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For slider down jumps I tie the slider to the riser using a rubber band that I cut open.
This might sound very silly but I loose a lot of time each time doing this (I have sweaty hands...).
Yesterday I lost around 15 to 20 minutes and almost had a nervous breakdown.
Any suggestions?

Pull up bumper, pull down slider, pull down bumper. Done.

No need to tie anything down. I have yet to hear of an incident where the slider traveled up when it was put below the bumpers.

Only do it on the front-risers, leave the rear-risers alone so they can move freely through the grommets. But you knew that already.

Also because it keeps the rear slider grommets away from the brakes, I think.

Michael

Edit to add: On second reading, it occurs to me that "so they can move..." may have been saying how you can tell if you've done it right, not why you do it. Oh well.

And it allows you to use your rear-risers independently without the slider connecting them lateral.

I know some people doing the gromet below the bumper also... My bumpers are hard as hell to move. If you have the same problem just use a piece of pull up cord. Or just get some risers from Morpheus that already have the tie down.

A few thoughts... I've seen an incident where a silicone bumper that wasn't stitched down, came loose and slid up the lines on deployment and stopped the slider from coming down. Luckly, this was in a skydiving situation. It still resulted in a cut-away and reserve deployment. If you are in the habit of moving them off and on of your links, you are just loosening them up for such an event.

What advantage is gained by taking it off completely? Do you really expect to gain a lot of performance so you can swoop or something? You loose the advantage of having a crosslink should one of your riser groups fails or releases prematurely(happened at the perrine)
You also set yourself up for more types of rigging errors. It's not faster then simply inserting some old canopy line or pullup cords through the end of the riser and through the gromment. a couple of minutes at most, or as stated earlier some risers come with tie downs on them already.

Me personally, I use PD reserve slinks. They are stronger than the metal links, and don't require bumpers. I have about 400jumps on two sets of them and they still look brand new, along with the loops on the ends of the lines. I tie down my slider for the low stuff and it takes all of a couple of minutes, with no worries of rigging errors, and the security of a crosslink in the unlikly event of a riser failure.

IMHO simple and secure. Remember though, we are all test jumpers!

515,

I have removed my slider after a couple of jumps other than Bridge Day. My thought process was simply that nothing I was jumping locally required, so why have to fiddle with it.

Your comment on having there as a "cross link" has me re-thinking that choice. Could you please send me some information on the one time that it saved, or could have saved someone that you mentioned. I'm very interested in learning more about that before making that decision.

Gracias,
Ganja

More of a question than an answer:

Would taking the slide off let the canopy open cleaner and more naturally. How much could this affect:

Altitude reqired to open?

Altitude lost during heading correction / canopy responce time?

Glide ratio?

Deep break approches and flare (in to that nasty area you have to land in)?

I am thinking of low stuff where a few feet may make a difference or not......................... any ideas??

Greeny

P.S. sorry for being a spotter!

Edited to remove a really silly explanation. Read warped's post below for a proper explanation of why crosslinking can help in case of a three ring failure.

And for what it's worth, I've done 20 jumps slider off, and 27 slider down. I'm a slider down person now because I haven't noticed a difference during packing or in heading and flight performance. Not that 47 jumps is a good statistic, but it's enough to convince myself into thinking that slider down works for me.

huh?
I must be missing something here...

risers are made in a V shape. each "arm" passing through it's own slider grommet.

if a riser releases on one side, those grommets will slide down the arms of the V (i.e. front and back risers) until they meet near the junction.

thus, a slider tied to the attached riser, limits the released riser from ascending more than 3-4 feet. the canopy will stay inflated. just don't expect much control.

evidently, it has saved at least one life.

No, you're not. I'm just a complete and utter retard.

As for the cross link. You would have to tie down to both front risers. I have always only tied down to one front riser. So if your going to tie it down for this extra protection tie down to both fronts. Otherwise you only have a 50/50 chance that it would even be tied to the correct riser. The tie down that I currently have wouldn't work for this added protection because it is basicly a lanyard with a snap. The way it works is it runs up thru the gromet and comes back down and snaps to the riser. I am pretty sure that snap wouldn't hold a failed riser set.

You know, I hadn't even though that holding the slider down with slider bumpers would make it more or less useless as a cross-connector. You'd have to tie it down pretty securely for it to be used this way. How does everyone accomplish this? As you said, a lanyard and snap probably also won't work. I'm not sure tying it down with a pull-up cord will do it, either.

[Edited to remove an incorrect interpretation of the word 'lateral'. Who knew it meant 'sideways'?]

Michael

Edited for spelling.

Lateral means sideways, right? So I meant that pulling the right riser down wouldn't tug the left one with it, and vice versa.

Why yes, I suppose it does mean 'sideways'.

Michael

I've been thinking about changing to soft links on my base rig, I'd trust them more than steel. But what happens to the slider on slider up jumps? Does it, or could it, travel down the back risers and interfere or cover the steering toggles?

In theory it could. I don't think there's enough empirical evidence to draw a conclusion, though, as I only know a handful of guys using soft links regularly.

Cheers Tom,

Just found a possible solution; all the Slinks are now shipped with 'Performance Designs’ Slink© Riser Covers (SRC’s)' which should, according to the blurb, 'prevent that pesky slider from ever coming over your toggles again.'

Mike