Tips/Tricks for lapbar room

Anyone have any tips or tricks to share on how to get the most lapbar room?

Here're mine:
a) watch the ops while you're in line and see which side is stapling more. Pick the other side.

b) sit with your butt forward and the top of your back pressing against the top of the seat. Thus, it looks like the restraint is tight, but it's not.

c) on Intamin's in the second row of the car, put your arm on the armrest between the two seats. The retraint will be held up by your arm. not your legs, and you'll get mega room.
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AC?, RB?, MF?, DD?, PR? Who can keep track of it all?

What your saying can be fun in some cases, but carelessness will cause injury. A little more room may be TOO much room. I agree, stapling takes the fun out of the ride, but just don't be careless and have ur lapbar so high that it doens't serve its purpose!

Well seeing as though I'm the goof ball on S:ROS who continues to pull my bar DOWN as we go up the lift, I cannot intelligently comment on this thread other than to say that I feel importance of lapbar 'room' in relation to so-called 'air-time' is overrated. As long as the bar is not causing 'discomfort', you should be fine. I mean, I've done the 'one-click' raven rides, but aside for pure 'showoff' comedic value, what's really the po!nt? (heheeheh)
jeremy
--who'd rather be watching Yu-Gi-Oh!

...gotta admit, I like my freedom (hey, I'm an American...). Feet-stacking and leg extending are two of my routine ploys to keep from beng stapled.....but that's only when I see the ride-ops doing the push-down instead of the pull-up. And really, it's mainly for airtime coasters.....

Most times the lapbars will come down as soon as you hit some positive g's going up the second hill - except for KG's Twister....:). That's Knoebel's Groves, no relation to Kevin Garnett.....

Doing things that are obvious will usually get you stapled. Things like having your hand in between the bar and your legs, tipping up your feet, etc are all pretty obvious to anyone who has been working for more than an hour on a ride. I find that I can usually leave myself a bit of room and not get stapled. Being stapled is no fun, but I think I actually agree with Jeremy on this in that sometimes the amount of room you have is overrated. As long as you're comfortable, the ride is not going to be altered significantly by 1 inch of room vs 4 inches of room.

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

I have to agree with Jeremy. You and I have to go riding together sometime Jeremy because you seem to have the same riding habits I do. Anyways, if the attendant doesnt staple me in, I am usually stapling myself in. I do not want to fall out at all. I stapled myself into Mantis one time so hard that I could hardly breathe the entire ride.

I just wanna feel safe!!!

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Bob Hansen

A proud CoasterBuzz Member

"So you think your'e really brave, gonna see the DEMONS cave.
You silly dude, your'e only food, for the DEMON"

Just because you're not physically flying up into the air doesn't mean you don't get that "airtime" feeling in your gut.

I slouch a bit in my seat to avoid being stapled, but taking extreme measures to get maximum room is dangerous. Keep it up and Ed Markey is going to be saying your name in front of Congress.

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He let the contents of the bottle do the thinking; can't shake the devil's hand and say you're only kidding.

Den gets it. There is a HUGE difference between "airtime" and "negative Gs."

Negative G's, which is that "freefall" sensation riders feel, is a function of physics and not dependant on the type of restraints used or how tightly riders are secured. Airtime is made possible by room between the rider and the restraint.

Take The Drop on Ghostrider as an example: if a rider is stapled they won't get airtime on The Drop, but they'll definitely get negative Gs and that wonderful freefall sensation.

Your mileage may vary, but negative Gs is what I look for, and airtime - if it happens - is merely a bonus.

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Don't forget "Operation Graduation" June 1st @ SRM - bring Pat Koch a graduation card! See Coasterbuzz News for details.

*** This post was edited by Mamoosh on 5/17/2002. ***

Just leave yourself an inch and they won't staple you any way don't be obviousl about it, although I have left a lot more room that that sometimes. Viper at SFGAM comes to mind, I had a one click ride that was totally unbelievable.

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The Beast and Night, They go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly

I have to ring in & say I hate a tight lapbar. The bar touching me or the bar not touching me makes ALL the difference in the world. I want to be safe, I'm not out to deceive the ops of this world, you know, it's just there's a point where you have plenty of room with safety, & when you're at "that point" & they come over & push it down touching me, it completely ruins my ride. Coming out of & sliding around the seat IS part of the ride, IMHO. I need enough room to put my arm under there, at least. I'm very trusting of the bar, that's why I love my buzzbar ride down the highway, lol. While being trusting of the bar, tight or stapled lapbars freak me out, BADLY, I have "pushing against the door" complex. Take a cheap door or something similar, loosly push on it a little, it stays shut. Bare down & constantly push against the thing, it'll pop open, or something.

