Photo by John Patterson
That was a question a few roller coaster designers in the 1980s and 1990s asked. However, the stand up roller coaster seems to be slowly fading away with several parks dismantling & selling theirs or, in the case of Mantis at Cedar Point, converting it to a Floorless Coaster.
So What’s Your Take?
Have you ridden a standup roller coaster? Have you ridden one that’s been converted such as Mantis (now Rougarou) or Vortex (now Patriot) at California’s Great America? If you have ridden them both before and after their transformations, would you say the ride improved?
Susan
I remember as a teenager thinking that stand up coasters would be the scariest ever! Finally rode one in my early 30s at Canada’s Wonderland – Skyrider which isn’t there anymore (got moved to Italy) and it wasn’t scary at all! Have also ridden Riddler’s Revenge and Mantis before conversion. I really enjoy Riddler’s Revenge and hope that Six Flags Magic Mountain keep it as a stand up.
Albert Myles
Mantis was…OK. Vortex is….OK. That’s the extent of my Stand-Up experience. If I never rode another one, I wouldn’t miss it.
Voice of Reason
It seems to me that stand-up coasters are just a way for parks to pad their coaster count, its basically them saying “Well, we already have a ‘normal’ sit-down looping coaster, so we obviously can’t add another one. The only logical solution is to change the way that you’re attached to your restraint… laying down, standing up, backwards… maybe standing on your head?” I really don’t think that standing up adds that much. If we were carted around in little cars throughout the park and never got the chance to stand-up all day, it might be nice to have a break from that and stand-up on the coaster, but most people would rather sit-down after they’ve walked across the park, and stood in line.
Realistically, the only advantage I could think of is that saves space and allows the train to be more compact? So you can get 28 people in the train in the space that it would take 20 people sitting down? Or the train is more compact so the elements are a more similar level of extremeness for each rider. Cramming people in like sardines seems like a very Japanese thing to do… no surprise that it was Japanese manufacturer Togo that created this ridiculous contraption.