SAKA Mini Knee Ascender Gear Review

[John@TreeXP]

What about a bungee tube already pre-fab'd thru your saddle suspender shoulder? If left hooked up on the back of the saddle, maybe it could have small biner on the front to clip into the kneee ascender when you need it. Surprised no one yet makes a saddle suspender MCRS stylewith a bungee tube already in them (a bit of tygon tubing?). More elastic on the back might even help hoick up the 572XP and the top handle battery saws. Choices, choices. Or maybe I'm just sitting in the backdraft from the woodstove too much today - gotta go check the batteries on the CO detector . . .
http://www.treestuff.com/store/catalog.asp?item=15206

Not a bad idea. I've also seen people using retractable devices to tend the bungee, like those keychain thingys with the retractable chains. The problem, as I see it is having too much bungee cord in the climbing system, creating excess drag and asserting undue pressure. I'm OK with a bungee cord to tend a knee ascender, like the Saka2 and Haas Velox, but I prefer to connect it no higher than my floating bridge swivel, thereby keeping it as compact as possible.

 

[Brocky]

My masters classic harness has permanently attached double tubes running around the bottom of it. This allows enough bungee and is only waist high.

 

[FreeFallin]

Not a bad idea. I've also seen people using retractable devices to tend the bungee, like those keychain thingys with the retractable chains. The problem, as I see it is having too much bungee cord in the climbing system, creating excess drag and asserting undue pressure. I'm OK with a bungee cord to tend a knee ascender, like the Saka2 and Haas Velox, but I prefer to connect it no higher than my floating bridge swivel, thereby keeping it as compact as possible.

Ya, I hate having bungees running all over, I want them out of my way.

 

[FreeFallin]

My masters classic harness has permanently attached double tubes running around the bottom of it. This allows enough bungee and is only waist high.

Wow, that's not directly inline with the rope, but it sounds like a cool place to tuck away the bungee, does it work on a knee ascender?

 

[ymg]

Am I the only one to think that the springs in the Saka mini are too stiff. Specially the compression spring for the locking mechanism. The ascender is also a tad heavy.

Still a good piece of equipment. I got rid of the bungee and use a Key Bak to tend the mini. So far I like it better without bungee.

ymg

 

[Brocky]

The bungees are tied to the left d ring, goes around the back, into a small, double sheave pulley in the front, that goes down to a very simple extended footloop and ascender, which is all I have to store when not in use.
I can see the bungee in the tubes stretching near the left d ring, so the whole length is being used.

 

[FreeFallin]

Am I the only one to think that the springs in the Saka mini are too stiff. Specially the compression spring for the locking mechanism. The ascender is also a tad heavy.

Still a good piece of equipment. I got rid of the bungee and use a Key Bak to tend the mini. So far I like it better without bungee.

ymg

I think the ascender would be heavy if you are trying to lift it with a key back, not heavy at all with a bungee so it depends on the tending mechanism.

 

[ymg]

@FreeFallin the Key Bak does tend without problems. However I doubt that it would be suitable for a pro climber. For my part I do recreationnal climbing.

Anyway time will tell if it's built to last, still got the bungee in reserve.

 

[joezilla11]

I like how small the ascender is but it’s opposite of my haas so using it on my left leg it would flip around on my rope like it wanted to be on my right leg. I ended up securing 2 small tubes on the back and doubling the bungee just like the original saka. I only ran the tubes 3/4 of the way instead of the full length. Still folds up small and helped with it flipping around on my rope. I’m really liking this and wish I would’ve jumped on the saka 2 when it was available.

 

[John@TreeXP]

@FreeFallin the Key Bak does tend without problems. However I doubt that it would be suitable for a pro climber. For my part I do recreationnal climbing.

Anyway time will tell if it's built to last, still got the bungee in reserve.

The Key Bak (20oz) seems well suited to the task, but I guess they'll break fairly often, being made of cheap plastic, etc. Maybe one day Richard will design a modified Key Bak retractable throw line spindel/saka bungee mgr.