Saving up the cash to buy your first trad rack is a big deal for any newly aspiring trad climber. Quickdraws, carabiners, slings, wires and cams  - add it up and it doesn't come cheap. As much as we would all like to buy the best gear on the market this may not be realistic or practical for the majority of climbers, and particularly tricky if you're trying to assemble a whole UK trad rack from one term's worth of student loan!

So what are the options for a more budget-friendly rack? Well, when it comes to the basics like quickdraws and carabiners most good gear shops have lower priced options, but the area that really starts to hurt your wallet is active protection, AKA camming devices.

Kouba is a brand that is trying to help with the hurt on your wallet by delivering well-priced and basic camming units at a good price. But what does this mean in reality. And have I spent summer and autumn terrified climbing above these budget-friendly cams?

To get some basic info out the way, Kouba cams conform to all the normal EU and UK ratings and standards that we would expect of a cam. They are made in the Czech Republic and come well-labelled, with clear sizing and ratings on each unit. So, Kouba is a genuine climbing brand and manufacturer, which I think is worth making clear as they are a small brand which many people may not have heard of.

Kouba makes several models for cam but the two key ones for the UK trad are the Axel Plus and the Flex.

Axel Plus - Double axle Cams - Size: 2-6 - Price: From £45 or Set of 5 cams £260

First up is Kouba's double axle cam, which offers the greatest camming range per unit. The Axel Plus is reasonably well proportioned, with the thumb loop and trigger being a comfortable distance apart for someone that has medium sized hands (small hands would be a bit stretched). The cam lobes feel strong and well shaped. The trigger action is smooth and the springs are of good stiffness. Plus having an extendable dyneema sling is a nice feature.

All the fundamentals of this cam are there and they have done 'the job', but with budget does come with compromises. Compared to other modern day camming units these do feel old-fashioned, the thumb loop is bulky and the plastic-coated stem doesn't feel hugely durable. The lobes are bolted onto the head rather than riveted and the tooling of the metal components isn't massively refined.

But when it comes to using the cam in anger there isn't anything particularly wrong with the Axel Plus, it's actually ok to handle and place. I do tent to find myself taking a little bit of extra time to make sure the cam is sat well, which has highlighted how well more expensive cams just slide into placements. But once well-placed the Axel Plus doesn't seem to move or walk any more or less than I would expect from this type of cam and thankfully I haven't climbed past them scared something unpredictable might happen!

When it comes to sizing and weight the Axel Plus performs pretty well against other cams. They're not breaking any new ground but Axel Plus isn't far off the competition. The main area where the Axel Plus does lose out is within the strength rating of the smaller sizes (2 - 4). The rates here are lower than that of a Black Diamond C4 or Wild Country Friend but in reality 8 to 9kN would be more than sufficient in 99% of climbing situations.

Price is where the Axel cam shines. An individual unit starts at £45 for smaller sizes, rising to £55 for the bigger ones. Compare that to a dragon at £75 per unit and the budget choice is a clear one.

Flex - Single axe cams - Size: 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1-6 - Price: From £39 or Set of 6 cams £268

The second set of cams we tested from Kouba is the Flex. These are single axle cams, a basic setup that we don't see much nowadays unless you're buying Micro Cams or Totems which are more specialist. Single axle designs don't allow as big a camming range per unit as dual axle, therefore you have to carry more units to cover the same size range. But having more cams to place isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just more overall weight on your harness.

The Flex is well-proportioned, comfortable to handle and easier to place than the Axel Plus. This did come as a surprise because I expected the dual axle configuration to be the easiest and most likeable but that was not the case. The single axle set-up of the Flex feels a bit more rounded in its performance and I think this comes down to a bunch of small differences. Each lobe on the Flex is a little wider and chunkier than those the Axel Plus and therefore has more surface area in contact with the rock. The single axle head construction is just simpler, which suits the more budget-friendly build quality. The spring strength is stronger, meaning the cam feels better set in a placement, and the stem is less rigid, with a good amount of flex and doesn't seem to collapse on itself in the bigger sizes.

As to be expected on a cam of this price there are a couple of elements that it's worth being aware of. Firstly, the plastic coating that covers the stem wire isn't overly durable and has started to wear when rope drag has pulled the stem over an edge. The plastic trigger handle is pretty basic and small, which is not a problem for rock climbing but might be tricky to grab with gloves on whilst winter climbing. Again, like the Axel Plus some elements of construction are basic with the lobes being bolted to the head rather than riveted, but other than this I do think the fundamentals are good. They handle well, feel positive to place and the extendable sling is a nice touch.

Size, weight and strength are also a simpler story with the Flex. They are of average weight per unit for this type of cam and have a 12kN (active and passive) rating from size 1-6.

Again it's the price that really sets the Flex apart, with individual units starting at just £39, rising to £48 for the biggest. And again, set deals are on offer from the UK retailer.

Summary

So, did I spend the summer terrified to climb past these budget-friendly cams? Thankfully, no. Kouba cams can do the job and do it pretty well. While I think it fair to say they don't have the refinement and technical feel of models from bigger brands (DMM, Wild Country, Black Diamond), they do hit a sweet spot on price.

To my surprise, I definitely favoured the simple single axle Flex over the duel axle Axel Plus. The Flex just feels simple and works better. There is no getting away from the fact that Kouba cams feel a bit old-fashioned, but if you're on a budget they could be a real winner.