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cheapholds
Jul 19, 2006, 9:33 PM
Post #26 of 68
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for all the US addresses, you will receive your samples by this friday. international will obviously take a bit longer.
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rhythmisnothing
Jul 21, 2006, 5:51 PM
Post #27 of 68
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got my sample hold about a hour ago.
Wow, 2 day mail for a free sample? 8^) 8^)
Very pretty blue :P
Very VERY smooth, great texture. I wish my local gym's holds were this smooth :D
It's cool that its smooth and grippy at the same time. Wouldn't need to bombard on the chalk.
I havn't got to install it yet, but it looks extremely sturdy.
When I build my wall after I move, I know where I'm ordering from 8^)
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curtis_g
Jul 21, 2006, 5:55 PM
Post #28 of 68
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got my samples yesterday. the large hold is a very interesting shape...I like it a lot. love the texture and just the feel of the hold. nothing extremely abbrasive but still very grippy. many intersting ways to orient the large hold and the foot chip is just as nice...great as a foot or a pincher. awesome holds guys.
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neuroshock
Jul 21, 2006, 6:46 PM
Post #29 of 68
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just got the samples yesterday. i'll post more once me and my buddies have had opportunity to crank off of them.
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jspec7
Jul 23, 2006, 6:32 PM
Post #30 of 68
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I got my samples in the mail on Friday and climbed on them Saturday. The texture of holds is one of the best. It doesn't rip your skin up like many companies, but is still has enough texture. It's perfect with chalk. The foothold has more texture on it than the other three companies foot jibs I have on my wall too, helping when feet are crucial to a climb. The big blue jug has is good at almost any angle you set it at and has a comfortable grip. The red foothold has different levels of difficulty too. The colors are really vibrant too. I don't really have any negative points about the holds. I was really impressed and I would order from cheap holds again. Thanks for the samples!
Tim
http://i103.photobucket.com/...eapHoldsSamples2.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/...7/CheapHoldsJug2.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/...apHoldsFoothold2.jpg
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112
Jul 25, 2006, 1:24 AM
Post #31 of 68
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Registered: May 15, 2004
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My sample arrived on Friday as promised, although I wasn't available to receive them. :( I did get them today! :)
Same blue bucket hold and red foot chip as everyone else. The letter in the package suggested testing the holds durability with a hammer, throwing against the wall, or anything else I felt like doing. I was surprised to say the least. I have broken holds just by over-tightening, and would have never thought to take a hammer to them, but hey they're free right.
So I started out with gentle hammer blows, waiting for my free stuff to turn to garbage. It didn't. I throw them against my climbing wall. The holds just bounced back. So now I was getting into this, thinking the holds will break soon. They didn't. I thought this is getting a little ridiculous. I put them both on my wall and tensioned the sh*t out of the bolts, and began taking hammer blows at each. No big deal. For a moment I thought, I better put on some safety glasses. Next I thought, I have a hatchet hammer why not try the hatchet. I took several well placed (light) hatchet blows to the foot chip (I don't want to f*ck up the big hold), and the foot chip gave a little, but didn't crack!
I was quite surprised and didn't want to completely ruin the thing, hey I'm cheap, and so I gave up. Now I am sure you can destroy these holds. I don't want to claim they are indestructible, but c'mon how much stress does a hold need to take? My (name brand left out) holds, currently on my wall, would never stand up to such abuse. I have broken 4 screw on holds from this 'other' company. I did not get to 'play' with any screw-on holds from Cheapholds, but I sure would like to!
My next purchase goes to Cheapholds.com :righton:
Thanks for the samples!
Ken
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cheapholds
Jul 26, 2006, 12:10 AM
Post #32 of 68
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trust me, the screw-ons are just as good! if you can, post some pics of the 'hatchet test' 8^)
btw: we sent everybody a bucket hold because most people said they wanted to test something they could really pull on.
