UKC

Hi all,

Bit of a nerdy one, but I'm intrigued. It seems the WC Zero Friend range overlaps with the regular Friend range, from 0.4 up to 0.75 (silver, purple, green). The Friends at these sizes are all 1/3kN stronger than their Zero counterparts, have a couple of extra mm of range, and are 5g-20g heavier. In my mind, this extra weight seems to be the biggest difference (I've not checked properly, but it seems the prices are comparable). What are people's thoughts, does anyone have/use both and notice any differences? In a rack with a full double set of cams, is it worth having 0.4-0.75 of both the Zero's and regular Friends? 

TIA,

Ed.

A more significant difference when it comes to micro cams is the narrower head width on the zeros, they can fit into pockets where friends of the same width won't fit.

Narrower head and a bit bendier I think. 

Less robust but more versatile. 

Aren't they also made of softer metal so they grip better, but also don't last as long? Perhaps that's the dragonflies. They won't last as long with the bendy stem anyway, so it seems like a good trade-off to me. Having one of each on a double set sounds excellent to me.

Friends are double axle (hence slightly more range), camming angle on the friend is 13.75 but 14.5 of zero so compensates somewhat for range but sightly reduces holding power. Stem on friend uses 7x7 cabe rather than 7x19 cable, 7x19 is more flexible. In my opinion this is no bad thing, I don't believe flex = less resilient, possible the opposite. Head width is narrower I.e better opportunity for placement with Zero. Flex means more stability in placement and lower likelihood of walking. Strength is absolutely irrelevant, what matters is Rock quality and whether the placement is likely to pull. In this case lobe width, rock strength and placement quality are all big factors. If you manage to get to 10kn in a normal fall you've gott to be going some, my point being that is incredibly rare that a cam would ever see the rated load in the first place. 7kN is more likely but still rare... so surmise, zeros.