4-bar Aluminum	4-bar Steel	5-bar Steel

Overview

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4-bar Aluminum
(#3109)

Front View	Rear View	Side View

Technical Details

I had Artyom Babin (Артём Бабин) order this rack from Orion-Alp (Орион-Альп) for me in 2021.

This Orion-Alp rack is 227 mm. tall, 68 mm. wide, 20 mm. thick, and weighs 351 g. The frame is made from 7.9 mm. steel bent into a U, with an internal width of 24 mm. There are three 52 mm.-long painted aluminum brake bars and a 68 mm. painted aluminum, inverted hyperbar in the bottom position. Allowing 35 mm. for the rope leaves 66 mm. for spreading the bars. 8.0 mm. The bars are held in place by two hex nuts on each side, secured by a red cement.

There are no markings on this rack.

Comments

Although well-made, there are several things that I do not like about this rack.

First, and most important, the rack frame extends 6 mm. above the hex nuts, exposing the threads to the rope. While a post is useful, the threads still have sharp edges. These should be filed smooth.

The brake bars are painted. Paint just wears off, leaving a mess on the rope. I would rather see stainless steel than painted steel bars.

The down-pointing hyperbar is useless except for tying off, and then it is unnecessary. I see no value to having a hyperbar here. A better choice would have been to provide a standard up-pointing hyperbar on a fixed top bar.

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4-bar Steel
(#2584)

Front View	Rear View	Side View

Front View: Open for Rigging	Rear View: Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I acquired this rack from Artyom Babin (Артём Бабин) in 2020.

This Orion-Alp rack is 226 mm. tall, 68 mm. wide, 24 mm. thick, and weighs 417 g. The frame is made from 8.0 mm. steel bent into a U, with an internal width of 24 mm. There are three 52 mm.-long stamped, brake bars and a 68 mm. stamped hyperbar in the bottom position. The bars have a 24 mm. diameter bearing surface. Allowing 35 mm. for the rope leaves 66 mm. for spreading the bars. 8.0 mm. The bars are held in place by two hex nuts on each side, secured by a blue cement.

There are no markings on this rack.

Comments

Although well-made, there are several things that I do not like about this rack.

First, and most important, the rack frame extends 7 mm. above the hex nuts, possibly exposing the threads to the rope. While a post is useful, the threads still have sharp edges. These should be filed smooth.

The brake bars are painted. Paint just wears off, leaving a mess on the rope. I would rather see stainless steel than painted steel bars.

I dislike C-shaped brake bars. I don't give much value to the so-called "safety" explanation that they let the user know when they are rigging the rack backward. A competent user knows from the way the bars swing, and should not rely on anything else. On a four-bar U-frame rack, the lowest bar should be round. C-bars are not shaped for running the rope around the bar and over the top of the rack. I would like to see round bars in all positions.

The down-pointing hyperbar is useless except for tying off, and then it is unnecessary. I see no value to having a hyperbar on a rack with stamped C-shaped brake bars.

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5-bar Steel
(#3110)

Front View	Rear View	Side View

Technical Details

I had Artyom Babin (Артём Бабин) order this rack from Orion-Alp (Орион-Альп) for me in 2021.

I acquired this rack from Artyom Babin (Артём Бабин) in 2021. My Orion-Alp 5-bar Steel (Орион-Альп Решетка 5 ролика Стальная) rack is 226 mm. tall, 84 mm. wide, 25 mm. thick, and weighs 492 g. The frame is made from 7.9 mm. steel bent into a U, with an internal width of 24 mm. There are 5 brake bars. The bars are 24 and 22 mm. in diameter and 52 and 84 mm. long. Allowing 35 mm. for the rope leaves 43 mm. for spreading the bars.

This Orion-Alp rack is 226 mm. tall, 84 mm. wide, 25 mm. thick, and weighs 492 g. The frame is made from 7.9 mm. steel bent into a U, with an internal width of 24 mm. There are four 52 mm.-long stamped steel brake bars and an inverted 84 mm. round steel double hyperbar in the bottom position. The stamped bars have a 24 mm. diameter bearing surface. Allowing 35 mm. for the rope leaves 66 mm. for spreading the bars. 8.0 mm. The bars are held in place by two hex nuts on each side, secured by a red cement.

There are no markings on this rack.

Comments

Although well-made, there are several things that I do not like about this rack.

First, and most important, the rack frame extends 6 mm. above the hex nuts, possibly exposing the threads to the rope. While a post is useful, the threads still have sharp edges. These should be filed smooth.

The brake bars are painted. Paint just wears off, leaving a mess on the rope. I would rather see stainless steel than painted steel bars.

I dislike C-shaped brake bars. I don't give much value to the so-called "safety" explanation that they let the user know when they are rigging the rack backward. A competent user knows from the way the bars swing, and should not rely on anything else. C-bars are not shaped for running the rope around the bar and over the top of the rack. I would like to see round bars in all positions.

The down-pointing hyperbar is useless except for tying off, and then it is unnecessary. I see no value to having a hyperbar on a rack with stamped C-shaped brake bars. If this rack had round bars, I would recommend moving the double hyperbar to the top, turning it upright in the process, but since this rack has C-bars, that would not work well for adding friction while descending.

Finally, a fifth bar on a closed-frame rack is not particularly useful, since there is no practical way to run the rope around the bar. It can be used to pinch the rope against the lower bar, but that is not necessary with normal braking technique.

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