Painful rides
- Thread starter Kings Gardens
- Start date
The Great American Scream Machine - Six Flags Adventure
Drachen Fire - BGW
Loch Ness is starting to move up the charts as I've gotten taller and older.
Drachen Fire - BGW
Loch Ness is starting to move up the charts as I've gotten taller and older.
Grizzly - I don't get why people love this ride so much. 5'11" and 250, I shouldn't have bruises all over my legs and hips at the end of the ride. In fact if you gave me a choice of 3 notoriously rough/tough on legs rides I would go Skyrush most likely to ride, then Wildcat next likely, and Grizzly never again until they fix the trains.
Grizzly is the only coaster that I actually find scary. It always feels like it's about ready to collapse and it beats the hell out of you. Last time I rode it I hurt my back pretty good. I like to joke that the warning sign should say if you don't have any of these conditions, you will after riding it (with the exception of pregnancy). I always feel compelled to ride it when I go to the park but I really wish they would just tear it down.
My top are
Mind eraser at SFA
Flying Cobras at Carowinds
Tempesto at BGW
Honorable mentions go to two KD ones thatbI enjoy a lot despite the pain.
I305 God those rappid changes just twist my spine no matter what.
Grizzly great ride but U feel like I rode a bull for the full count every time I ride it.
Mind eraser at SFA
Flying Cobras at Carowinds
Tempesto at BGW
Honorable mentions go to two KD ones thatbI enjoy a lot despite the pain.
I305 God those rappid changes just twist my spine no matter what.
Grizzly great ride but U feel like I rode a bull for the full count every time I ride it.
I always found Anaconda to be worse than Drachen Fire. And Steel Phantom was notably worse than either. But I suppose we could fill a separate thread with ride experience stories from the old Arrows. Even LNM delivers that vertebrae-accordion bounce through the loops, enjoyable as it otherwise is.
Last time I rode Kingda Ka, it had a nasty vibration that made the entire experience really tough on the cranium. One and done for me, until further notice.
The Six Flags Superman clones never fail to give me a nasty headache through the pretzel loop. I just don't get that element. Maybe it's better at larger scale, but somehow I have yet to hit Tatsu or any other large B&M flyers.
Last time I rode Kingda Ka, it had a nasty vibration that made the entire experience really tough on the cranium. One and done for me, until further notice.
The Six Flags Superman clones never fail to give me a nasty headache through the pretzel loop. I just don't get that element. Maybe it's better at larger scale, but somehow I have yet to hit Tatsu or any other large B&M flyers.
Brambo
Cyberdyne Systems Software Engineer
#1 is Shockwave at Great America and I'm not sure #2 is that close.
Grizzly at KD is a once a year ride for me, though my first ride on Tumbili was up there in headache inducement.
Wildcat I dont understand the issue with. I actually find Comet to be much rougher, particularly in the back.
Grizzly at KD is a once a year ride for me, though my first ride on Tumbili was up there in headache inducement.
Wildcat I dont understand the issue with. I actually find Comet to be much rougher, particularly in the back.
They likely won’t. That’s GCIs first and Hershey is quite Touchy about doing something like that from what I’ve heard.
Batwing is way more fun than Superman at SFGAdv. I don't really like the pretzel loop either. It doesn't exactly give me a headache, but the G's are too high which isn't terribly fun, and it exits at the top which is somehow unsatisfying to me. The vertical loop on Batwing has high Gs, but not too high and there's something really fun about doing a full loop without stopping at the top and looking down at the top of the loop. I love it. I mean I don't dislike Superman Ultimate Flight, but it's not as good as Batwing. It's also not scary at all, unlike Batwing.
Grizzly is rough, but I do love it. It feels completely out of control, which is awesome. I just can't ride it a lot, and that's ok. Skyrush is genuinely painful and focused on the thighs. I also like it, but it's a one and done each time for me.
