UKC

Small cams

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 springfall2008 16 Jun 2018

My smallest cam is a DDM Demon 0 which goes down to 13mm minimum.

I have brass wires which are smaller, but clearly they don't work in parallel cracks.

So do you the good folks here find that smaller cams work well on Limestone and if so which ones would you buy? I was looking at the Camalot X4 size 0.1 and 0.2.

 

 John Kelly 16 Jun 2018
In reply to springfall2008:

I like C3,s it you can get them a red and a green would extend your range

https://www.v12outdoor.com/black-diamond-camalot-c3.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjw6pLZ...

 

 Luke90 16 Jun 2018
In reply to springfall2008:

If the rest of your cams are DMM, you might be interested to know that DMM are dropping pretty strong hints about releasing their own range of microcams.

 timjones 16 Jun 2018
In reply to springfall2008:

I prefer Aliens at the lower sizes, their softer lobes are less prone to skating around IME.

You never forget the sound of an X4 sliding out of a crack when it is loaded

 John Kelly 16 Jun 2018
In reply to springfall2008:

black totem meant to be very good

 Mr. Lee 16 Jun 2018
In reply to springfall2008:

You probably need to decide if you want single or double stemmed cams, or both. Double stemmed will generally be stronger and more stable in horizontal cracks and generally have a slightly higher rating, but are at higher risk of rotating and ripping from vertical shallow cracks if you can't angle the stem downwards (not sure if regular Totums are an exception). Personally I go for flexible single stems as I'm usually more concerned about cams this small ripping than I am failing. Cams this small/light you can of course carry a combination of both if really small gear is expected. 

In reply to springfall2008:

Thanks everyone. The DMM dragonfly cams look nice, I might wait to see when they are available

 galpinos 16 Jun 2018
In reply to Luke90:

Called the Dragonfly, there’s a pic on their Facebook page.

 marky 16 Jun 2018
In reply to galpinos:Hmn not available until Spring 2019  

 

provenzano 16 Jun 2018
In reply to springfall2008:

Here is the link for the information about the Dragonfly.

https://dmmclimbing.com/DMMWales/media/Documents/dragonfly-cams.pdf

 Paul Hy 16 Jun 2018
In reply to John Kelly:

yeah but like rocking horse poo to buy!

 

 Paul Hy 16 Jun 2018
In reply to springfall2008:

i've got Metolius Master Cams 00, 0 & 1 (the smallest 3) which range from 8.5 to 18mm, i've have used them all on Grit, Granite, lime, Rhyolite  & dolerite although not taken a fall on them!  they do seem to sit good in vertical or horizontal cracks/pockets.    the two smallest are rated at 5kn and the size 1 is 8kn.

 

 Hooo 16 Jun 2018
In reply to springfall2008:

I have a set of Dragons and a yellow Totem. Based on my experience with these I would buy Totems in every available size and only look for alternatives if they don't go small enough. Totems are just so much better, especially on limestone. They are bloody expensive, but if I'm on limestone I'd rather have a few Totems than a whole set of anything else.

 Mr. Lee 17 Jun 2018
In reply to Hooo:

They only go a mm or two smaller than a Demon 0 though. 

 ianstevens 17 Jun 2018
In reply to provenzano:

They look, shall we say, familiar?

I wonder if the IP rights on Aliens have expired...

 Luke90 17 Jun 2018
In reply to ianstevens:

Perhaps we're going to see the same almost-standardisation in microcams that's already occurred in full size ones.

 Paul Hy 17 Jun 2018
In reply to John Kelly:

I've been after one for a while so have just ordered one!

 

 John Kelly 17 Jun 2018
In reply to Paul Hy:

Glad to help, great kit, I have the yellow and it just works

 beardy mike 17 Jun 2018
In reply to ianstevens:

They did year ago.

 Paul Hy 18 Jun 2018
In reply to John Kelly:

i have the blue, yellow and purple already and as you say they just work.

 

 HeMa 18 Jun 2018
In reply to ianstevens:

CCH went bust and sold the rights to both Fixe and Totem. Fixe created the Evo model, but Totem seems to have better build quality, and besides Why change something that already works. 

 beardy mike 18 Jun 2018
In reply to HeMa:

Not quite - CCH's owner died suddenly and the owners wife then soldth rights seemingly to two companies... all a bit mysterious, especially as Fixe who owned the patent for it's final years then took longer than they had until the patent ran out to bring them back to the market.

 HeMa 18 Jun 2018
In reply to beardy mike:

true... should have used out of business instead of bust (which I assume most will think of bankrupt).

In reply to beardy mike:

As I remember, the patent had expired when he died, and some years later Fixe/Faders bought the brand and the remaining manufacturing tools from the widow in order to make the Aliens as they were made in the good old days. Totem just took the original design, tweaked it and made their own version and named it Basic.

 beardy mike 18 Jun 2018
In reply to Stefan Jacobsen:

Alien Priority date for the trigger mechanism was late in 1987 and a little over a year later for the internal spring mechanism, so it would expire 20 years later that, so you are right, the patents had just expired. That said I distinctly remembermy buddy who used to distribute for Dave Waggoner in the UK telling that things got very weird late on in CCH. First there was the recall in I think 2006, then apparently Dave married a russian (mail order?) bride, 2007, then he died in 2009. He told me that she then somehow managed to sell the rights to two seperate spanish companies - whether this was in any way legal I don't know, but Fixe clearly got the rights to the name. Or whether that even happened I'm not 100% sure, all I know was there were schenanigans. But Fixe then took a long time to bring them to market, whereas Totem Basics were out in pretty short order...

 beardy mike 18 Jun 2018
In reply to Stefan Jacobsen:

Maybe this why I thought they had bought the patent - the press release from Barrabas alluded to here?

http://www.rockclimbing.com/forum/Climbing_Information_C2/Gear_Heads_F40/Al...

 Paul Hy 19 Jun 2018
In reply to ianstevens:

you really mean identical don't you!!

In reply to springfall2008:

If there is a move where consequences of the Cam ripping out would be fatal its Totems every time. The holding power of totems beats everything else. 

 

 


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