Tips/Tricks for lapbar room

And you guys actually wonder why parks make sure ride ops are doing their job by pushing the lap bar ALL the way down?

You are coming on here and *bragging* how high you leave your lap bars!

"I go to the extreme in everything!"

"I ride with two clicks!"

Translated in Park Mgmt eyes -- "I could possibly fly out and create a horrible situation for the park financially, etc."

It doesn't matter how safe you really are (I know people can survive a two click ride) but that's not what matters. If anything ever happened and some lawyer read all of this stuff on how people ride and it wasn't "corrected" by park management, you can bet they'd be up the creek without a paddle.

It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant some people can be. You just don't say that kind of thing on a forum where so many parks read it.

I'm really surprised this topic is even open. :-\

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Fiesta Fest Weakest Link contestant wannabe.

I agree with you completely, Legendary.

I feel like a criminal sometimes being sneaky just so I can not be stapled all the way down when I do get to ride. I'm talking a few inches BARELY! I'm shocked at two or three clicks commentson some rides. While not being completely familiar with positions of the lapbars, two & three clicks sounds pretty high to me. How you get out the station like that?

While I do like a little room, it's kind of a little thing to talk about, though. Some rides known as "airtime monsters" I just didn't get the feeling from them without the bar a few inches from me.
Any ride with individual restraints that I hear people talk about standing or hard, good air, I KNOW that didn't happen with the bar all the way down(I'm no fan of the individual lapbar, it doesn't show does it;)?). Even if I'm sitting in the back of the Georgia Cyclone, if I haven't got a little room, my butt's gonna stay on that seat THE WHOLE RIDE.

You can get Standing air when your lapbar is pretty much down. All ya do is stick your legs out as far as ya can and badda boom, standing air.

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

Legendary,

Many parks may read this site but how many have actually done something in reaction from something said on this site? You do have a good point though but personally I don't think it's entirely accurate.

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

I usually leave it up about 2-3 inches. I dont mind it all the way down but when I rode maggie for the first time, the bar just fell on my legs why I touched it. Ouch! Those last bunny hops would have been so much fun too. :(

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Mean Streak is my favorite coaster cause you get a good view of MF's first drop!

I prefer a little space between me and the lapbar because most of the time my stomach gets killed on the brake run., and I normally through out the ride some how click the lapbar down father. The one time I rode S:RoS at SFNE I was stapled to begin with, but by the end of the ride I could not move at all. Not fun. But, the only coaster I will leave a little room is the Villian at SFWoA.

Intamin Hyper restraints cannot go any farther once they lock I always thought.

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

Well, whatever I did today certainly didn't work. I kinda put my legs up, and the ride op said put your legs down. I did, and bam! I was stapled so bad. It was on Viper, and it was on the lowest notch possible! I was in pain, needless to say. Maybe Legendary's right, maybe parks are reading these things.

I have never ever been stapled on the Phantom's Revenge, the ride op's there will let you have as much room as you want, and i have never had a ride op push down on my bar there.

If a op see's you trying to keep from being stapled, YOU WILL BE STAPLED!!!!

Like I said, if you just put it as notch 4 or so you will have plenty of room and the ops won't give ya a second look.

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

Some of us are SKINNY, & we look like we have more room than we should;(. When an op pushes my bar down, I feel bones flexing on hills. Maybe not really, but close to it.
It's a valid disscussion, though. Ops should know "THE SPOT" & not go out of their way to perform a fictional civil duty known as making the guy feel safer(?).
My legs are long, I guess, sticking my feet out has never worked, besides, a lapbar a few inches up, with your feet on the floor in front of you, is THE safe position, IMHO. Once you lift up your feet & scoot forwards & backwards, that's functioning out of the way the whole little contraption was designed to work, or something.

But would an op staple you because of something on coasterbuzz? Very doubtful. Parks & other important people can't put up with reading this content all the time, plus when they do, "filters" are on, lol. People talking, as exciting as it can be, isn't exciting all the time to many people. Anyways, if a park needs to scan these forums alot & they need to pay somebody to lurk & report, I'd LOVE to be a lurker & reporter. Just think of all the free time they must waste;).

But also keep in mind...Ride ops can be enthusiasts too...they read these sites and see these "ideas". So if you think it's the park in general warning the ops, don't bet on it. IMHO, it is the individual ops reading these ideas and cracking down.

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Posting, "Me too" like some brain dead AOLer. I ought to to the world a favor, and cap you like old yeller...

Real quick, let me just say this...

If you don't think parks/ride ops read this stuff, you're sadly mistaken. The fact that you "highly doubt it" doesn't make it false.

Just remember this thread the next time you "try to get away with something."

