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Rich-

I own(ed) both and had both in the water for extended dives and I came to 
this obvious (to me) conclusion, that the wings are more stable and thus 
more comfortable with dual steel tanks. To me the difference was a plain 
as night and day. Aren't you using yours with a rebreather, not doubles? 
Perhaps this explains the difference?

If the bands can be adjusted so they don't jam the valve, why don't they 
come from the factory configured that way? As I said, I found a way to 
reconfigure them so they did not crimp the tube by not wrapping the 
rubber all the way around the bladder. Does this mean that stupid ol' me 
is smarter than the entire engineering staff at OMS?

If you don't need the 2nd power inflator, why put a power inflator on the 
2nd bladder hose? So that OMS can make a better profit margin, perhaps? 
Or maybe OMS intends it to be used with a 2nd LP? So you use a 2nd LP, 
what about the increase in the failure points? If you don't think that 
failure points are a factor then why do you have a 2nd bladder in the 
first place? If you ask me the likelihood of failure of a LP hose or 
cheap plastic valve is far greater than a BC. I have seen hoses blow, but 
never a BC failure. A diver with your experience MUST see the beauty of 
simplicity. In the old days they used clorox bottles for BC, so I don't 
see why a lift bag cannot be used as a backup in the unlikely event of BC 
failure.

I paid several hundred dollars for mine too, and I sold it at a terrible 
loss. I don't regret it and I chalk it up to, once again, learning the 
hard way. And if you knew what a cheapskate I am then you would look at 
this event in awe and amazement and run right out and switch over to 
single wings too.  And I get no free dive gear, all of my stuff is paid 
for with hard earned money, and If I have to learn the hard way once in a 
while, such is life. 

   Jim

>As I have tried to explain to George (without success) over and over and 
>over and over and over again, the OMS does have advantages in certain 
>enviroments (like mine).
>
>> OMS dual bladder wings are not worth the money. They cost more than the 
>> single wings and don't work as well. I did not like mine and got rid of 
>> it because:
>
>If you don't have a secondary means of establishing posative buoyancy 
>(like a drysuit), then you need two bladders.
>
>> -The bondage causes the top exhaust valve to stick open. I still can't 
>> believe this was designed into the BC. What the fuck were they thinking? 
>> It could be fixed by using a more ridged guide tube, why the hell didn't 
>> they??? I rigged mine so that the rubber tubing just pulled in the back 
>> of the BC bag and did not wrap all the way around.
>
>Why don't I ever have this problem?  Maybe your bondage was too tight.
>
>> -The bondage causes center of buoyancy to be _under_ your tanks (this 
>> makes it feel like you are going to "capsize" all the time and makes it 
>> difficult to maintain trim underwater.) The increase in comfort of the 
>> single wings is really amazing. You might accomplish the same by not 
>> doing the bondage, but DB wings are not designed to float free and 
>> present lots of drag configured this way.
>
>Again, why doesn't this happen to me?  I can maintain any roll or 
>yaw position effortlessly.  The same is not true of non-bondage wings. In 
>fact, this is part of the reason why I like the bondage wings.
>
>> -You have to install another LP hose to service the 2nd valve (bigtime 
>> failure points, hoses and intricate plastic valves). Any you have hoses 
>> all over the damn place, and you have to drag these hoses every freaking 
>> place you go. You could provide emergency buoyancy by bringing along a 
>> lift bag, something you might actually use.
>
>Why do you need a 2nd LP hose?  I use one, but I route my hoses so they 
>are almost invisible.  You don't need a 2nd LP hose - unless you've tied 
>the bondage too tight, you can easily manually inflate the redundant bladder.
>
>> The only drawback to getting the single wing is that all the folks who 
>> have the bondage wings will call you a brown-noser, and accuse you of 
>> kissing George's ass. 
>> Fuck 'em. The bondage wings are a failure in design, totally flawed in 
>> concept and in execution.
>
>The only drawback to pointing out the obvious *real* advantages to the 
>dual-bladder OMS is that George will call you a brown-noser, and accuse 
>you of kissing John Griffith's ass.  He does this to me everytime I prove 
>him wrong about this topic.  In his imaginary world, I get products for 
>free and then endorse them.  In the real world, I paid several hundred 
>bucks for the OMS, and endorse it because I like it better than the Dive 
>Rite, which is what I had before. (Incidentally, I have gotten free dive 
>gear, but I don't think I've ever talked about any of it on the list.  
>Contrary to popular belief, I paid a lot of money to use the Cis-Lunar 
>Mk4, and I am paying full-retail price for my Mk5).

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