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adilet
Jul 11, 2004, 3:02 AM
Post #26 of 33
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Registered: Jul 11, 2004
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I just wanted to share the knowledge with aspiring aid climbers: This guy ships knee-hooks without etriers from russia: http://stores.ebay.com/URALSPORT he doesn't always list them , so write and ask. There is also a plenty of high level titanium gear. It the same company which makes the gear sold in US under "Ushba" brand.I've already got mine and they look really nice, with adjustable length and a hook made of titanium. You can see them on this website: http://www.alvoti.sitext.ru/katalog/ito_big_wall/ it is in russian, just scroll down and look for item number 67.00 Hope this helps.
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kungfuclimber
Jul 11, 2004, 4:02 AM
Post #27 of 33
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Wow. So much good stuff going on in this thread. I'm glad people are getting some use out of, and especially are improving the design of, the kungfu aiders article. What a proud day :oops:
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moof
Sep 24, 2004, 10:57 PM
Post #28 of 33
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Registered: Oct 17, 2003
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Just got back from leaning tower. I lead 9 out of the 10 pitches, all using my kung-fu inspired aiders. 1. I used 5.5 mm spectra to connect the foot stirrups to the cuffs. It turns out that for testing, leg hauling and jugging you can just clip a biner in to the loop of spectra and your don't need the spiffy webbing loop, or anything else. I ended up just leaving a biner clipped into each and it never got in the way. 2. In 99.9% of the moves having two single trees of home depot rings was plenty. In those last couple awkward spots (would have been awkward no matter your system) I was still able to get by. 3. 2" webbing for the stirrups was very nice. My feet still got sore, but using 1" would have been brutal. 4. Top ringing one even pretty overhanging stuff was very strenuous, but very secure. I can't even imagine making a lot of these moves in stadard aiders. By the upper pitches I was top ringing it about 2/3 of the time. 5. My rings were too small in diameter for my hooks. I had to hand assist most of the time, a little work with a file, or larger dimater rings would have made things faster and cleaner, but it was not a big deal. Still 10x easier than getting your feet into normal aiders. 6. Overall the system rocks, even with my home made crud. The cluster factor was quite low. A couple time I got things twisted up and I could just drop the offending daisy/tree and pull it though without undue frigging.
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moof
Oct 25, 2004, 3:14 AM
Post #29 of 33
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Registered: Oct 17, 2003
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I finally got a pic of my cuffs. http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=42389 The stirrups are made from: 1 12" piece of 2" tubular webbing 1 7.5" piece of 42oz VCN (haulbag material, or use another piece of 2" webbing) 1 9" piece mil spec 1" tubular webbing (NOT the thick climb spec) 1 4" piece tubular webbing (type not important) 1 12" piece thin flat 1" webbing 1 4" piece thin flat 1" webbing 1 ladder lock buckle for 1" webbing The top of the stirrups use the 9" webbing with the center 3" folded into the center and zig-zag stitched. Climb spec is too thick to do this easily without a beefy machine. The short piece of tubular is slipped over this as a wear guard. You can hand sew the ends in place if you want, but not necessary. There are other options for bar tacking it into the 2" webbing, a back and forth pattern along the length is plenty strong (arguably stronger). By putting the 1" inside the 2" tubular you really get extra strength from the stitching, seam grip the outside if you want. I suggest you make a sample up with about 1/4 the stitches you plan to use and bounce test it, it is rips, redo it with more stictches till it doesn't, then at least quadruple this for your real ones (on of my cheesy bar tacks survives, and I use 6). For bar tacks on wimpy machines start with a narrow zig zag (1/16", or 1.5 mm for you metric wankers) and about a 3/64" stich spacing (it will look sparse). Go across the webbing, stopping on the upstroke of the needle (but with the needle still through the webbing). Turn the webbing 180 degrees. Change the stitch to straight. Wrestle the webbing to put the need to the center and make 1 stitch. Change to the next size up zig zag (about 3/32" or 2mm) and rewrestle the webbing to where it wants to be (experience will guide you). The extra 1 stitch will make sure that your next zig zag will be over the last run, not beside it. Go back across and repeat for a third pass with the final width (about 1/8" or 2.5mm). You get a lot of stitches without cramming them together which allows a wimpy machine to make a strong tack. And for gods sake use #69 or larger nylon or polyester thread. The cuffs are made from: 1 13" piece 2" seatbelt webbing 1 25" piece 1" thin flat webbing 1 aluminum cinch buckle (try http://www.onrope1.com/...tem&itemnumber=dj101) 1 piece 13.5"x2.25"x1/4" closed cell foam (notcritical, use what you can scrounge) 1 4" piece 1" wide hook side velcro 1 3" piece 1" wide loop side velcro 1 scrap piece of slick fabric to cover foam, I used 70d ripstop I had lying around, use whatever. There is also about a 14" piece of 3mm cord, a home depot hook, and a ~4' piece of spectra tied in a dogvine. I can post directions for assembling everything if you don't want to figure it out on your own. Be warned mine were customized for my legs and a direct copy probably won't work well for your legs. Another spoiler is to make sure you fully round off and smooth out the edges on the hook you get, any but will eat your spectra really fast. My design was driven by only being able to sew 2 layers of thick webbing, if you have a heavy duty machine there are many things that could have been done easier or better.
