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The Bassett Metal Studios rack has a stainless steel frame and bars. The top hyperbar provides a convenient tie-off at the expense of making the rack unnecessarily bulky. Although I like hyperbars on smaller racks where I can use them to increase friction and compensate for having fewer bars, on larger ones I find them superfluous since I am not particularly interested in having another tie-off method.
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Version B is a shorter than Version A and only has four bars. Like Version A, the top one is a hyperbar. The third bar is an inverted copy of the top bar, neither is slotted like the second and fourth. For a standard-sized rack, hyperbars may be unnecessary but I'll allow for differences of opinion, but by the time one doubles the hyperbar and then adds a second, inverted hyperbar and doubles that, I think one is going a bit to far for normal use. The result is big, bulky, and has enough prongs to catch on just about anything.
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The BMS Mini has four hollow stainless steel brake bars. The top bar is a hyperbar, that allows looping the rope over the bar to increase friction.
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Bassett
Metal Studios Pico-RackThe Pico-Rack is a Personal Escape Device, and is tested to
NFPA requirements for such devices. This is the kind of device
that I carry when riding ski lifts, since being prepared effectively
prevents lift failure. The bars do not pivot, and the device must
be pre-rigged on the rope. It is designed for 8 mm. rope
- not standard caving or climbing ropes. Note the way the rope
runs: with only three bars, this is important. It also provides
an increase in friction for heavier people, since the rappeller's
weight forces the bars together.
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©2007, Gary D. Storrick