Nobody ever out 'gear weenied' me back in the day, I coined the term 'Gear Weenie'... and I still have tons of gear for all sorts of climbing, paddling, skating, fishing, mountain biking, photographing, wind surfing, blablabla... gear is cool. I don't buy much anymore because I'm more in Brian's camp now, I've got what works for me and I pretty much stick with it since I'm old and set in my ways. When I see something new that's looks like it will change things dramatically and make climbing and cutting better, I'll watch a while and then give it a try. The only reason I jumped on that CMI dual was it was the perfect tool to replace my homemade rig... I'm not regretting that by the way, it's a great device if you footlock.
The rope wrench seems like an elegant idea to me and I like that it's made of wood... hickory is STRONG. I like that it's simple and essentially 'open source'. Like Kev said, it's a stick with a hole in it, anybody can make one. If you wanted me to make you one, I'd charge at least $50 too.
I'm gonna try it. I don't know if I'll buy one or make one... something tells me Kevin has worked on that curve the rope rides against. But still, I'm not sold on SRT with chest boxes and multiple ascenders and all that crap. I've always been interested in SRT climbing and did a lot of it on my own a couple of years ago because single line is familiar to my rock climbing hands. But so far, I've yet to see a demonstration of a solid, easy to use SRT adjuster, one that works as well as a VT on DdRT. If that happens soon though, I'll lay odds that Kevin Bingham has something to do with it.
I like the idea of tying off a running bow at the top of a takedown and working it that way but I usually work my way up and cut a hole for wood to go into, sometimes I'll do a third of the canopy before I ever get to my TIP. I suppose that could be adapted pretty easily. I still don't like trunk tie-ins when there's a ground crew and I don't like the increased TIP load. I did read the Aussie paper on minimizing those loads but you can't always do that.
The adjuster is the linchpin for me, it has to be small, light and work as well as a VT on DdRT... a Tenex VT preferably. When I find that, I'll be doing a lot more SRT.
Ya'll lay off Cary and Adrian for their gear OCD, giving them grief is my job and I hate to share. At least they're still non-motorized at this point, just wait till they start buying trucks and shit.
