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jabtocrag
Jul 13, 2005, 6:02 PM
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Registered: Apr 22, 2003
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So who climbs on their cams after the teeth on the lobes have been completely worn off...down to nothing but a smoothed over lobe surface. I think most manufacturers recommend retirement of the cam at that point, but I know a number of climbers that think nothing of continuing to use them. All my cams are less than a year old, so I haven't actually had to deal with this yet!! :D :D
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geezergecko
Jul 13, 2005, 6:28 PM
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Registered: Mar 26, 2002
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Sounds like planned obsolescence to me. I recall a thread that claimed that the teeth are pretty much for show and some early cams had no teeth at all. The new BD C4s have more shallow teeth than the older design. Is that a conspiracy to get us to buy new cams more often?
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edge
Jul 13, 2005, 6:42 PM
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Registered: Apr 14, 2003
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I bought a bootleg 1/2 size rigid stem Friend once, with no teeth whatsoever. In 24 years of owning and using it, it has never slipped, and has caught my 195+ pound frame on several occasions. I plan on using it for still some time to come.
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mgoodro
Jul 13, 2005, 6:43 PM
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Registered: Aug 26, 2004
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The three smallest Aliens have no teeth.
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tradklime
Jul 13, 2005, 6:51 PM
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Registered: Aug 2, 2002
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In solid clean rock the smoother the better. Results in more contact surface area. Teeth can be helpful in gritty, lichen covered, or chossy rock. The degree of helpfulness is debateable. Early Metolius TCU's and Wired Bliss cams had smooth lobes. One problem that can occur if a cam had teeth but now has lobes that are worn smooth is that the shape of the cam lobe can be changed if the wear was localized, resulting in a different cam angle than the unit was designed with. This is likely since we rarely place cams at the very limits of their range.
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southbayclimber
Jul 13, 2005, 6:56 PM
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Registered: Jun 28, 2004
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This is my own personal experience, but I have found that the older cams I have that don't have teeth anymore are more likely to slip out of chossy or vegitated cracks. For example I placed an old tcu that has no teeth in a crack that had some wet moss in it and it slipped out. Not shocking, but probably would have a better chance of staying in if it had teeth. I don't think teeth do anything once there is outward pressure pushing it against the rock (then it just has more surface area), but my guess is that if your not climbing trade routes and come accross vegitated cracks, teeth are probably your friends. That said, I still place my bald cams all the time. Cheers, jason
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