anyone has one ? are they comfortable ?
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anyone has one ? are they comfortable ?
Hi, I have one - the "plain" non-tropic one. It's a great strap and yes it's comfortable, but of course being rubber it can get a little sweaty...Quote:
Originally Posted by DimGR
Bought one last week. Very comfortable and a good price at £25.
Have two, made extra long to fit over a dry suit.
Dived all weekend with them and they work a treat. Workmanship looks top notch too.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j2iarxxdq8...0489.jpg?raw=1
received mine today
i like it
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/az...=w1166-h875-no
I have two Yellowdogs, one of which is extra long for a drysuit just like you:thumbsup: Both of them are excellent quality and very comfortable, of course if you get hot then rubber can get a little sweaty as mentioned. The rubber is quite grippy against the skin though and this lets you loosen it a little but still not have the watch sliding about all over the place. I got them in the Zulu variety, ie: with the second flappy bit that goes under the watch removed. I prefer to keep the watch closer to the wrist with a single pass of rubber beneath it. Since getting them I've also removed the standard, large oval shaped keepers and replaced them with the lower profile, rectangular shaped ones from old NATO's.Quote:
Coot
Have two, made extra long to fit over a dry suit.
Dived all weekend with them and they work a treat. Workmanship looks top notch too.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4587/...7a83e853_c.jpg
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4580/...2b1d2ea8_c.jpg
The rubber seems exactly the same as that used in a rubber weight belt and the surface texture even matches.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4540/...931d55c4_c.jpg
Over a suit it's worn as any other strap.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4540/...c1ea88d8_c.jpg
But when worn for normal daily use I wear the strap doubled back on itself. This lets me wear a long strap with very little excess tail to tidy up as well as letting me wear the watch directly against my skin for a lower profile than with a normal NATO.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4542/...76565d59_c.jpg
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4535/...cbc465a8_c.jpg
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4566/...22dc39d2_c.jpg
The keen eyed out there may have spotted a little rubber grommet on the strap in the photo above (above the 12 o'clock position). I added that myself and all it's there to do is act as a little bump stop against the lug bars so every time I fit the strap to the watch I set it in exactly the same place.
When I ordered my second strap from Yellowdog, I decided to get the perforated "Tropic" style, this time just in standard length (which is custom anyway). I requested a longer than normal spacing between the keepers (30mm versus 10mm) and I also requested for the piece of rubber that's folded back on itself and stitched to hold the buckle and keepers in place to end at a specific dimension to act as a bump stop. Effectively acting as a bump stop like the grommet previously mentioned - but prettier.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4525/...b207b4ab_c.jpg
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4554/...7885e1b7_c.jpg
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4586/...f3b78133_c.jpg
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4533/...8178bcf1_c.jpg
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4572/...1ddcc011_c.jpg
He's based just down the road from me, I must check these out, especially after this review ^^^^^^
Narc’d, love the vintage namron weights!!
They're probably around the same vintage as this :thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by Manxdiver
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4587/...88b93776_c.jpg
That’s a blast from the past!Quote:
Originally Posted by Narc'd
Great looking straps btw, how easy is it to change the hardware?
Cheers.
Thanks. It's not terribly hard to change the hardware, there's a bit of stretching of the rubber involved but nothing that would damage the strap (or I wouldn't do it). The old keepers that get removed get destroyed in the process though.Quote:
That’s a blast from the past!
Great looking straps btw, how easy is it to change the hardware?
Cheers
I took two pairs of pliers, grasped the oval shaped keeper at each end and twisted the pliers in opposite directions. This opens up the gap between the ends of the wire that the keeper is made from and takes place away from sight, within the strap itself. You just need to open enough of a gap to allow the rubber to slide out from. It's kind of hard to explain but it's a little like the way you mount a key on a key-ring in the way you get the rubber out from the keeper.
Once the original keeper is removed you can bin it. I then cut the rectangular keepers from an old NATO - I cut the nylon strap material with a Stanley knife so the keepers were completely unmarked at this stage. Then with two large, flat bladed screwdrivers, I inserted them from opposite directions into the new keeper and twisted them to open the gap between the two ends of the metal so I could slide it onto the Yellowdog strap. Once I did a bit of pushing and twisting of the strap I got it into the keeper.
At this stage it looked a bit ungainly as the ends of the metal forming the keeper were still in their separated state. I carefully pinched the strap with a pliers at this pint to squash the keeper back into it's regular shape. I also put a rag around the jaws of the pliers to protect the strap doing this.
There were a few marks from the pliers on the finish of the metal keepers so I re-brushed them with maroon coloured Scotchbrite pad.
Of course the best option would be to ask Alex if he can do this when he makes the strap in the first place - maybe he can, maybe he can't but it's worth a try. Personally, I'd definitely retain the buckle though, it's nice big curves spread the load on the rubber and avoid putting very tight bends in it.
On both occasions that I did this it occurred to me to take photo's in case anyone like yourself may ask how I did it - and of course I didn't bother! Laziness! A few pictures would have explained what I meant a million times better than what I wrote above. Hope you got the gist of what I was trying to describe anyway.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4738/...4eed65a4_c.jpg
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4633/...49d22ee6_c.jpg
Thanks a lot for the detailed description, much appreciated.
Will certainly give it a go.
Cheers.