Gatekeeper Restraints

I was specifically thinking about Superman: Ride of Steel at Six Flags America.

Superman: The Ride at Six Flags New England and Ride of Steel at Darien Lake also has the same 6'4" height restriction.

I had to stop riding gatekeeper, I'm 6'1" and those restraints make my collar bones sore. But I can ride Banshee at Kings Island as many times as I want, with no soreness or pain. Even thought that Dollywoods Wild Eagle restraints are more comfortable than gatekeepers.

They're all the same restraint.

At 6'5", only when I ride Gatekeeper a few times in a row do they bother my shoulders.

Maverick's on the other hand are worse for tall people IMO, I preferred the old style OTSR's personally. They tend to dig into my shoulders quite a bit more with how they are designed. I notice for all my shorter friends though that the vest lays on them much better and they all love them. Strictly a height issue most likely. I think in general the Maverick trains may be some of the most uncomfortable for me though out of any ride I have ridden, especially with that bar/hump thing in the seat that just jabs me in bad places the entire ride... Gah. Love the ride, but the trains (and usually long wait) make it a skip most visits.

^Agree in regards to Maverick, to a point. I'm 6'6", and I hate that hump in the seat. I've found that if you sit in the back row of the car, the wheel well isn't between your feet, so you can cross your legs, and that seems to help me position myself better in the seat so the hump doesn't bother me.

But in regards to the restraints themselves, I've had bad rides, but also good ones with the new restraints. I haven't figured out the secret yet, but I think you can work it to a point where it's not really clamping down on your shoulders, even for tall people.

I will have to try crossing my legs next year to see if that helps, thanks for the trip. I can see how that may work.

For headbanging, the new ones are great for preventing any hard hits... It's just the constant digging into my collarbone that sucks!

I'm only 5'10 and I find the vests comfortable now on Maverick but those seats are still very uncomfortable. I must cross my legs after the ride when we are sitting on the brake run or I start to get a little claustrophobic. Which is odd cause the train is fairly open compared to the old Arrow trains.

I love Gatekeeper's vests now that they don't ratchet down during the ride. I love them on Banshee and i'm looking forward to them on Valravn. I also like that they have lowered the height restriction on the B&M's that use them to 52" opening the rides up to even more guests.

I guess as I get older I prefer being more secure on looping coasters, even though I love out of control air time on wooden coasters and steel non loopers.

6' tall here and love Gatekeeper, overall. While I do appreciate not having my head beat up, I do find the vest and lap bar annoying. The vest only bothers me if I am stuck waiting in the brake run. I usually just keep pushing it up because it digs into my collar bone. As far as the lap portion goes, I ride while pushing forward on it with my hands to keep it from tightening, especially at the bottom of all hills. This usually helps keep Gatekeeper my number one coaster at CP. If I let it tighten up, I'm screwed.