Kevin Bingham knee ascender?

J

Jackohh1412

New member
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Bay Area
I’m probably out of the loop can’t find the video, but It seemed Kevin Bingham was working on a knee ascender that looked pretty bad ass. The guy bats a 1,000 so I know it will be killer im assuming its in the works. Cant fathom what it takes for these guys to actually get these products out there curious if anyone has any news about it.

thank you.
 

retracting reels

There was some discussion in the other threads regarding the knee ascender and using a retracting reel. I definitely think it is the way to go at this point. Experimented with the Gammon reel per surveyors thoughts, but they were too weak unless I stacked three of them together. I then found...
www.treebuzz.com
 
In my caving days (early 1970s), we used to attach our knee ascender to our knee with a piece of elastic fabric. Anybody ever try something like that? Plenty of new materials have been developed since then, and there's so much creativity on this forum. I'm hoping to not be the first guy to mess with the concept and then reject it. I like learning from somebody else's efforts and mistakes.
 
Yep, a couple of guys here have tried it but I don't think they were happy with the results.

I have a Systeme 3A collecting dust. I only toyed with it a couple of times - it would work itself loose too easily. I should probably dial it in and give it another go. Look for it to be on sale in the Treebay section in a few weeks, lol.

shop.freeworker.com

Systeme 3A L

Knee ascender | for SRT + DRT | for ropes Ø 8–13 mm | body height > 175 cm | mixed colours
shop.freeworker.com shop.freeworker.com
 
I played around with a band that strapped the ascender to my knee. Didn’t like it. Got a couple little key reels, some pretty heavy duty made by Starret. Still haven’t found anything that beats a decent bungee.

The dyneema jacket bungee that comes with the SAKA products is excellent. Was shopping a few years ago to try to find it in bulk, no luck.
 
dmonn said:
The bungee on my SAKA works well most of the time. Once in a while it doesn't lift the knee ascender, but I suspect it's my poor technique that needs improving--not the SAKA.
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If adjusted correctly, that bungee should pull the saka up everytime unless of course the ascender is hung up on something. Occasionally it'll catch on a fold of clothing that happens to be in the path.

Not sure how you have your bungee adjusted, but I pull mine tight when my leg is fully extended, then add 1-2" so that the bungee isn't taking my weight as I stand on it. This gives it the maximum amount of lifting power.
 
Jehinten said:
If adjusted correctly, that bungee should pull the saka up everytime unless of course the ascender is hung up on something. Occasionally it'll catch on a fold of clothing that happens to be in the path.

Not sure how you have your bungee adjusted, but I pull mine tight when my leg is fully extended, then add 1-2" so that the bungee isn't taking my weight as I stand on it. This gives it the maximum amount of lifting power.
Click to expand...
I adjust mine about the same way. I hook the bungee to the waist belt of my harness. I think the only issues have been when the ascender gets hooked on something. I was thinking that having the ascender loosely strapped to my leg might prevent that. Maybe use a buff or part of a buff, or something like that. Let the bungy do the lifting, but use a flexi strap to hold it closer to my knee/leg.
 
Jehinten said:
If adjusted correctly, that bungee should pull the saka up everytime unless of course the ascender is hung up on something. Occasionally it'll catch on a fold of clothing that happens to be in the path.

Not sure how you have your bungee adjusted, but I pull mine tight when my leg is fully extended, then add 1-2" so that the bungee isn't taking my weight as I stand on it. This gives it the maximum amount of lifting power.
Click to expand...
Quoting Pookie: "It should be tighter than a ticks ass"
I set it up that way and found that it doesn't snag. There's enough pull to blast the ascender past my leg pads and stuff if I've got it maxed out.
It shaved like three seconds off of my ascent time.
 
treebing said:
the retracting reels that worked turned out to be too expensive to make it work. Tried to get a good deal on them but I concluded that it wasnt worth it. Bungee is much more economical and also durable.
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My reel family and proof that Mr. Bingham’s statements above are true, the remains of a could have been multi million dollar global enterprise.
11A16061-738D-44B4-960E-07C58E7C94D9.jpeg
The black clam cleat works nice, takes a little to release by slightly jerking other foot. But then causes nearly zero friction after the release, probably any type reel would easily lift it.
 
Bungee is indeed durable if protected. I recently changed my bungee in my home-brew Haas because it was looking fuzzy and grating a bit where it exits the tube. In fairness, the tube migrated slightly inside the rope so that contributed. So I wiggled the tube back up about 1/4" into place and untied the biner and exposed the tube bottom at the lower splice to pull out the bungee. Looked like new at the bottom! Full spring power, in fact over most of it's length. Was just wear and tear at the top exit. I threw it back into my spare bits pile for re-use.

Here's the kicker. I still had some of that same bungee (from MEC) so I cut a replacement, slipped it in, tied two knots and I was done. That bungee dated from when the Haas was first introduced! Yeah, I keep stuff around.

I have the same bungee getting oil dosed while holding my 200T bar scabbard on. It only lasts a year or two there. In afterthought, I think I recycled the old Haas bungee into 200T scabbard service. It lives on.
 
Somewhere I did a post with all my Haas stuff dimensions, probably including the by-the-foot bulk bungee cord diameter. Nothing special, but MEC generally carries quality stuff. Mountain Equipment Co-op If that helps :)
 
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