Bjørn T. Hammer <>
writes:

Here in Norway we have had three Aeros Viper harnesses (of how
many sold, I to not know, but it is quite a few) in which the carbon back plate
has cracked. Two, mine included, has large cracks from the outer edges of the
plate and towards the slider, and the back plate has almost broken in two. One
of these back plates broke quite early, I believe after one or two years, while
mine lasted for four years.


Also another Viper had deep cracks after two years, but this in the tail end of
the back plate. To the best of my knowledge none of these harnesses have been
shipped by air, sustained transport damages, or been subject to hard ground
impacts (crashes).


I am not an carbon expert, but the quality of the carbon material in my harness
seems to be relatively poor. In addition, one of the pulleys for the tilt system
is aligned perfectly with one end of the slider, possibly making this a weak
point on the harness back plate (four holes for bolts and nuts in 15 cm or so
can not be good).


I think all these three harnesses were from the first production batch delivered
by Aeros (we ordered once the information about the harness was published at the
Oz Report, and before the information was at the Aeros web site) and it may be
that the problems with these three harnesses are due to early production
problems, because also the sewing of at least my harness was also poorly done.
Still, I have not heard about any problems with newer Viper harnesses here in
Norway, and also the sewing quality of these later harnesses seems to be better.


I would also like to add that I have been very pleased with the Viper besides
the sewing finish and now the back plate. It is very comfortable and the Velcro
attached zipper is very practical, and the tilt system and slider works very
well. Further, I think that some less fortunate design elements from the first
Viper, such as the open inside pockets and sewing just where the maximum wear
occur at the tail have been changed.


As my Viper is well used and a new carbon back plate is expensive, I have
ordered a new harness instead of fixing the old Viper. This time I will try a
Woody Valley Tenax 2 with the internal trim system.

Earlier Oz Report articles on the Aeros Viper
here.


Articles on the Moyes Matrix
here and ZDR
here.  A discussion of harnesses is going on
here
at the Oz Report forum. You can also find used harnesses in the Oz Report
classified ads: http://ozreport.com/freeClassifieds.php.