UKC

Been looking at assisted braking belays for a while and not sure to go with a click up or gri gri..and body had good/bad experiences with them?

In reply to littlejon86:

Been using a click up for some time...indoors & out, really like it. Feels like a standard tube device to use and pays out rope smoothly. Only draw back that I can find is that it's not great with 10mm + furry ropes

In reply to Murd:

I'd second that. The Click Up is a brilliant bit of kit, very simple and, as I said on another thread yesterday, easy to use and hard to misuse. Mrs C, who is considerably lighter than me has no trouble catching me with it. It's also pretty foolproof. My big fear with the Gri-Gri is that a panicking belayer, realising I'm coming down too fast pulls back on the lever, thinking they are increasing the braking. That cannot happen with a Click Up. Even if it is put on upside down it still works like a normal ATC style device.

As Murd says, the only hiccup we have had is with thick ropes at the wall. Ours is also for single ropes only. I think there is a double rope version but I've never used or even seen one. But for single rope sport climbing I think it's brilliant.

In reply to littlejon86:

I´ve got near enough all the current crop of belay devices (it´s part of my work to test them) and the Click Up and Alpine Up are the best of their type but I´d never use them personally, Grigri all the way for me for single ropes. The Click Up eats karabiners, is problematic sometimes lowering, has awful feed with thick ropes, abseiling is challenging and it doesn´t work in guide mode either.

In reply to jimtitt:

sorry to Hi jack the thread...have you tried the CT Be Up yet Jim?

In reply to Murd:

No though I´ve looked at one and it should work pretty well since it is quite deep. The lower rope diameter of 7.3mm is possibly exceedingly optimistic!

In reply to Wiley Coyote:

Hello. What are they like for lead climbing? I'd like my partner to use the gri gri she has for lead belaying, but she simply can't get the hang of it - too difficult to pay out slack smoothly (an issue some seem to have with them, though I seem to manage OK).

In reply to littlejon86:

I use the click up and it is very good. When we first used the click on sport climbs we were using a normal screwgate without the internal gate and on long sport routes at Kalymnos we got cross loading which caused problems on descending the route. This is the type of screwgate we now use. http://www.bananafingers.co.uk/climbing-technology-axis-hms-sgl-p-3698.html

In reply to littlejon86:
The Click Up is brilliant.
I use 9.3-9.5mm diameter ropes with it.

Hey,

I got an used click-up for sale if anyone would be interested. Stopped using it after getting GriGri2 for my birthday.

Thanks!

In reply to jimtitt:


I'd disagree with most of these points except the abseiling one - it shouldn't be used for abseiling - and all assisted braking devices have awful feed with thick ropes.
My review of the Click-up is here - http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=4710

Rob has just done a review of the CAMP Matic here, which is more Gri-gri in style - http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=7565

There is also the Salewa Ergo, which is similar to the Click-up, which we saw at ISPO this year - http://www.ukclimbing.com/videos/play.php?i=2455

We did an overview of the available devices back in 2011 - http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=3498
A bit out of date now but those are all still available.

Alan

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:


Hmm. I´ve an original CT karabiner where the hard anodising is worn through to the point it started destroying the rope after one years average use. Feed with a well used 10mm rope is like pulling through mud. We experienced difficulties lowering if there was considerable friction in the system or the climber was light. It doesn´t work in guide mode and you can´t abseil.
My Grigri is better

In reply to jimtitt:

Again, I would say most of those things are only the same as for other devices. All belay krabs wear.

All of these devices become pretty unusable with furry 10mm ropes, the Grigri 2 in particular (although it was designed specifically for small ropes so this isn't a surprise, it does say on it that it works with 10mm+ ropes though and it doesn't really).

Never had any difficulties lowering anyone including my very light children (they lower me as well which is a good feature of the Click-up where there is a mis-match in weight).

I have no problem using it in guide mode, although I think the Alpine Up was designed with this in mind.

But I agree, don't ever try and abseil on it - it gets extremely hot!

Alan

In reply to littlejon86:

I like my Mammut Smart but if I climbed with people who are into redpointing and falling off more often I would probably go for the GriGri 2. I'm sure Jim had some issues with the Smart in a previous post but it works fine for me and I do not have any issues with lowering. I use a Pivot for trad and half ropes, I find all the other devices too bulky although the Edelrid Megajule does seem like the nearest thing to a device for all disciplines and is not bulky.

Al