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sidepull
Jul 26, 2006, 12:24 AM
Post #33 of 68
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(sniffle)
to answer the titular question, here's my opinion, I secretly hate them because I was too slow to get in on the free schwag which I'm sure would have landed me a sweet finishing jug to put at the top of my training wall.
yes, that's right, (sniffle) secretly hate them.
(at least it was secret before I posted this - argh, I'm so conflicted. isn't this the site about PMS?)
(sniffle)
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tonloc
Jul 26, 2006, 12:35 AM
Post #34 of 68
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i have cheapholds on my climbing wall almost exclusively...it is a shitty little overhung bouldering wall in my backyard, but the holds have held up great...they have been through snowy winters and hot summers and are still going strong, the texture hasn't even really come off like it tends to so on some holds, good stuff....
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112
Jul 26, 2006, 5:50 PM
Post #35 of 68
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In reply to: trust me, the screw-ons are just as good! if you can, post some pics of the 'hatchet test' 8^) btw: we sent everybody a bucket hold because most people said they wanted to test something they could really pull on.
(Quality of photot isn't too good)
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...to_show.php?id=76340
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112
Jul 26, 2006, 5:56 PM
Post #36 of 68
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In reply to: trust me, the screw-ons are just as good! if you can, post some pics of the 'hatchet test' 8^) btw: we sent everybody a bucket hold because most people said they wanted to test something they could really pull on.
Image
For some reason I can't get it to post as an image *http://
If I kept at it the hold would have cut, but I figured it would have cracked just after a couple blows.
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zeroion
Jul 27, 2006, 7:24 AM
Post #37 of 68
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I also received my sample on Friday. Due to the terrible hot weather in Southern California and work, I wasn't able to really test the holds until a couple days ago. I think I've made up for the delay in my review, though, with the extensive testing I was able to perform ;)
Oh, although this review might be a bit long, don't skip it over. I drove (yes, with a car) over the holds just to test them and have videos to prove it!
For me, the most important thing about a hold is how it feels. The shape of the two holds I received, a red jug and a yellow foot chip, was pretty comfortable; I don't think it would be possible to injure oneself while using these holds. Of course, this can usually be said about most basic holds, but cheapholds didn't fail here.
However, I didn't think the holds were rough enough. I personally like my handholds a bit grittier. The holds I received felt a little slippery after some moderate use with chalked up hands (nothing a brush or washing couldn't fix), but still, I was disappointed in this regard. I didn't have any rough sandpaper around, otherwise I would have tried giving the holds a few swipes to see if they could be made 'rougher'.
http://static.flickr.com/...585_4978dd671d_o.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/...97586_528e85dcb8.jpg
After feel, I value most durability. I've been to a few climbing gyms, and I've seen chipped, cracked, worn-till-smooth, discoloration, and other problems on high-traffic holds. I also want to be sure that my holds will be able to handle me landing dynos on them. Since the letter that was enclosed with the holds suggested that I do anything to them, I decided to throw everything I had at the holds. First, I chose the heaviest thing I had around: my Honda Civic.
http://static.flickr.com/...97587_528e85dcb8.jpg
I drove over the red jug once, and it came back with hardly any damage. After those results, I decided to drive over the yellow foot chip twice, and it too didn't take any damage. I'm quite impressed, and I've posted videos of me driving over the holds, as well as pictures of the aftermath below.
Videos Here: Red Jug Yellow Footchip
After Getting Run Over:
http://static.flickr.com/...97588_91f26cedec.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/...97589_534508e1d3.jpg
Since my car didn't destroy the holds, I decided to take my hammer to them. I hit both of the holds a few times with my hammer, and the only thing that happened was that the holds got some very light dent marks. Pictures are also included below.
http://static.flickr.com/...97590_60747135da.jpg
There were some tests that I'd like to have performed, but didn't have the time or ability to conduct: wearing out and discoloration. Maybe I'll post about how the holds wear out after I've used them for a few months. As to discoloration, I've seen poor quality holds wear out on their color; that is, the holds weren't cast in a solid color, but were painted or coated with a layer of colored resin after production. After a bit of wear, these types of holds get 'spotty' after the outer layer wears out. I was going to cut the jug in half with a miter saw to see if the resin was solid red, but I didn't want to waste such a nice hold...
