Rougarou teaser video

That doesn't tell me much. I know the first half is painted between the lift hill, first loop, and part of the dive, but how much after that?

Today is looked like all off it was painted, including the station.

Now I don't know if Shoot the rapids has been painted or changed in any way because I just walked right passed it and never looked.

I wonder how improved the ride will be with floorless trains.

I know many people dislike Mantis for the standup element in of itself (and the uncomfortableness of the bicycle seat restraining device ha). But I actually think the ride's biggest problem currently is the terribly strong vibration felt throughout the ride that, when combined with the cage-like restraints, makes the experience feel brutally rough.

Will these new trains make the ride smoother, or will the layout inevitably bring out the worst of the B&M rattle?

About half has been painted as of Sunday.

Btw, I did some super scientific experimentation on the Mantis noise factor near Dragon Inn and came to the conclusion that there is barely any, as in down the hill for mere seconds and then no noisier than any other ambient noise around the park.

Comparatively, sitting at The Corral (where the new live cam is located, btw), Raptor is a lot more distracting and noisy, but still, it's an amusement park.

As a side note, if you're looking for some Mantis memorabilia as time winds down, The Emporium (near the FT train station) has keychains, The Dragster shop (near Power Tower) has posters (you need to ask), and Pagoda has magnets.

Raptor is loud but the "startle" factor isn't present as it tends to be with Mantis. I just can't speak to what is the reason that it is louder than it used to be.

Top Thrill 182 said:

Will these new trains make the ride smoother, or will the layout inevitably bring out the worst of the B&M rattle?

I think Rougarou will be fast and smoother! :)

Rougarou may be quieter than Mantis when it opens... Not because of the trains, but wheel combinations.

Mantis uses nearly all nylon road wheels (the white ones) which can make a B&M significantly louder. You can prove this when Raptor increases the amount of these wheels in fall when temps go lower. Raptor can be just as loud as Mantis. Usually parks "tune" a ride with wheel combinations to refine speeds as designed. More nylon wheels offer increased speeds as they are a harder compound.

It is possible that the use more polyurethane (I believe it is) on the floorless trains will reduce the noise levels. It just depends on the speeds they desire with the new trains.

This is why various B&M's sound different (not including sand filled ones).

Some NEAT stuff! http://rcdb.com/496.htm#

Defunct coaster that went from sit down trains to stand up trains for a few years and then back to sit down trains.

Steve - They change the wheel sets on Raptor during the season? I did not know that. What other rides do they make seasonal changes on?

^^ Cool Stuff! Looking at that picture, again makes me wonder how in the world the enthusiast community came up with the whole "it's impossible, the heartline!!!!" theories.

They spoke with such expertise :)

Mantis to Rougaru is the first ever conversion of ride that was designed to be a stand up to something else. There have been a few that were designed as sit downs that went to standing, some were converted back to original form though.

It wasn't the heart line theory that led me to believe it wasn't easy to do. It was rather due to the fact that no one had ever done it. I thought if it were easy to do why would parks idle, or flat out scrap so many stand up coasters instead of converting them. Based upon this I was certain track would have to be changed in order to convert a stand up to a floorless. It seemed like pretty sound thinking to me...

I think if you look at the new trains the physics of the ride really don't seem to change. Those seats put the center of the rider about where it was with the standup configuration. It may not have been a given that the ride could covert too, just speaking off the cuff.

It is guess work but I think this is going to give riders a "Maverick-esque" experience, though not nearly as cool.

The bottom line is that they are making good use of otherwise good hardware and the ride will have a unique legacy for CP aficionados to add to their know-it-all speeches.

This seems like a hard word to pronounce. :aficionados: I'm going to look that word up.

Also Nathan, when you say "Maverick-esque", I think of ground hugging turns similar to Maverick. Those turns in the second half of the ride should be Fun!

This is probably a reach, but if Mantis is almost completely re-painted already, or at least finished by the 19th when it's supposed to close for good in its current form - could it be because CP is planning an "unofficial" opening of Rougarou THIS year for the final 2 weekends ??

If there's no re-do of the station needed and the trains are "lurking" nearby ready to be installed ..........

By the nature of the type of trains on a floorless coaster the station will need to be redone or else you couldn't get on the train. Also I haven't seen pictures recently but from the ones I have the supports have not been painted yet. Some one feel free to correct me on that.

clevelander said:
Some NEAT stuff! http://rcdb.com/496.htm#

Defunct coaster that went from sit down trains to stand up trains for a few years and then back to sit down trains.

Its an Arrow corkscrew with new trains. Man, that ride beats the heck out of me as a sit down, stand up. I see why it was only for a year or so..

Super Stew said:
This is probably a reach, but if Mantis is almost completely re-painted already, or at least finished by the 19th when it's supposed to close for good in its current form - could it be because CP is planning an "unofficial" opening of Rougarou THIS year for the final 2 weekends ??

If there's no re-do of the station needed and the trains are "lurking" nearby ready to be installed ..........

No, the station has to be ripped out or seriously redesigned to work with the new trains. Perhaps new cement footing are needed so they need to do it when it's warmer? Though I still don't see why 2 weeks starting early is gonna help?

Anyways. The new paint is nice, but I did like the original colors better, but that's my opinion.

Perhaps that was the only date available for the construction crews, or the cement availability, or some other thing where "If you start 11/3, the project will cost X, whereas if you start 10/20, it'll cost 0.75X."

In all fairness, I think it'll be kinda cool for the public to see some of the construction the last couple weekends.

I liked the Mantis color scheme better as well. They were bright and vibrant whereas these look very subdued and bland. I think a bright green track with black supports would have looked pretty awesome for Rougarou (and would have matched the ride logo) but I'm sure people would have cried that it was too "Green Lantern-ish".

But hey, at least they didn't paint the supports white.

Some of the supports are painted, the first hill looks to be completely finished except for some small areas around the trim brake. They are keeping the trim brake since they painted the ladder and service platform.

I don't think the station modifications are such that the station has to be extensively modified. I believe that the hardware for the floor sections can be inserted into the present setup fairly easily. Going by Dominator at Geauga Lake, it looks to be designed to fit into conventional platform designs.

jsmith7300 said:
I liked the Mantis color scheme better as well. They were bright and vibrant whereas these look very subdued and bland.

You mean like PointBuzz?