Any lapbar can be too tight & cause pain, even the Intamin & B&M hyper restraints. A bar too tight on either of those kills air, too, at least from my experiences.

No room, no air, & that's not IMHO;).......

I agree with Jeremy. Huge space under the bar doesn't do anything for me. Just don't pin me too tight. Even though I'm a bit of an airtime enthusiast, I don't have to leave the seat by a foot to enjoy it.

However, I have been tempted to hit some ride ops who have painfully stapled me. I've had a couple actually bruise me. There is no excuse for leaning heavily on a lap bar that is already in the proper position.

One tip. Unless you weigh about 100 pounds don't ride trains with Morgan coffin cars. Their lap bars simpley don't allow room for those of us with middle age spread.

I'm lucky, I guess...
I find that on most rides, to get ample room, I don't have to do anything special. Of course, my definition of "ample room" might be different from yours. And a particular exception to the rule is Kings Island, where the lap bars on their wood coasters are so far out of spec that I almost can't ride.

Some rules of thumb for where I normally put the bar--
PTC ratchet bars: Notch #3 (factory spec)
Arrow Runaway Train: Notch #3 (seats 2, 3) or #4 (pilot seat)
Gerstlauer ratchet bar: Notch #4 (factory spec)
B&M Speed Coaster: Notch #2
GCI Millennium Flyer: Notch #1 is as far as it can go
Intamin hyper: Vertical section of lap bar is finger-width (about 1/2") from trouser seam

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I find I'm less likely to get stapled when riding next to someone larger than me, especially my husband. His bar is up so high that mine looks just fine. The only ride I don't like the bar too low on his Magnum because those bunny hops can kill your thighs if the bar is too tight. I tend to pull up on my lapbar when the ops get near me. They see it's locked, so they just to a cursory tug.

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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

RideMan. I go a little extreme with PTC Bars. #2 latch. Plus I've also heard thats the safety factor. I'f you know me I'm also as skinny as a twig and only 5'6"

#2 on a PTC is freaky. Well at least it was on Ghostrider..

I have only done that once, and after that, I decided that the extra airtime isn't worth the gut feeling that you are going to not be in the train upon its return to the station....

Thank you very much, #3 is just fine!

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Xcelerator-
0-82 in 2.3 seconds! =Wow!

After my trip to Kennywood, the best way to not get stapled is to just spend the day there ;).

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Proud to be Arrow DYNAMIC!

I personally have found that more room is a more enjoyable ride in all circumstances. On Intamin hypers, I have left the restraint really really open, and then tried to get out of the train, and I couldn't. As long as the thing isn't completely open, I'm confident that I'm not coming out. Same for B&M hypers. The longer and further I am, and feel out of my seat (even fractions of inches and fractions of seconds), the happier I am.
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AC?, RB?, MF?, DD?, PR? Who can keep track of it all?

rollergator said:
That's Knoebel's Groves, no relation to Kevin Garnett....."

Of course it's Knoebel's. We all forget about that other KG when May comes around.

Like others, I only try to pull a lapbar stunt if there is an op that is obviously stapling.

I did, however, ride Shivering Timbers a few times last summer with only one click on my bar, just because they let me. While it was not necessarily the brightest thing I've ever done, it certainly was quite an experience. I really thought I was going to fly out of the train. Thank God for seatbelts.

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"He's blazin' away like the stars in the universe.." A. Vega + M. Rev "Ghostrider"

Someday there will be something here.

CoasterFanMatt said:

#2 on a PTC is freaky. Well at least it was on Ghostrider..
I have only done that once, and after that, I decided that the extra airtime isn't worth the gut feeling that you are going to not be in the train upon its return to the station....
Thank you very much, #3 is just fine!
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Xcelerator-
0-82 in 2.3 seconds! =Wow!

Ask anyone who knows me. I go to the extreme in everything!

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It's his turn to feast, when you ride the Son of Beast.

Wear baggy jeans and slip you heels out of your shoes if you want a lot of room. once you leave the station, slip your shoes back on. Simple as that. Most of the time though all you need to do is set your lapbar on you leg. Your still going to get airtime.

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With great power, comes great responsibility-Spiderman