Buying a rope.

Hello everybody,

I finally decided to get myself a rope for rope climbing.

But i've never rope climbed before nor have I really seen a rope to climb before. 
I've stumbled upon a site which sells manilla ropes, with a width of 36 mm (1.41 inch).

Which sounds nice, but while looking at the pictures I thought the ropes might be a bit "thready" (see picture).

2 questions:

One, I know the ideal width of a rope is 1.5 inch, how much of a difference does more or less an inch less make?

Two, How do the ropes look in your opinion? Is the threadyness normal? Does it care?

Cheers,

Jurre

I think it looks too rough. Dedicated climbing types have a smoother finish, and don't appear furry. But who knows, it may work alright.

I don't have a rope myself, but Ross Enamait has a bunch of suppliers for ropes:

http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/ropeclimbing.html

See here to get psyched out about how important a good quality rope is: 

http://www.functionalhandstrength.com/rope_climbing.html

Bring a grain of salt or two to both sites.

Ravn said:

I think it looks too rough. Dedicated climbing types have a smoother finish, and don't appear furry. But who knows, it may work alright.

That was the word I was looking for! 

But indeed, I also thought it was a bit too rough. They have got special climbing ropes. But those are synthethic hemp and only 34mm (1.34").

I think that is a bit to small.

Also thanks Yamad, unfortunately I live in Europe, so suppliers in America are a bit crazy in terms of shipping costs!

If you choose to buy manilla rope you can burn off the "Fuzziness."

I have used rough ropes like that picture, and I have also used synthetic ropes. The rough rope is fine. Synthetic is a bit harder to climb but easily manageable in my opinion. Some people say they are too slippery.

I've seem some good prices here: http://www.knotandrope.com/Store/pc/home.asp but the shipping might get you.

For the width, it makes a big difference. 1.5" is perfect. 2" is harder on the grip. 1" is at least for me impossible to climb because it's too tiny to get a handle on.

I always thought cotton rope is real nice. If I'm not mistaken, circus uses cotton for corde lisse. An issue is it might expand. So if you ordered 1.5", it might end up being thicker. But if you ever get into corde lisse, your skin on your legs will thank you for choosing cotton.

So the rough rope is no problem + i can burn off the fuzziness.

I want a rope of 1.5", unfortunately here in the Netherlands the biggest ropes I can find anywhere are 36 mm (1.417 Inch). Will less than an inch make a big difference?

Also knotandrope doesn't even seem to ship overseas unfortunately.
 

I can go for manilla 1.41 inch or 1.65 inch. Is one more effective for brachialis development? I need bigger biceps to look cool on the beach.

Thanks guys, just got the rope in. Not as rough as it looks on the photo. 
Haven´t properly tested it, but it´s niiicee hanging in my room!