Front View | Rear View | Left Side View | Right Side View |
Front View: Open for Rigging | Rear View: Open for Rigging |
I acquired my Climbing Technology Acles DX from Amazon.com in 2020.
My Climbing Technology Acles DX is 197 mm. tall, 56 mm. wide, 29 mm. thick, and weighs 244 g.
The two side plates are made of 2.90 mm. aluminum. The lower ends of the side plates are bent to converge at the attachment point. The attachment point on the fixed side plate is enlarged to a 23 mm. high by 13 mm. wide hole located 3 mm. off center. A similar hole on the pivoting side plate has been cut open on the narrow side, so the side plate resembles a hook. The opening of the hook is covered by a spring loaded, plastic guard which is attached to the side plate with a semi-tubular rivet. A second hole (14.3 mm.) in the fixed side plate allows attaching a second carabiner for creating extra friction.
The bollards are turned aluminum with four rectangular projections that engage square holes in the fixed side plate to keep them from rotating. The bollards are drilled and tapped then bolted to the fixed side plate with 7 mm. bolts. Shoulder nuts lock the bollards in place and also retain the pivoting side plate. The pivoting side plate pivots on the lower shoulder nut and has a slot to allow clearing the upper nut. Unlike the Petzl Bobbins, both bollards are identical with U-grooves.
The pivoting side plate is printed with an illustration of how the descender is threaded, "0004335, a book-with-an-"i" icon, a factory icon, "11-2020," a spider icon, an illustration of the descender in use, "Acles" inside an ellipse, "ROPE Ø 9 ÷ 12 mm," "EN 15151-2 type 1," the Climbing technology CT logo, and "Made in Italy."
The Acles is fairly well made. The projections on the bollards provide a much stronger mounting than if the bollards had been just bolted on through a cylindrical hole with bolt and nut. Since only about one half of each bollard is exposed to the rope, the bollards wear unevenly. Most bobbins are designed to allow reversing the bollards, effectively doubling the life of the descender. The Acles allows turning the bollards 90°. It also allows interchanging the two bollards, a nice feature since the lower bollard will wear faster.
The second bottom hole is not strictly necessary (since one can connect the braking carabiner to one’s harness maillon); however, I like the convenience of being able to keep it with the bobbin.
The Climbing Technology Acles DX is similar to the right-handed Repetto Spider. This is not surprising, since Climbing Technology made the Spider for Repetto Sport. It also explains the spider icon on the Acles. The main difference is that the later Acles has a plastic gate where the earlier Repetto Spider had a stamped stainless steel gate. I prefer the plastic gate.
The Acles was made in a left-handed ("SX") version, but I do not have that one in my collection. It was similar to the left-handed Repetto Spider, but with a plastic gate.
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