Raven
Branched out member
- Location
- Northwoods
This IS the Akimbo:
This is the Akimbo
- Thread starter JMerritt
- Start date
RyTheTreeGuy
Branched out member
- Location
- Canada
TimBr
Official Well Known Greeter
- Location
- Northern Virginia
Hey, Raven, that is a truly great photograph! I'm assuming that that is you. If so, sir, you are a beast! I think that this photo should become your avatar pic. Thanks for posting it!
Tim
evo
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- My Island, WA
Jazz hands
Raven
Branched out member
- Location
- Northwoods
Ha thanks Tim but I could never get rid of Arcimboldo's "Winter"
@RyTheTreeGuy that first pic is sweet looking straight up the rope like that, magazine cover worthy.
I guess I had withdrawals from this thread, just couldn't let it lay dormant. FWIW the Akimbo is my go to device on Every. Single. Climb. It is truly an amazing device and for those who don't like it - I think they just haven't given it a chance but hey at least there's more on the market for the rest of us.
Let's see more Akimbo action pics!
Phoenix
New member
RyanCafferky
Been here a while
- Location
- Hood River, Oregon
So far my only complaint is that the little wire gate thing pops off all the time while I am ascending. Annoying but it is still my favorite SRT system. I climb on a Lockjack 90% of the time but when I need a second tie in or I want to climb SRT the Akimbo comes out to play.
Anybody have tricks for keeping it from popping off while using that tending point?
Anybody have tricks for keeping it from popping off while using that tending point?
Don't stop climbing, lol. My tether is a good length - barely pops out if I rest, and is easy to put back on when I resume. If I focus, I can keep it attached while I rest. It's just a small caribiner on my 4srt chest harness and a thin quickdraw webbing that I stick directly in the tending gate..
RyTheTreeGuy
Branched out member
- Location
- Canada
Accessory biner that just barely fits...to large to pop off and great for ascending...although I believe it is a safety measure so a change in technique works also. I find if I rest in an upright position it will stay attatched. If I sit back...pop, off it comes
My akimbo slacks when I unweighted it. Do I need to adjust my climbing style, wait for it to break, or what? It's my 3rd or 4th work climb with it today and it has seen about 5 sessions of rec climbing as well. I'm running it on old and new cougar blue, and xstatic has been in the mix once or twice. It's just weird when it slacks because it's so compact. There's something different aside from the mere collapsing that seems to exaggerate the collapsing. I'm one setting away from wide open.
RyTheTreeGuy
Branched out member
- Location
- Canada
That has happened to me once on a climb...I adjusted the friction settings...pretty sure I closed it up 1 notch on each bollard and hasnt happened since. Just spitbballing but I think it happens if there is little to no friction to keep it open. On another note, make sure to spike your line when passing the rope and device through a re-direct. Almost lost it the other day sue to my laziness
It does seem like it could cruise off real quick, lol. It's had me nervous on a couple redirects. I might start using the midline attachable feature. It's funny that everyonecraves about it being midline attacheable, but when we get them we just take them off and pass them around the branch, lol...
evo
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- My Island, WA
Could be the spring in the upper cam sticking. Try a drop of oil to see if it improves
I have a retrieval ball girthed onto my Swing Chestie (used to be a mini carabiner). The retrieval ball cordage snaps into the Akimbo hook and the ball hits like a stopper. One nice thing is I can snap it in left or right depending on my position, whereas the mini biner was always more one motion that worked.
The length of everything is longer than any other device I’ve tended, which I’ve found is the key. The Akimbo spring gate is light enough to pop out in prevention of injury, but too light to allow close tending. The longer you can set your tending point (within a safe margin of slack for your comfort/body dimensions), the more you’ll focus tending into the hook of the Akimbo, rather than relying on the spring gate.
Long story short, set to tend more vertical than off axis. As I ascend, the Akimbo sits lower and closer to my belly than any other device, but I’m still within a comfortable margin of safety.
Hope that makes sense and helps a bit.
TimBr
Official Well Known Greeter
- Location
- Northern Virginia
Yeah, I was wondering about this. I thought the big selling point of the Compact Adjustable Bulldog Bone and the Akimbo was that they were both quick and easy to get on and off of a rope, with no need to risk dropping them. Is getting the Akimbo onto or off of a rope a mildly tough thing to do sometimes, maybe because of the size of the rope, or something? I thought the whole thing was supposed to pop open easily, once you took your weight off of the rope. I'd love to have you comment on the ease of this operation, or the lack thereof. Thanks in advance.
Tim
It's not hard, but I've done it few enough times that I'm still trying to figure out which way is up. There's even that sign that says "anchor ->", so I really have no excuse. But, regardless, it is always going to be easier to unclip a single caribiner than it is to straighten the akimbo, splay it out, take the rope out, pass it around whatever, put it back in, and fold it back into form.
You can also unclip, put the akimbo on a bight, and use the weight to swing it around something. This is just for big branches and short distances though, since I don't want to get it stuck out there and have to go retrieve it...
I used the Akimbo mrt for my first time last night. I was at a rec climbing birthday party and someone had already set up a hank of tachyon running through a leather cambium saver. I hopped on. It was miserably slow, like a treadmill, but I noticed that the akimbo performed really well on the tachyon. For those who don't know, I don't like tachyon. I didn't adjust the akimbo prior, so there was a little too much friction, but not bad. Unlike my oldest hank of cougar blue, which the akimbo sometimes needs to be set on, the tachyon initiated that initial friction when I weighted it. I had a hard time figuring out how to orient the mrt setup (because I don't climb mrt hardly at all and the spliced eye runs along the side of the akimbo plates), but think I figured it out...
ARLO
Branched out member
I like the Akimbo on Tachyon. But it does not work on ropes less than about 11 mm. For example it will not hold on 10 mm HTP, no matter how hard you set the friction. This is not a knock on the Akimbo, since it was not designed for use on ropes less than 11.5 mm. If you regularly climb on 10 mm HTP the TAZ is a more appropriate choice as it was designed to handle 10 mm rope.
TimBr
Official Well Known Greeter
- Location
- Northern Virginia
@colb; Thanks for this answer, much appreciated.
Greg_L
Participating member
- Location
- Bloomington, IN
If you're secured so you can disconnect, you're secure enough to take the rope out of the device! Save the Akimbo, throw the rope through naked!
EDIT: A few have brought this up already! To answer, no I don't consider it difficult at all to take off the rope, but it does become more challenging with chunkier ropes. That being said, I've found the device as a whole to more favorably run on narrower ropes anyway.
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