Pre ‘KONG’, company was called Bonaiti, Italian pioneers, best to check here for in-depth info, always a great space to lose half a day of your life. I picked this up at a second hand outdoor shop in Mitake, West Tokyo, for a couple of hundred ¥, literally a jewel for free. When people see old stuff as irrelevant…haha. In SRS Arb terms the history is also interesting, goes back to pre-Rope Wrench, climbers in States were building systems with a variety of devices to put friction above the hitch, F8 revolver (basically a sticht plate) which used a Figure 8 descender and DMM Revolver, and also the Kong ‘ROBOT’, made descent possible. This was an amazing period of creativity, when Arb’s had no tools, beg and borrow, its worth tracing this history, you never know what may still be relevant today. Morgan (TTT) also made a rope wrench like part, to install on the Unicender (it came and went). I’d heard of climbers using Rope Wrenches on the Unicender to allow one handed control, it always looked clunky to me, but finding this Bonaiti ROBOT, decided to give it a whirl.
Connect to MRS point, truly gives dreamy and light finger tip descent control. Ascent not possible, but for those on two ropes, I can switch to line without ROBOT, ascend, no problems, best of both worlds. Or see below, 30M descent to waterfall, ROBOT configures below Uni and tether, install/remove at any point, works well with 11.5mm ropes. Just the right amount of friction, no rope twists, line installs easily. Kong ROBOTS in this design are no longer being made, time to hunt for dead stock and search through bins in second hand outdoor stores. Bet you don’t find one as cheap as I did !