What row were you in? If it was anything other than the front car then this tracks. Front row in particular is a blast with no roughness and all the intensity.
And as for my answer, Wildcat at Lake Compounce is not only far worse than Hershey’s (also bad) installation of the same name, it’s the worst ride I’ve ever ridden. Nasty jackhammering and potholes throughout the ride. I’m lucky I’m young or else that thing would’ve hurt for days
SFGAdv's copy of the B&M flyer clone really suffers for being built "on stilts" over a parking lot. I do think it would be a much better ride if they had put any effort at all into repeating the Georgia version's terrain. The close passes do add to the experience. The pretzel loop still hurts, though.
Totally agree that Batwing is scary. Very very few roller coasters make me truly uneasy (see my notes on Williams Grove Cyclone), but Batwing does. Not necessarily in a bad way. I wish it had better capacity and lived in a different park.
I think I was in the third or fourth row of Kingda Ka when I last rode. I do recall getting much better rides in the front row years ago, but then again I remember getting much better rides in MANY different rows of that ride years ago.
Maybe I'll just wait the extra handful of minutes for the front row, whenever I'm back at that park again.
Not a hot take but Skyrush is easily the most painful ride I’ve ever ridden. It’s amazing to me that this ride has existed for 10 years and they’ve done nothing to make the restraints less torturous. The layout looks fun, but I literally can’t remember it at all because both of my rides were spent trying to bear the feeling of my thighs being snapped in half.
Distant second place: The Crypt.
Distant second place: The Crypt.
KIngda Ka. Truly one of the best rides in the world but that vibration is unbelievable. One day after 3 non-front rides I could feel my brain was rattled and bruised from 100 little concussions and truly feared permanent damage if I were to ride again.
Roar also can be a vibration machine more than any single bump, but hopefully they are fixing it. Contrast with Anaconda's worst feature, a single massive head slam. It's hard to fully protect yourself but easy to remember where it is, if you ride again.
Rode Grizzly 5th row this year. Truly terrible now anywhere towards the front, which is also weird. May retry further back but otherwise am done with it this year. I've been hurt by it before and gone on to keep loving it, sure I can't handle quite as much now but this is something else, an oscillatory high speed pogo bounce that started in 2018 plus the horrible bump from last year.
Either of the flying coaster high Gs on your back loops are horrible, however at least the pretzel has that one wonderful burst of airtime going in before I cease to care about much but it ending.
Skyrush is easy, hold on to each side, it's -2 Gs and the handles are in silly positions. My biggest restraint issues have been El Toro due to rib pain from having the restraint 1 mm tighter than required, Impulse for I'm-not-sure-what-happened with my belt and the restraint, and I305 from belly autotightening. P.S. Drachen Fire, not really that rough but dangerous restraints, surprised there wasn't more lawsuits, and so obvious.
Roar also can be a vibration machine more than any single bump, but hopefully they are fixing it. Contrast with Anaconda's worst feature, a single massive head slam. It's hard to fully protect yourself but easy to remember where it is, if you ride again.
Rode Grizzly 5th row this year. Truly terrible now anywhere towards the front, which is also weird. May retry further back but otherwise am done with it this year. I've been hurt by it before and gone on to keep loving it, sure I can't handle quite as much now but this is something else, an oscillatory high speed pogo bounce that started in 2018 plus the horrible bump from last year.
Either of the flying coaster high Gs on your back loops are horrible, however at least the pretzel has that one wonderful burst of airtime going in before I cease to care about much but it ending.
Skyrush is easy, hold on to each side, it's -2 Gs and the handles are in silly positions. My biggest restraint issues have been El Toro due to rib pain from having the restraint 1 mm tighter than required, Impulse for I'm-not-sure-what-happened with my belt and the restraint, and I305 from belly autotightening. P.S. Drachen Fire, not really that rough but dangerous restraints, surprised there wasn't more lawsuits, and so obvious.
Last edited: