i havent lead belay on it, and im not sure you even could, it locks off way easier than a grigri, but its next to impossible to feed rope through, top roping using this is great for smaller people but when i belayed one of my bigger friends about a 200 pounder i found it really hard to pull the handle back and lower them easy, also the handle really hurt my hand when you did pull it back, i will sacrafice the weight difference b/t the grigri and the cinch and choose the grigri, functionability of grigri i preffered way more than the cinch, i really did not like the cinch, and wont purchase one