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Thread: Yet Another Belt Choice Hits The Market (SBD lever belt)

  1. #81
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    Quote Originally Posted by DeriHughes View Post
    Nice work! Would appreciate any thoughts on it when it comes through.. Tempted to pull the trigger on one myself.
    I will be sure to post some thoughts when it arrives, but my only real belt experience is with a 10mm single prong Best Belt, so other than general build quality I imagine most of my impressions will be dominated by the fact it's a 13mm lever.

    I'm not sure I ordered the right size. Current waist is 37", which fits in either L or XL. I ended up going for XL, because L only goes up to 39" and I was worried about a little bit of weight gain or even bloat causing sizing problems, or just having pinching issues when closing on the end holes. OTOH XL goes up to 43", so there will be a lot of overlap, which may not be comfortable, but might answer Simon's question. I also hope to lose a bit off the waist in due course.

  2. #82
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    Quote Originally Posted by Simon Rest View Post
    posting because the forum houses some leather nerds:

    Many words where said, and very little actual information was conveyed. I'm guessing it's because it's a combination of whoever made the video not knowing or caring, and the leather itself not being much special.

    Fact is, SBD used smaller local producers because they would actually be interested in doing a production run that small.

  3. #83
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    Found this decently helpful video review. I was thinking, though, that the big difference just seems to be that the metal pegs on the lever are just the same size. That's been my only concern about adding a couple of holes to my GLC level belt to allow for similar kind of adjustment- the sets of pegs have slightly different sizes, I'd be concerned it might slip or something. Otherwise I'd just add 2 more holes on the tongue of the belt, just like the SBD, though there might be other reasons why that's a bad idea. Seems like something that would hardly be patentable (not 'non-obvious' enough perhaps?).

    There's also this rather useless review.

  4. #84
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skander View Post
    Found this decently helpful video review. I was thinking, though, that the big difference just seems to be that the metal pegs on the lever are just the same size. That's been my only concern about adding a couple of holes to my GLC level belt to allow for similar kind of adjustment- the sets of pegs have slightly different sizes, I'd be concerned it might slip or something. Otherwise I'd just add 2 more holes on the tongue of the belt, just like the SBD, though there might be other reasons why that's a bad idea. Seems like something that would hardly be patentable (not 'non-obvious' enough perhaps?).

    There's also this rather useless review.
    first link fixed, (would not cue up on my PC for some reason)

    Last edited by MBasic; 07-06-2016 at 10:31 AM.

  5. #85
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skander View Post
    Found this decently helpful video review. I was thinking, though, that the big difference just seems to be that the metal pegs on the lever are just the same size. That's been my only concern about adding a couple of holes to my GLC level belt to allow for similar kind of adjustment- the sets of pegs have slightly different sizes, I'd be concerned it might slip or something. Otherwise I'd just add 2 more holes on the tongue of the belt, just like the SBD, though there might be other reasons why that's a bad idea. Seems like something that would hardly be patentable (not 'non-obvious' enough perhaps?).

    There's also this rather useless review.
    I may be getting this wrong, but given the design of the traditional lever belt:



    if you add holes aren't you going to leave too much "tail" to fit between the end of the leather and the lever? It wont fit. maybe it will if they are close enough together?

  6. #86
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    What does SBD stand for? Super big dick?

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    Quote Originally Posted by tfranc View Post
    What does SBD stand for? Super big dick?
    it's the only belt endorsed by the #startinglength team

    (Squat Bench Deadlift)

  8. #88
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    This isn't a full review, this is just my initial impressions of the belt. This post will be split up since I have quite a few pictures to include. Full album here SBD Belt - Album on Imgur

    My only previous belt was a 10mm Best Belts Athlete single prong, which is very different from the SBD belt, so I'm not really that well qualified to talk about a 13mm lever belt. Other than the Best Belt I've worn a Titan lever belt exactly once and that makes up my entire belt experience.

    Purchase

    I paid £165 direct from SBD. That's a lot of money for a belt, but with Sterling taking a dive at the moment that makes importing more expensive for us British peeps, so it didn't seem quite so bad all things considering. If I was in the USA it would have been a much tougher decision to get this over, say, a 13mm Inzer lever.

