Ball Escape and Straps

Symptoms of a poor fit

I was DMing with someone on Reddit I was planning on making a cage for.

“I need a 56 mm ring, 35 mm cage diameter, 20 mm ball gap”.

Hmm, something doesn’t look right about these numbers. I ask, “do you wear a strap or have occasional ball escape and with a smaller ring, did your scrotum burn”. “How did you know,” he asked.

I knew because I had been on the exact same “sizing” journey.

The ball gap is one of the least understood aspects of chastity. And I suspect that most people who are unable to find a comfortable well-fitting cage are unable to do so because of the ball gap. Why? Because when the ball gap isn’t right, it doesn’t feel like it’s the ball gap that’s causing the issue. Most people think it’s friction that’s causing it. And most people end up solving it with a bigger ring, a ring that’s really too big for them otherwise. A ring that, when worn without a cage, can be taken off without too much difficulty. And it’s a ring that, because of its large size, can’t hold even a plastic cage up much less a 160 g steel cage. So, now they need to add straps. In other words, they swallow the spider to catch the fly.

ChatGPT’s five legged spider

Ball escape is one of the more dreaded aspects of a poor fit. For one, it can be very painful as the testicle can get squeezed on its way out of the ring. But also, it destroys our suspension of disbelief – yeah, not only are our cages aren’t actually escape proof, we have to wear a strap to keep them on.

When someone hears ball escape, they immediately jump to the ball gap as the issue, “oh, you need a smaller ball gap”. Yes, a smaller ball gap will stop a testicle from slipping through but it solves just one problem at hand but ignore the other one. How did the ball slip through it with the penis still in the ring?

The Ball Gap

So, a disclaimer – I’m sure there are anatomies for which this doesn’t apply. Most likely, it would be inapplicable to extreme girth-wise growers but as someone who grows from 38 mm flaccid, to 53 mm, this should be applicable to many growers.

Let’s look at the difference between two ways to have a 20 mm gap. In the left render, you have a gap that is largely due to a 56 mm ring. In the right render, you have a gap that’s primarily due to a longer junction with a 48 mm ring.

Two tetherspout-secured cages with 20 mm ball gaps.

Which cage is most likely to lead to ball escape? I wear the 2nd design and the ring is snug enough when I’m flaccid that the most practical way to get my penis out of the ring is to push my glans into my shaft and basically back my penis right out. With the 56 mm ring, taking it off is trivial. And that’s the problem.

In a ring that’s too large, you’re relying on the ball gap to hold your testicles in place.

Whereas in a properly sized ring, the fact that your girth is taking up so much of the room is enough to keep Li’l Lefty right where he’s supposed to be. I mean if I’m 38 mm in girth and I have a 48 mm ring, how is a ball going to slip through that 10 mm of space?

A typical ball gap table

Have you ever seen a table like this before? Well, probably not because the horizontal gap number usually isn’t quoted like this. But if you look at Kink3D’s ball gap page you’ll see something similar:

Credit: Kink3D

XD, Standard, Curved? Those are nothing more than different ring shapes that give different horizontal gaps at the bottom of the ring.

Now, say you bought yourself a cage and maybe it isn’t very comfortable. You have some burning under your scrotum when you’re aroused or perhaps it’s constantly pinching at the bottom of the ring. What 95% of people do, because it’s the only thing starter cages (cages with multiple rings) allow them to do, is this:

The path most of us take

They don’t come with multiple ring geometries or different junction angles or spacers. They just come with multiple rings. So, the guy suffering from too small a ball gap fixes it the only way he can: he wears a larger ring.

And now, he’s wearing a too-large 50 mm ring but he’s comfortable. Except he’s got to wear a strap with that ring too because his 36 mm girth doesn’t take up nearly enough room inside the ring to keep Li’l Lefty in place to say nothing of keeping the cage riding well. And the poor guy now thinks he needs a 50 mm ring. He goes and upgrades to a Cherry Keeper – and he buys one with a 50 mm ring.

But what if he knew that a 44 mm ring was the right ring size for him and he was given options of different ring angles or geometries that added more horizontal space at the bottom.

Now, he has his comfortable 18 mm ball gap and a properly fitting ring. Lefty isn’t going anywhere and even if he decides to go steel, he won’t be needing a strap.

Unfortunately, few off-the-shelf cages offer a way to move along the green path and few users even realize the importance of the ball gap to comfort. So, people follow the red path and end up asking about which strap to buy and how to keep the strap itself from chafing or what to do about their balls slipping out of the ring when they’re sleeping.

But there are some cages that allow you to follow the green path. As I showed, Kink3D offers a method with their xD, standard, and curved rings. Cherry Keeper is the queen here as she offers curved and flat rings but also different ring / cage angles so with the same ring size, you can get quite a few ball gaps.

Look at that. For a 44 mm circular ring, I can find ball gaps from 5.4 to 21.2 mm.

If you’re wearing a strap to hold up a light plastic cage, there’s a very good chance you’re doing this because early in your journey, that 44 mm ring felt uncomfortable, not because it was too small but because the gap was too small. My advice: try that 44 mm ring again, just the ring. Leave the cage off. Is the ring by itself uncomfortable? If it isn’t, the ring you’re wearing with the cage, well, you probably got there following the red arrow. Try following the green arrow and see where it takes you. And throw the strap in the bottom of that drawer you have.

Further Reading:

Cherry Keeper's Secret Sauce

Base Ring Sizing