Version A	Version B

Overview

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Version A
(#2581)

Front	Rear

Technical Details

I acquired this Giro from CanyonZone.com - Gertjan van Pelt in 2020.

Version A is milled from aluminum alloy plate. It is roughly circular with two 30 mm. ears, each 9 mm. wide and terminated by a 22 mm. disc. The ears are angled toward each other. There are two slots. The larger one is 57 mm. long, 33 mm. wide, and shaped like a distorted pear. The other is a 50 mm. long, 16.4 mm. wide curved arc. My Giro is 102 mm. tall, 97 mm. wide, 10 mm. thick, and weighs 109 g.

There are no marks on my Giro.

Comments

This Giro is an interesting plate descender designed for canyoneering. It can be rigged in the free-running mode shown in the first illustration, much like many other devices. The right-hand illustration shows an alternate rigging that allows for a quick lock-off by simply rotating the plate counter-clockwise, resulting in the lock shown in the central illustration. The plate is easily rotated back for descent. One trick is to place a small bight in the trailing rope around the horns to help the rotation.

The Giro seems to work best on flexible ropes. Stiff ropes may make the "bight for rotation" trick a bit harder to accomplish. Muddy ropes will cause excessive carabiner wear, and the sharp bends may be hard on stiffer ropes. I do not see the Giro moving from its intended canyoneering application into mainstream caving.

The machining on my Giro is somewhat rough, and there are a few areas that I would smooth with a file, although none of these present any real hazard to a rope.

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Version B
(#3198)

Front	Rear

Technical Details

I acquired my Giro from CanyonZone.com - Gertjan van Pelt in 2020.

The Giro is milled from aluminum alloy plate. It is roughly circular with two 30 mm. ears, each 10 mm. wide and terminated by a 22 mm. disc. The ears are angled toward each other. There are two slots. The larger one is 58 mm. long, 33 mm. wide and oval-shaped. The other is a 50 mm. long, 15.7 mm. wide curved arc. My Giro is 103 mm. tall, 98 mm. wide, 10 mm. thick, and weighs 91 g.

There are no marks on my Giro.

Comments

Version B changed the shape of the upper rope hole. I have not done the side-by-side tests needed to fully appreciate the difference this change makes.

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