    As an aside on the currency situation I imagine Ben Banks must be rubbing his hands together at how well his export business is going to do.

    SBD have authorized retailers in quite a few countries, so wherever you are in the world this shouldn't be too hard to get hold of. I know Anderson Powerlifting in the US are already taking orders, but I haven't checked out the situation more widely.

    Delivery

    I ordered on Wednesday morning, the belt shipped on Wednesday afternoon and was delivered at lunchtime on Thursday by DHL. Full marks here, although I do only live about five miles from SBD HQ. Amusingly enough the tracking information reveals the belt spent the night in Heathrow, so it made about a 40 mile round trip in all.

    Packaging



    The belt is first wrapped in foam (the belt) and bubble wrap (the buckle) before being placed in a tough plastic sleeve. Combined with the DHL delivery box this was more than adequate to get the belt to me in perfect condition.



    The packaging also shows the potentially all-important IPF approved logo.

    The Belt

    First impressions



    This is a thick, stiff belt. You can see in the above picture that the inner end isn't conforming to the overall curved shape of the fastened belt. I'm sure this is due to the belt being new and that it will break in given time.

    The outside is shiny black leather and the inside is lined with red suede. The finish is a very high standard, although I don't think it's going to stay this pretty forever. Just by trying the belt on I can see very slight marks forming on both the outside of the belt, where the buckle digs in and the inside where the edges rub together as the belt is fastened. However the belt is solidly built and I can see the structure of it holding up for a long time.



    Other than the lever this is the only branding on the belt. Personally I'd prefer as little branding as possible so I'm glad this is fairly unobtrusive.
    Last edited by bean counter; 07-07-2016 at 01:35 PM.

  9. #89
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    I don't have very accurate tools, but the belt looks to be very close to 100mm width and 13mm thickness, in line with the maximum allowed IPF measurements.



    It's hard to see, but I think the belt is made up of three layers of leather, plus one of suede.

    The lever


    Here's the buckle. The quality of the finish is very nice, although that doesn't show up very well on camera.

    SBD's adjustable lever isn't just a normal lever belt with extra holes. As Simon's post above indicates that wouldn't work becaue the tongue of the belt would interfere with the lever mechanism. SBD got around this problem by mounting the lever on the side of the belt that goes on top when fastened, not the side that tucks under. The fancy looking buckle is then necessary to securely anchor the underside when the belt is fastened.



    There are four prongs on the buckle, but it looks like two of them are doing most of the work.

  10. #90
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    starting strength coach development program


    On the rear side of the buckle it looks as if it could be replaced at home with allen keys. SBD's marketing material has made a fuss about the supposedly special alloy and casting process that were used, but other brands' levers have been known to break and until proven otherwise I'm going to assume that's still a possibility here. It's good to see that the lever is replaceable if necessary.

    Sizing



    On the XL there are 11 holes, although based on the advertized size ranges I'm not sure that holds across all sizes. Since the buckle requires two sets of holes to fasten that means there are 10 possible settings on which to fasten the belt.
    Hole spacing appears to be exactly an inch, which makes sense given the advertized range of 33.25" to 43.25".







    Fit

    With a 37" waist I can quite easily put the XL belt on the fourth tightest setting (i.e. 7/10). With a fair amount of effort I can get it one setting tighter (8/10). That gives me a bit of leeway to lose weight in future, but not a lot.

    However, using the belt on the tighter settings doesn't seem ideal, as it results in a lot of overlap at the front. The natural place for the inner end of the belt in the closed position seems to be right on my hip bone. The belt definitely feels different between one side and the other and I think the belt end would be very uncomfortable when lifting. I could position the end differently, but this requires placing the lever more towards the side, which is itself awkward.

    So, I'm very tempted to exchange my XL for a L. The problem there is that only goes up to 39", which wouldn't leave me much room for weight gain or bloat. OTOH I've been gaining weight for a while now, so I expect the future direction of my waist size to be downwards. If anyone has any advice on this dilemma I'd be happy to hear it.

    Feel

    Compared to a 10mm prong belt this unsurprisingly feels like much more belt. Without lifting in it I'm not sure I can say much more for now.

    TL/DR

    Expensive, beautifully constructed, solidly built.

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