The Akimbo 2

So as a followup to above I too have been playing on Sterling Scion with the AK2 set to F6 for me (~ 185 lbs with gear) in SRT and have hit some sort of sweet spot - the catch is instant, starting the down has the buttery smooth feel of the ZZ without hammering your hand and control is down to inches if you want. Works on Tachyon fine and others but on Scion, Wow. Wesspur's Dave, DSMc above are right - RE and Jamie hit it outta the park with this. Thanks to Buzz for all the real world info born outta years of experience. Awesome. Cheers

Addenda: We were away in France for three and a half weeks and just back - I should maybe mention that an equipment mfgr may also be looking at new hardware/ config aids for the AK2 - who knows what they might come up with down the road! Amazing times.
 
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Had the AK2 on Squir and it worked well too (different settings than Scion of 'course) if that's any help. I think from my messin' around it will probably work with any more modern rope that keeps it's "round" relatively. Next few weeks should be more telling 'cuz I have jobs that I will have to sacrifice my ropes and shiny new toys (and body) to sap of all kinds (the Visitation of the Dark One upon the Earth). Sigh. :-)

Addenda (Oct 26th) after more usage: AK2 works well on Drayer StatX for me too - really nicely. So add that to "works on Tachyon" and I guess "I've found my thrill" as the song goes . . Did hit one sap slick this week and it seemed to have made it past OK but I was lanyard'd in too so could take the pressure off the AK2 for a moment. Didn't seem to affect it much after that on the way down. All told better than a hitch on sap so far. Still my most favourite-ist tho, so far, is Scion 11.5. Lovely rope. And with spliced eye it's peachy just to switch over from SRT to MRS with the cobbled biner setup I've show elsewhere. I am impressed. And add a Crik into the mix and Wow. Cheers all.
 
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Maplegeddon213 said:
Has anyone used it with the Courant Kalimba 11.9 mm rope? I have been going crazy buying gear lately so I shouldn't buy the AK2 but as soon as my gear allowance from the company I work for restarts next year...
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I haven’t found any mechanical that doesn’t run well with kalimba. Akimbo 1, rope runner pro and vertex, cbdb, zig zag. It’s a beautiful rope, I don’t even use it for production work.
 
I popped it on Scandere today and amazingly worked without any adjustment. It's on whatever I had the old one on. I only went a few feet. I threw akimbo 1 on it and it slipped. DO you guys find it requires less fine tuning to different ropes. I wonder if it works on scanners if it'll work on my other 11-ish lines without me having to adjust it.
 
I find it to be less finicky overall, I have a couple ropes that I can run SRS and MRS without adjustment and most of the ropes I’ve tried with only a couple of exceptions are within one adjustment of where I usually keep it for my main work lines. My black widow has some glazing and that’s the only line I cannot get it dialed in, and I fully believe it’s the glazing.
 
my thoughts are to use it for ascent on scandere then as a second system on my tail or for the other end of my lanyard if I need to use it. The interesting thing is those are 3 difference ropes so finding that sweet spot will hopefully be not too bad. Couldn't do it with Akimbo 1. Cant find the adjustment for scandere. It worked for me on StaticX and any Courant. Working line could be Focus or Kalimba, Lanyard could be Blaze or KMIII. Just depends on the job. Focus is the 200' line and Kalimba is my 150'. I've been playing around with a bunch of combinations.
 
Steve Connally said:
my thoughts are to use it for ascent on scandere then as a second system on my tail or for the other end of my lanyard if I need to use it. The interesting thing is those are 3 difference ropes so finding that sweet spot will hopefully be not too bad. Couldn't do it with Akimbo 1. Cant find the adjustment for scandere. It worked for me on StaticX and any Courant. Working line could be Focus or Kalimba, Lanyard could be Blaze or KMIII. Just depends on the job. Focus is the 200' line and Kalimba is my 150'. I've been playing around with a bunch of combinations.
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that’s my plan for it as well, ascent/dragging tail/secondary system/ device to stay on rope and keep line under tension for redirects.
 
I bought one of those!! I think it’s so funny how exactly they copied some parts but completely ignored others.

It has a solid one piece spine so it doesn’t open, but it still has the notches on the joints for stopping the travel in the correct position for opening it up.

I threw it on some ropes and… it’s not as bad as it could have been? It’s definitely not useable as a primary device, I could only get one of my ropes even into it, but I could see making a lanyard adjuster out of it.
 
Akimbo2 has been working well at bypassing pitch spots on my rope. That's so refreshing since Akimbo1 was pretty much full stop.

My adjustment latch wings are a little loose and can be found out of lock up position if I don't check them frequently. Any tips on tightening them up a little and correct bit to adjust bolt tension?
 
Merle Nelson said:
Akimbo2 has been working well at bypassing pitch spots on my rope. That's so refreshing since Akimbo1 was pretty much full stop.

My adjustment latch wings are a little loose and can be found out of lock up position if I don't check them frequently. Any tips on tightening them up a little and correct bit to adjust bolt tension?
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I found the same thing with the "latch wings" on my AK2 - I ended up putting a bit of removable thread locker just under the wing by the screw/ bolt and it's stiffened/ goo'd up the opening enough so they don't float outta position so much. I wonder why this wasn't designed to hinge the other way (that being up) knowing that gravity works the other way (that being down). But whatever. AK2 is now my GoTo mechanical - it's been really pleasant to use. I have some more Scion (I think it's the "old" Scion??) on order from MapleLeaf Ropes Black Friday - I really find it works nifty for me (both the rope and the store).

Addenda: These old eyes had a hard time sometimes seeing the location of the little knobby positioner thingys when adjusting my AK2 on the fly, amongst all the grey. So to make things a little easier to see, I put some touches of yellow engine enamel on the tops of the positioner knobbies using a business car thick pice of shaved popslcle stick dipped in paint. Easy does it. The yellow "tops" make it way easier to see the location of the two pins when you're changing AK2 friction settings. Wonder why they don't do this at the factory? Fluorescent hot pink? Cheers
 
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SS won't wear so fast I suppose but I really do think wear on any mechanical can also depend on how clean one keeps their ropes, aside from just sap and pitch "slicks". We had a really, really dry summer here and I'm just cleaning/ washing before putting gear away for winter (ski season for me). I am gobsmacked at how much, I'd describe it as grit but sometimes almost like sand, there is in everything, even ropes which haven't touched the ground. And the rigging ropes, well, Oh My Heavens. The trees must have been covered in dust/ grit cuz it's even in the saws and harnesses (and I suppose clothes but these go in the washing machine). So far am thru a whole bottle of Scrubba and the first couple of wash water/ rinses were just black - abnormally so - I can't imagine this doesn't have an effect on a mechanical's wear and on rope wear. I know glacier grit/ till chews alpine ropes up pretty well. Cheers
 
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