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Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

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New: Trango Cinch


rodw

20-Oct-2004
8:16:01 AM

Dont worry MM ive just bought one so you can play with mine (once your exams are over of course)

joemor

20-Oct-2004
9:26:30 AM

how is it? some say they lower a bit jerkilly???
i must say it looks promising....


rodw

20-Oct-2004
9:47:48 AM

havent gotten it yet, hopefully its in the mail form pin sports, but I'll let ya know.

I'll mainly be using it for abseiling into new projects to clean them from top down, as I usually use jumars and clean bottom up (going down rope o thise sucks suck), but tends to be pointless with all the crap falling on previosuly cleaned ground. Didnt like the gri-gri, to bulky for my tastes...hoepfully the cinch will do the job nicely

joemor

20-Oct-2004
9:54:39 AM

ivce heard they dont absail too well or not as smoothly as a gri gri... but were heaps better for belaying....


rodw

20-Oct-2004
12:13:22 PM

As long as it locks off and holds Ill be happy, gotta be better than rapping down with belay device and having to wrap rope around leg to get both hands free.


mousey

20-Oct-2004
12:22:54 PM

>you can play with mine
nah ill let kev have the fun
(cool, thats an excellent excuse for a climb! ill be at mt K tomorrow lunch till 5ish, dont hesitate to drop by!)


rodw

22-Oct-2004
1:22:17 PM

My Cinch arrived today (thanks Pinnacle) but I think the weather this weekend will thwart any testing :(


adski

28-Oct-2004
1:09:10 PM

I gave a few belays using the Cinch over the last week and first impressions are good:

- It gives a much smoother and lighter feed than the GriGri
- It locks up much quicker on all ropes tried, from 9.4mm to 10.5.
- It's 2/3 the weight, 2/3 the price, and about 1/2 the size of a GriGri.

The owner bought it as he has a shoelace he calls a 'performance lead rope', which is so thin it slips in GriGris. In the Cinch it locks up instantly, so he makes sure he gets a safe shoelace belay by providing his own belay device to match.

On the downside, the release lever on the Cinch is a bit small but I didn't find it too much of a problem. Others had trouble finding the 'sweet spot' for lowering but It was smoooth for me. Two thumbs up!

dave

28-Oct-2004
8:53:05 PM

sounds sweet!

I think ill get me one of those.

i thought there would have to be some downside with these things but obviously not.

Also it is interesting that Grigris have been around for quite a while but have never had an update or design change as far as i know (or maybe i just havent been climbing long enough to know)


rodw

28-Oct-2004
9:10:01 PM

Used my cinch last weekend for rapping in to clean a few new projects. Grips well and works well except only problem is with the small handles makes it hard to get a good even speed as it hard to hold in the same position...but that could be something I get used to.


mousey

28-Oct-2004
10:15:24 PM

i dunno its the same with a cinch but when rapping with the grigri i just open it right up and control with the trailing hand like a normal device

rightarmbad

29-Oct-2004
12:04:46 AM

I still do not understand why anybody would prefer a gri gri or similar to belay. You still have to hold the brake hand, they are heavier and can fail if you grab the climber side rope as a reflex. What's wrong with a conventional belay device? I have a reverso for belaying the second and it's auto lock is great, as is the ability to belay directly off anchors behind me. I just don't get it. What is the advantage?


adski

29-Oct-2004
12:39:09 AM

Hey RightArmBad, your right arm would be better if you were using a Cinch. Cause when you're belaying someone working routes, alot of time is spent locked off holding their weight, right? When belaying with a Cinch and your partner is sitting on the rope, you *don't* have to hang on!

This means more recovery time for your poor arms, and then you'll need a new alias, RightArmReady


rodw

29-Oct-2004
4:24:43 PM

Due to smaller handle in the cinch MM, it did seem hard on longer abseil to simply hold it hope, as it was slightly uncomfortable and dug into the palms etc. Just my first up opinion, one that will probably change after getting use to it Im sure

scottbucc1

4-Nov-2004
8:27:00 AM

I found a great review at www.approachgear.com. Here's the link http://approachgear.com/video/Cinch.mov

Shows a video review


rodw

15-Apr-2005
7:28:11 PM

Just a word of warning on the cinch, i was rap inspecting a possible new route the other day (only 10m so nothing drastic) on a 9.8 dynamic rope, anyway all going swimingly until halfway down I stopped, let the cinch lock off, to check if the crux was doable (i.e. by me), anyway when i tried to use the cinch again I moved the lever all the way over and no go, the rope, had pinched itself into the device and wouldnt move up or down, I ended up getting a jumar to unload the device and with a bit of effort free the rope form the cinch, loaded the rope again, locked of the cinch and it happened again, by that time my climbing partner passed up a gri gri to finish of the decent.

The cinch says use down to 9.4 ropes so i was surprised it had problems with the 9.8 dynamic, never had problems use it on the 11 static though. Glad it happened on a 10mg rap with a person around to pass me up the jumars....would have been another story 30m up by myself.

Anyone else had problems rapping with this device?


Rich

16-Apr-2005
1:14:55 PM

On 29/10/2004 adski wrote:
>Hey RightArmBad, your right arm would be better if you were using a Cinch.
>Cause when you're belaying someone working routes, alot of time is spent
>locked off holding their weight, right? When belaying with a Cinch and
>your partner is sitting on the rope, you *don't* have to hang on!
>
>This means more recovery time for your poor arms, and then you'll need
>a new alias, RightArmReady

fantastic for taking pics on top belay too..


manacubus

18-Apr-2005
11:21:28 AM

> Anyone else had problems rapping with this device?

Yep, if you're heavy or it's a particularly thin rope. However I've never had a problem as severe as yours Rod! I found rapping on my soft 9.4mm pretty taxing. Same deal with lowering a heavy climber with thin rope. That said, it has other advantages (as outlined by adski above) which means that in most cases, I tend to prefer it to the GriGri (I own both).

If it was a super duper abseiling day though, I would take the GriGri!

There are 38 messages in this topic.