it like Raptor. ;)

-TedFuzz

Natas said:
Cedar Dan, I'm not sure if you post it referring to me, but I do not think that making sure that I am standing while riding a stand up roller coaster is doing anything unusual to make the ride enjoyable.

Dan is right. It's not that standing up is the problem. I have ridden Mantis 5 times only, and every ride was BRUTAL except 1 time I had found the perfect position, and i had no pain anywere. I think it was my 2nd or 3rd ride. After that i cannot get in that same position, and that is Dan's point. You can get lucky once in a while but it is not worth it.

Mantisis painful to males more than females and taller people more thanshorter people. To solve all of Mantis' problems would be to getFloorless trains. Faster loading time, and not as much pain, and morefun.

A floorless coaster would be a great idea. It would be one of the funnest coasters in the park, could be ranked highly on the top coasters list, which would be another thing to advertize, and would have dispatch times identical to Raptor. It could run with three trains smoothly, instead of only 2 trains ALWAYS Stacked.

I won't wait for this ride unless it is walk-on. It is more fun to ride Raptor twice instead.

^I've NEVER seen Mantis have a wait longer than 3/4 hour. You cannot get 2 rides in Raptor with one ride in Mantis unless you go on Friday the 13th like I do. NO ONE IS THERE, 6 times on Mean Streak in 20 min. tops. 3 rides on Raptor in under 15 min. Multiple rides on maXair, Wicked Twister, and Demon Drop within 30 min. The only long wait on those days was Millennium Force and Dragster each witha 15 min. wait. It is probably the perfect day to go. My family does it every year. All the other park-goers seem to still believe in theme-park superstitions ;)

I know this is not recommended, but I do not put my head back on Mantis. I pretty much lean my weight out and the ride experience is no problem at all. I really enjoy the ride and have never felt any pain at all. Now if your head is back all the way, maybe it's a different story.

Mantis is my least favorite coaster at the park because it causes me pain. It's also the only coaster there that makes me nauseous (I think because your head is so far above the track). My 12 y.o. daughter loves Mantis and has experienced no pain from riding it.

Mantis presents me with a choice: shoulder pain or man pain. If I stand up straight, my family jewels take the brunt of the force. But if I slouch my legs a little bit to take the pressure off the nads, my shoulders take a beating on every inversion and turn.

I only ride Mantis once or twice a year, mostly on principle.

^Have you read the earlier posts with the Floorless Idea?

That could work, right?

Floorless would work for me. Now that Dominator is not around to supply competition, it could make sense to put a new twist on an existing ride. I wonder what it would cost to convert the station and bring in new trains?

Does anyone know how much BGA spent on converting Sheikra? They had to order new trains and convert the station to have a dropping floor...

And another issue...Is stand-up and floorless track even the same size? They may look similar since they are both B&M, but they could be different widths.

CP08, converting Mantis to a floorless has been bandied about for years. Personally I'd be all in favor of it. I'm not an engineer but it seems from what I've heard that the rider profiles for floorless coasters and standups are very similar.

But I doubt CF would ever go for it. It would certainly require significant work on the trains, maybe even completely replacing them. Then there's the issue of the station, which would need a lot of redesign on the loading/unloading platform. So you're probably talking about an investment nearing and maybe exceeding a million dollars, and in the end it's the same coaster. Yes, it worked for BGA with Sheikra, but Anheuser-Busch CF ain't.

Still, it'd be cool.

Yeah I don't know what happen this year, last year I rode in the back seat and didn't get roughed up or anything, it was very enjoyable. But this year its like I can feel the blood really being forced down my legs. It just feels more of an intense ride this year.

I do like the Mantis but I would be happy if they turned into a floorless! I love the Dominator and I really miss it! I know many would enjoy the floorless more!

I always thought the center of gravity issue prevented coasters from being switched from stand up to traditional, and vice versa.

^ By looking at half the riders you would swear it was a sit-down coaster. ;)

-TedFuzz

Oh, it's definitely not as bad as Georgia Scorcher at SFOG. I visited last summer, and me and my friend were the only ones standing up...really. I looked down and thought to myself...is this a sit down or stand up?!

^ And then there's the people who have their feet on the piece of fiberglass that goes up in the middle and when they take it off they wonder why they're floating.

-TedFuzz

When I went to SFOG this spring the Tram Hosts in the parking lot were actually "marketing" Georgia Scorcher as the coaster where "you can ride sitting or standing."

Every year I want to bring some ear muffs to ware on the Mantis, but I always forget them. I think they would help with the head banging, but CP probably wouldn't let you wear them anyway.

I guess I'll figure out how bad Mantis is this year when I head to the point in ahh....5 hours. I'll be there to next saturday. 7 days of Cedar Point will tell me the truth about Mantis and whether Diaster Transport is worth destruction. One question though, I've been getting the old "MaXpass" but with the platinum pass, can I still get in an hour early and where can I find the benefits of the "Platinum" Thanks in advance :)

Anyone else heading up there this week?