[Solace]

i would say that you would be allowed to lean against the side bars. First most likely made the rule saying that you cannot be directly hanging on the side bars because those bars were not designed to handle the kind of side loads and strains that would happen if you were to hang from it. Also, they do not want robots to be able to cheat directly attach to the vertical poles low to the ground, picking themselves up without going to the trouble of reaching 10 feet in the air.

Basically, if you are clearly attached to the horizontal bar in some way, and the horizontal bar is bearing all of the load of your robot, you will be fine. as dean said, we are not lawyers here. although the wording is a little vague, the reasoning behind the rule is more readily apparent, and as long as you don't hurt the bar or gain an unneccessary advantage from touching the vertical poles i doubt that the refs will care.