I'm finally ordering my first rack after years of begging/borrowing/stealing from friends. I've settled on getting a microrack with a single hyperbar. So far that's what works the best for me, and I'll just be doing smaller drops (typically 150 feet or less).
I've mostly used the CMI short-frame with aluminum bars and I've been fairly happen with it. On most drops it's been very smooth and feels like it gives me the range of friction that I need (and more). However, at the top of some longer drops with very stiff rope, I've had to do a lot of manual bar spreading and sometimes even a bit of feeding(!), until I get my weight fully on the rope.
A friend suggested getting stainless bars instead to help me at the lip, but I'm worried that would be too much of a decrease in friction and that I might not be able to stay in control near the end or on slick ropes.
I've been contemplating splitting the difference and trying a rack with two stainless bars at the top (hyperbar and second bar) and two aluminum bars at the bottom. It seems like a great deal of friction comes from the top two bars getting jammed together as I go over a lip, and it often takes a lot of effort to get them apart. Switching those two bars to stainless would reduce the unwanted friction here, but I could still manually jam together the lower two aluminum bars to get extra friction when I needed it. Has anyone tried something like this? As a beginner I'm not sure whether I should be trying new things like this, but I thought I'd see if anyone had an opinion on this.
The other option is to get a "long frame" microrack such as the one that BMS offers. It's 10.5" instead of the standard 8.5" and recommended for "11-12mm rope or smaller cavers needing more bar spread." I don't know anyone using this one, so I'm hesitant to try this as well.
I weigh around 160 lbs and typically cave with clothing, gear and a pack weighing under 20 lbs. I'd appreciate any suggestions or comments,
Ethan