Thursday 10 August 2017

Update: Recovery Kit

A few people have asked me about the recovery kit I carry.  It's been used several times so far: as a washing line, to drag my bike out of the sticky stuff, and to prop it up to change the front or back wheels.

It's pretty simple:
  • Two snap-gate carabiners, rated to 24Kn (Needle Sports)
  • Two climbing slings, 13mm - rated to 22Kn (Amazon)
  • Two pulleys, 22Kn (Amazon)
  • A length of dyneema cord - I got 10m of 3mm, which is rated to 950daN and therefore thicker than you need for strength alone.  But you also have to be able to grip the stuff, so you don't want cheese-wire even if it will hold the bike! (Amazon)
Carabiners, slings, pulleys and dyneema cord.  And a random bag I happened to have.
I had most of this stuff already, but you could an exact copy from the links.  That said, other people could no doubt suggest improvements and better choices.  I might have got my safety margins wrong too - but it hasn't snapped yet...

To use it, it depends on the application, but I find setting it up as a 2x system with a bowline knot fixed to one pulley, running that to the other pulley, then back and through the first pulley let's you effectively double your strength.

Pics of it in action!
I'm also impressed by that video of wrapping it around the wheel and dragging yourself out, but I haven't tried it myself yet!  Update: I now have.  It just cut clean through the dyneema...

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