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Can anyone offer some advice for small cams? I currently have one each of WC tech friends down to 0. I need some doubles so I've been eyeballin' the BD micro cams. Anyone have experience with these or with metolius or aliens? Just want to get the pros and cons from your experience before shelling it out.

I find it useful to have a mix of all the different brands. They each seem to have their own unique charachteristic. BD microcams seem to fit a slightly different range than the Metolius and Aliens which makes a huge difference in those small crack placements. The Aliens are great for pin scars due to their fairly thin profile. I would suggest filling in your rack in the problem sizes for you. That means, buy cams from a couple of different manufactures that will give you pieces to sew up those sections where you do not feel so solid, and then branch out to the other sizes. If I were to prioritize, I'd say pick up a few BD Microcams, then a couple of Metolius TCUS and then Aliens. All the manufacturers are making a good product these days... Hope that helped. Feel free to PM me with any questions....

aliens are killer in the small sizes though they have had some quality issues lately, Metolius are bomber, BD C3's are expensive, stiff operating trigger but give me the most confidence above them, Wild Country 00 size is a must if you're only good to 0, for consideration is the news that Metolius is releasing a new single stem micro cam similar to the aliens, no feedback but if I find one of those genie bottles I'll have more info, no experience with the WC micro cams, I think the R & I issue with Katie Brown on the cover had an article comparing the BD, WC and Metolius cams

aliens with the dimples on them.

If you are worried about shelling out dough you are going to love my suggestion. Just go with what you have. This feeling of wanting new cams never goes away. I rarely trad climb and my knee jerk reaction to hearing about single stemmed metolious tcu or whatever hybrid stuff comes out is boy I could really use that. Think about it this way. How many routes does getting a double set of small cams get you? Assuming you have stoppers not many. Fuckit get the Aliens they are awsome especially the Yellow one I wish I had 5 of those suckers. As long as I am wishing. I wish there were some cracks at the red that would require 5-10 perfect finger sized pieces.

PS. I think this subject has been researched before. Try poking around in the archives.

oops.

i've got a couple sets of C3's and I think they're great. the triggers tend to be kind of stiff, especially on the 1 and 2 sizes. one thing to keep in mind is the #2 C3 is the same size as the .3 C4. i don't know what a 0 WC is but the 0 and 00 C3's are really nice and I love placing them.

JR wrote: I wish there were some cracks at the red that would require 5-10 perfect finger sized pieces.

"The Man Behind The Curtain"
5.11"ish"


You'll love it....perfect fingers. Ultra steep. NO faceholds.

I personally wouldn't trust an alien to hang my keys off of. Quality with CCH has been terrible lately. Someone even decked in the Red when an Alien failed on Sauder's Crack. Rumor is that even post-recall dimpled cams have failure mechanisms due to QC. I'd buy them if i could hyraulically pull-test them though.

The Metolious single stems look awesome, but you'll have to wait through the spring season before you can get your hands on any.

That leaves you WC, BD, and Metolious. You can still find old camalot jr.'s some places for $30 each, which is pretty nice. Metolious TCUs, pre ultralight, are also on clearance some places. I've never seen WC on discount. BD C3's are pricey and so are Ultralight TCUs.

I have the old camalot jr's down to .1 and a single set of c3s. I hardly ever place the c3s, though I haven't had them very long.

Having said that, I'd buy older metolious TCUs ($30-$35). They are the right price, fit well, and are bomber when used correctly.