Beal Birdie

After many false annoucements, it's finally available. Just got a hold of one from Trekinn for $55 (though it looks like it just went up $5). Solid piece of gear. All metal - stainless and aluminum including handle. Quality construction; compact; feeds and lowers at least as good as the Grigri IMO and the handle is wide enough to be comfortable. Slightly heavier than the Grigri because of the all metal construction but who gives a shit if you're sport climbing or TRing. Works with a wide range of ropes (8.5 - 10.5) though I've only used on 9.4 - 9.9.

SICgrips wrote: After many false annoucements, it's finally available. Just got a hold of one from Trekinn for $55 (though it looks like it just went up $5). Solid piece of gear. All metal - stainless and aluminum including handle. Quality construction; compact; feeds and lowers at least as good as the Grigri IMO and the handle is wide enough to be comfortable. Slightly heavier than the Grigri because of the all metal construction but who gives a shit if you're sport climbing or TRing. Works with a wide range of ropes (8.5 - 10.5) though I've only used on 9.4 - 9.9.

It will have the same problem as the mad rock lifeguard I bet where the handle gets hella hot if you are rapping fixed lines or lowering a heavy load. Otherwise, stoked to grab one.

Is the Birdie all Steel or is the outer plate Aluminum like the madrocks?

How stiff is the cam spring, compared to a grigri / lifeguard?

Ben Ha wrote: Is the Birdie all Steel or is the outer plate Aluminum like the madrocks?

Outer plates and handle are the aluminum parts as far as I can tell. Cam, pinch plate and hardware are stainless.

Eric Roe wrote: How stiff is the cam spring, compared to a grigri / lifeguard?

I would say that it is equivilent to Grigri 2 spring and not quite as stiff as the MadRcok

SICgrips wrote:

I would say that it is equivilent to Grigri 2 spring and not quite as stiff as the MadRcok

How does it pay out fast for a high clip than? Anyway to over ride the cam without grasping the device, I don’t think they had a lip on the side of the body?

Nick Drake wrote:

How does it pay out fast for a high clip than? Anyway to over ride the cam without grasping the device, I don’t think they had a lip on the side of the body?

Probably rope dependent somewhat. I've only tried it with 9.4 BD and a 10 Sterling (?). for me it seems the more pliable the rope the better it feeds. It works fine using the two-handed tenchique that Beal shows on their info videos (push/pull).  It would be interesting to play around with it with a range of different ropes to see how tolerant it is to fast feeding. No, there is no lip on the device like the Grigri but the edge of the plate is rounded and can be fed similar to the Grigri but with my ropes I think it feed freer and faster using the two handed technique. It would probably wear quicker though because that part is aluminum.