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jaybird2
Nov 18, 2004, 7:08 PM
Post #30 of 33
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Registered: Jul 9, 2004
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I have a question about the width of the stirrups. The Ural ones that you can buy look only to be 1" webbing (is it tubular?), but I have read comments about that being way too thin (1", not Ural's in particular). Does anyone think that 1" tubular would be sufficient, or do you need to use 2"? Is it advantageous to slide any sort of stay/reinforcement in the tubular webbing under the foot for comfort? Also, do the stirrups need to be adjustable in length? Or are they fine fixed when you find the comfortable length?
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moof
Nov 18, 2004, 8:33 PM
Post #31 of 33
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Registered: Oct 17, 2003
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In reply to: I have a question about the width of the stirrups. The Ural ones that you can buy look only to be 1" webbing (is it tubular?), but I have read comments about that being way too thin (1", not Ural's in particular). Does anyone think that 1" tubular would be sufficient, or do you need to use 2"? Is it advantageous to slide any sort of stay/reinforcement in the tubular webbing under the foot for comfort? Also, do the stirrups need to be adjustable in length? Or are they fine fixed when you find the comfortable length? I think it depends a lot on what footwear you're plannning on wearing. Sturdy wall boots would handle the 1" just fine, climbing shoes would be torture. I would equate it to the difference between the Yates aiders and anyone elses 1" aiders, only you'll be unable to shift you foot position in the ruskies. As for length, I don't think you'll need to adjust over the course of a pitch, and probably not over the course of a day. But if you are swapping between climbing shoes and wall boots you'll need to do a little tweaking. I got by without adjustment going between approach shoes and climbing shoes, but I adjusted things so both were obnoxious. With climbing shoes the cuffs rode up on the knee in annoying ways. With the approach shoes the cuffs were pulled too tight on the top of the calfs. If you have mongo wall boots you might be able to get away with setting them up long for those, then use an overhand knot to shorten them up for free days (highly dependant on how you build them of course).
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samovar
Nov 22, 2004, 6:58 AM
Post #32 of 33
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Registered: Jul 12, 2004
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In reply to: The Ural ones that you can buy look only to be 1" webbing (is it tubular?), but I have read comments about that being way too thin (1", not Ural's in particular). Does anyone think that 1" tubular would be sufficient, or do you need to use 2"? Is it advantageous to slide any sort of stay/reinforcement in the tubular webbing under the foot for comfort? The Ural-Alp’s Russian Aiders have 2” webbing under the foot. May post a picture if needed.
In reply to: Also, do the stirrups need to be adjustable in length? Or are they fine fixed when you find the comfortable length? First, I think it is impossible to make cuffs witch feet for any person. So, adjustable variant is only way to make Russian Aiders by the manufacture. If you don’t need adjustable variant you may just fix the light and the width of feet by a thread and a sewing needle.
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moof
Sep 1, 2006, 11:55 PM
Post #33 of 33
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Registered: Oct 17, 2003
Posts: 400
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El Bumpo! Bumped due to recent thread asking similar questions...
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