Spurs

So I had some more time on the kiwis. I have yet to ascend on spikes away from the trunk. I'm setting a canopy anchor and tending my slack with the spikecender. Awesome in this application. I haven't had any issues with kick out. I can put the line in the ascender with leg movement and detach it as well. All hands free. Great stuff. I'll keep you up to date on the kick outs.
 
I got myself some comfy yet tought Velcro upper pads for the caddy pads as well. With a little help from yoyoman ;) I felt like I always needed the hole in between the two holes on those straps (upper and lower).

Yet, when I was little, I always needed my gloves to be perfectly tucked inside my jacket and tightly strapped down before I was ready to play hard in the snow.

Creature of comfort I guess.
 
John_KAYS said:
I know this is a common question and all but I want to know what people are using.

I'll break it out into a few categories:

Spur Brand:
Spur Material:
Spur Pad:
Gaff style and length:
Anything else:

And WHY!
Click to expand...

Axess Aluminum Climbers
Aluminum
Symmetrical molded plastic
Pole style, roughly 2.5"
Velcro leg strap
(No Powers unit...yet! ;))

I had steel Bucks for a while, with simple leather upper pads, which kept shifting on me and causing pain in my shins. I can't say the weight ever really bothered me, but I just knew there had to be something more comfortable out there. When the Axess units became available to me, I hesitated for a bit to pull the trigger on them. The units didn't adjust to the height that my original Bucks did, and I felt that it was important to stick to the rule of thumb about the top of the pads being two finger widths from your knee bone.

Well, long story short, I was super glad when I did make the purchase. Despite the shorter height, they stayed perfectly in place and had plenty of padding inside to provide ample comfort. I also found that the tighter profile shape of the section wrapping under the boot actually worked to hold my foot in perfect position, front to back and side to side. This is nice since I like to wear my Clip'N Steps for prunes and removals. The velcro holds in place without fail, and the light weight is a nice benefit. I do not often spend significant amounts of time on large diameter spars...or at least spars large enough in diameter that I may want longer gaffs to improve the angle of my foot. Rock solid construction, and easy to adjust.

I'd FAR rather prune, but when I spike, these are the ticket for me.

Axess Aluminum Climbers.webp
 
I was wondering about the Buckalloys as well. They have a straight shank as opposed to a contoured one. Isn't this design better suited to pole climbing?
 
I tried a buddies Bashlin pole gaffs a few times and they seemed great. For some reason I was set on Gecko carbons :envidioso. Granted I've climbed a lot more on Geckos I have a couple quirks to work out. No matter how I snug them up they tend to roll or turn outwards so they're not in line with inside of calf which puts more pressure on front of shin. 2nd, the top of gaffs where it's bolted into seems bulky and causes me to kick out sometimes. I ordered tree gaffs (although used to pole) to see if it'll help. That little voice keeps saying... you should of bought the Bashlins. Sorry for the :sleep: post. I wish I could test drive them all! KK, Axess, buckalloy, etc.
 
MikePowers321 said:
I got myself some comfy yet tought Velcro upper pads for the caddy pads as well. With a little help from yoyoman ;) I felt like I always needed the hole in between the two holes on those straps (upper and lower).
Click to expand...

I just got my opsals in (thanks, boomslang, they're great!) and have been wondering how to do that. Any help would be appreciated. (And a yoyoman tutorial would rock!)
 
I got some 2" Velcro straps from home depot. They were a bit thin, so I had yoyoman stitch on some heavy material while he was making me my Saka. It is a tight squeeze which I like, because nothing can move.
 
Okay cool. I was envisioning straps like the climb rights and couldn't figure out how you did it. This makes sense to me.
 
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