Racer Elite free bags

[rigger_john 0]

I'm interested in hearing the opinion of other riggers on the design of the Racer Elite Free Bag, I recently saw one with the rubber band stows and no pouch for the lines. This particular free bag had the edges of the mouth cut very high so that only a small amount of the reserve was covered by the bag. The mouth lock flap did not extend all the way across the bottom of the packed reserve.

When the bridle was given a sharp tug the reserve fell out of the free bag sideways leaving the locking stows and the lines in place.

The reserve was the correct size for the bag and packed according to the manual.

Anybody else had any experience? Good? Bad?

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Nullius in Verba

[ZigZagMarquis 9]

I learned a long time ago not to get into arguements with hardcore Racer supporters...

Anyway, Racers work, so do other rigs... that's pretty much it isn't it?

As for, "When the bridle was given a sharp tug the reserve fell out of the free bag sideways leaving the locking stows and the lines in place."... That I've never seen, but I can't say as I've ever gone looking for it either.

[teason 0]

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The mouth lock flap did not extend all the way across the bottom of the packed reserve.

If it is the right sized freebag, then I would find the packing suspect at this point. Obviously it is not designed to be so. Either that or the bag is way to small and previous riggers have just sluffed it off.
The bag you are describing seems to be a modified bag (origionally using Safety stoes). Certainly a safety stoe would not have made any difference.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

[RMURRAY 1]

This from Nancy at JumpShack...

I don't think that would be possible with a correctly packed and sized speedbag.
Especially with the current production, two-flap speed bag.
I'm a little suspect of the packing. A certain amount of common sense must be used
as far as how much canopy can stick out of the bag, and how much needs to be in
the bag. Some canopy sticking out is very acceptable in some cases.

I don't know if you can post pictures on dz.com, but the attachment shows how the
reserve deployment bag should look from a couple of different angles.

Thanks for letting me know. Feel free to post my reply.

Nancy

[sundevil777 102]

If 2 locking stows are good, then twenty must be better!

The look of all those long stows so close together is not comforting to me. I'm no rigger, and I know it has been proven to work, but no way would I want my reserve like that. This is just my opinion on the speedbag, not on the racer, fortunately it is still available with a more traditional freebag.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[MikeForsythe 0]

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The look of all those long stows so close together is not comforting to me.

It is called a balanced stow and keeps the bag from oscillating in addition to preventing line dump and bag strip. If you see one of the videos it is pretty impressive. I have about a hundred jumps on one as a main bag and always had good openings. But it is a pain to close as a main bag though.

Time and pressure will always show you who a person really is!

[Miami 0]

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The look of all those long stows so close together is not comforting to me.

Have you had a chance to see how your reserve lines are stowed on your infinty?

Miami

[sundevil777 102]

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The look of all those long stows so close together is not comforting to me.

Have you had a chance to see how your reserve lines are stowed on your infinty?

Yes, not at all similar. Only two locking stows, the rest put in the pouch, std setup for a freebag. The length of the stows seems excessive in the picture, and they are pushed together, this combination seems like a bad idea in principle.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[riggerrob 643]

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I'm interested in hearing the opinion of other riggers on the design of the Racer Elite Free Bag, I recently saw one with the rubber band stows and no pouch for the lines. This particular free bag had the edges of the mouth cut very high so that only a small amount of the reserve was covered by the bag.

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Sounds like we have two separate debates on this thread: size and stows.

Sounds like your freebag was badly over-stuffed.
I heard similar complaints about the ugliness of Flexon freebags - with lots of canopy hanging out the bottom corners - but never heard of a Flexon freebag dumping its canopy.

As for the line stows ... i Have seen three different types on Racers: rubbers, safety stow and speed bag.
The first few Racers had four rubber bands and grommets for locking stows, with the rest of the lines held by rubber bands along the bottom edges of the freebag, similar to most main d-bags.
For a while, Racers had safety stows and line stow pockets, like 90% of freebags. Safety stows are optimized for the low speed edge of the envelope.
In this century, Racer started making speed bags with up to a dozen locking stows. This configuration mimics many modern d-bags, except that main d-bags usually only have two or three locking stows. Speed bag looks like it would be better at preventing line dump near the high speed edge of the envelope. Speed bag makes the most sense as a tandem main d-bag.

All three systems work.
The only disadvantage of rubber bands is that they start to rot/dry out after two years.

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