trad rack

Post by **Horatio Felacio** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 3:48 pm

yeah you would like aliens chufftard.

Post by **SCIN** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 3:57 pm

Your mom.

Post by **Jeff** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 4:01 pm

Get an orange Alien too. I'm always using that one.

Post by **Horatio Felacio** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 4:05 pm

hell yeah jeff! steppin up to orange.

Post by **sparky** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 7:49 pm

I like the smaller aliens (red down) a lot better than tcu's but it's mostly preference just know your gear well. either one of the above will have a head width half the size of the BD micro's. I climbed with a guy in chile who swore by tcu's and wouldn't touch my aliens, he bitched every time he cleaned a pitch i lead and had to rack my aliens on his harness. but to each his own.

Jeff have you fallen on that orange alien yet, it seems like it would be kinda wobbly with all that flex in the shaft and the narrow head profile?

Post by **Jeff** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 8:54 pm

Never have taken a fall on it, but I have never given my "orange" placements a second thought. It is a great size for most routes I find myself on.
I love Aliens.

Post by **sparky** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 10:27 pm

yeah i love my aliens, they always go in so well and are able to go in some weird places. I might have to check out the orange one some time though i like my green BD .75 Aliens are pretty solid in the rock so the orange one should be no exception. It's just every time i look at one at a shop it seems so flimsy. though this probably absorbs more of the movement of a piece rather than the lobs walking around. I need to try one out.

Post by **Jeff** » Fri Nov 08, 2002 2:12 am

I really don't understand what you mean when you say an orange Alien doesn't look stable.
It's as bomber as bomber gets.
Do you think the smaller Aliens are better or something?

Post by **sparky** » Fri Nov 08, 2002 3:17 pm

I'm not talking about holding power or anything like that. pretty much every cam, if placed well, is bomber, and all aliens with the smaller head profile can go places where cams of a similar range can't. I am just wondering what the piece feels like after it has been weighted, for the size of the lobs the head width is fairly narrow and the shaft has a lot of flex to it. which i think is awesome for trad in shallow cracks. it helps keep the piece in place

i just wonder how it feels once it has been weighted on aid or in a hanging belay, on a fall, or even used as an anchor piece where, at that size the shaft starts having enough room in the crack to move around. It's probably the most flexible stem on the market and i just was wondering what it felt like after it has been weighted. It seems that most people don't carry the larger aliens because of the lack of range at the upper end , as a set, and questions about the super flexible shaft, mostly just what it feels like once it has been weighted. I haven't had the chance to ask somebody who had a bigger alien what it felt like, which is a weird question.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Nov 08, 2002 3:47 pm

I know what you mean, Sparky. I have a friend who uses Aliens and I used to use and love them. I went with TCU's for my rack (got a sweet price) and they are now my favorite small cams for a couple of reasons. While the Aliens have the advantage of 4 cam lobes as opposed to 3, I just don't like the stems. His are embedded with grit and impossible to clean. He also has one that has gone floppy on him since falling on it and there is no Alien Viagra to fix that. I wouldn't want to use them any bigger than an equivalent to a .5 BD Cam.