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Fiesta Fest Weakest Link contestant wannabe.

I'm not going to go ahead and say that I can't fall out of roller coaster because I leave the restraint more open. That's just arrogance.

However, having started the topic, I do feel inclined to defend my point of view. I do think that you can leave the restraint more open than "total staple" and still have a safe ride. Furthermore, this makes the ride more enjoyable which is why I'm on the coaster in the first place. However, I do think that I can figure out for myself (being an intelligent human being and having ridden coasters countless times) how much room is fun and how much is unsafe. Unfortunately, yes, there are people who aren't intelligent and who don't have experience riding coasters, but who is to judge who's who?

Not to get into politics, but it's just like prohibition. Taking something away from everyone because a handful of people can't enjoy it responsibly.

(And unlike alcohol, people aren't dying on rollercoasters everyday.)

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The legend lives!

Andy, congrats on 100% completely missing my point. :-P

I personally don't give two craps about how high you leave your lap bar/harness/whatever.

It's the fact of going on a MESSAGE BOARD where Park people read and saying "I rode two clicks because I shoved shoes up my pants!" etc. that isn't very smart whatsoever. You're just bringing unwanted attention to yourself by posting *how* you get away with a high lap bar.

That, in its entirety, is my point.

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Fiesta Fest Weakest Link contestant wannabe.

*** This post was edited by Legendary on 5/20/2002. ***

Nobody is saying that the parks & ops don't read this site. The point is, don't take it too seriously.

Some of us almost NEVER get decent rides on coasters like woodies because we get stapled when we do ride. I've never had my bar up like a foot before. Arguing with an op over the situation of a few inches is gonna pee them off & get you stapled, every single time. Some people seem to always get to ride with room, so it's not a point to them. Some people seem to ride all summer, never really working much or whatnot, a sure guarntee way to have PLENTY of decent rides. Some of us, literally, get stapled when we do get out, & never have good days with air on coasters the few days a year we're on them, LOL! So therefore, you do think of such ploys. I'm all the time thinking about how I'll acieve my comfort zone.

So far, my solution has been the fine folks at PKD with their gentle taps, & IF you're too high, they push down without the staple.

Granted, I'll agree, the "Tips/tricking" part, & bragging about "getting away" is 100% not needed, but there's a topic here, enough of one. You sometimes have to read through things to get to something else. When you're "sneaky" & they yell at you over an inch or two, you know they've had to deal with a bunch of punks that day, wanting to be rude with the bar.

If parks read & learned from reading this stuff, they would know the safety limits of the rides, coupled with comfort factors, & NOT STAPLE! Once again, not saying they don't read this. But, I'm sure they do read, & realize the average age of a poster on an internet message board is.......

*** This post was edited by p_c_r on 5/20/2002. ***

I'm sure many will disagree with me and even flame me for this but my whole outlook on all the restraint dilemmas has changed. I used to get really upset about being stapled, or having to deal with OSTRs, or get frustrated that a coaster had individual lap bars rather than buzz bars, or having my lap bar come down on me mid-ride, or dealing with seatbelts. But I found that I was spending more time being frustrated and less time just enjoying the ride.

I found that if I just stopped letting things like that bother me I really started getting a lot more enjoyment from the hobby. Now, if given the choice, I'd much rather be riding and be stabled than not ride at all; I'd much rather find that my lap bar came down mid ride than not ride at all; I'd much rather take the extra few seconds to buckle a belt than not ride at all. I just wanna ride!

Yes, in an ideal setting I'd have some extra room, my lap bar wouldn't come down, and all coasters would run PTC's w/ buzz bars. But we don't live in that world, so you can either deal with it or let it ruin your day. Its like traffic in LA: its gonna happen, so you can either let it drive you nuts or accept it.

So flame away if you must but you won't take away my enjoyment ;-)

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

Legendary: If you honestly think that starting this topic on this board is going to affect the kind of ride that I get because park management reads it, then I would totally disagree.

Additionally, I didn't start this topic to "brag" or to draw attention to how I leave the restraint loose. I was hoping for a friendly exchange of tips so that I could get more enjoyable rides, and help others get more enjoyable rides.

For those who don't think it's important, I do think it's important, and I've tried to let it go, and maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill, but I do enjoy rides with more room than those without.

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The legend lives!

I haven't even bothered to read this topic until now but I'm not surprised at where it has gone.

First off I tend to agree that enthusiasts aren't happy unless they're complaining.

Second, even being stapled on Millennium Force or Magnum, I still get air.

Third, the nonsense about seat belts and complaints regarding them is even more silly. I find that seatbelts make the ride and extreme air more comfortable when pulled tight (see: Magnum, Phantom's Revenge).

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
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