I also performed another test where I smashed the holds, sideways, against pavement. This was to see if their edges were brittle enough to chip under moderate usage. Impressively, they didn't. I haven't included pictures because the holds looked pretty much the same after the test.
A good review would not be complete without some nitpicking. I'm a perfectionist, and little things can mean a lot to me. Since I was somewhat disappointed by the texture of the holds, I examined their surface carefully and noticed that they had little pockets of uncolored resin. While this wasn't really noticeable in general, it's visible if you're looking at the holds carefully. I've tried to capture this in the following photo, but the macro mode on my camera is terrible, so it might not be too visible. This is only a minor issue, but it's something I thought I might as well mention.
http://static.flickr.com/...98215_8989ec2150.jpg
Overall, I'm quite impressed with the quality of holds from cheapholds.com. They seem much more durable than the holds used at my local climbing gym, and their prices are hard to beat. Cheapholds seems to be trying to shake off the assocation of 'cheap' with 'low-quality', and they do so rightfully. Their holds are inexpensive and high-quality.
BTW, if anybody wishes to see larger versions of these pictures, go here or drop me a PM.
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midtnclimber
Jul 27, 2006, 8:29 PM
Post #38 of 68
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I got my free holds as promised and wanted to climb on them for a week before I posted my response. CHEAPHOLDS ROCK! The texture on these holds is amazing. I have bought holds from metolious in the past and was very disapointed with the texture after only one day of climbing. The holds from Cheapholds are by far the best I have ever seen. I tensioned the holds very tight with no breakage. The texture is the most impressive thing to me as it did not smooth over as other holds do.
Thank you Cheapholds.com for the free swag.
From a now LOYAL and SOLD future customer.
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cheapholds
Jul 27, 2006, 9:31 PM
Post #39 of 68
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Registered: Oct 26, 2001
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zeroion - excellent testing!
one thing i wanted to clarify, you mentioned "I examined their surface carefully and noticed that they had little pockets of uncolored resin." i am not exactly sure what you are seeing, but this is actually not possible to happen. the only way for this to occur was if the holds were colored after the casting process. in this case, you possibly could see through the color down to the natural look of the resin. this is not the case with us, or any other hold company. our resins are colored in their liquid state, before the casting process. the color is saturated throughout the hold. if cut it in half, the inside is the same color.
i would appreciate it if you return that foot chip to me so we can check out what you are seeing. the spot in your pic should not be there and i want to find out what caused it. just use a cheap post office option. i will send back some extra stuff to compensate for the costs.
you mentioned you have seen holds with color sprayed on. send me a PM with the brand name if you know it, i have never heard of anyone doing this way.
as for the color life: in general, urethane resin holds will fade a little faster than holds made from certain polyester resins. some resin systems are more affected by UV light than others. however, this is something that every company struggles with. some try to sell you a UV coating to prolong the colors. (dont waste your money, it wont make that much of a difference.) in urethanes, most will shift in color more so than they will fade. many will move towards a yellow tint, making blue holds move towards green. another key factor is the dye loading. the more dye added, the better the color life. but, this adds to the final price and resins can only handle a certain amount of dye.
in our resin systems, we include a UV inhibitor that helps tremendously to prevent physical breakdowns and prolong color life. we cant promise it will last forever, but it does hold up pretty well. as you found in your tests, the quality of the plastic is superb. most people do not mind a little bit of color shifting if the product holds up over the years.
to get a truely fade proof urethane climbing hold, you need to get into aliphatic urethanes. however, this is about 3-5 times the price of standard urethanes, which is why nobody uses them. the holds would run $15-$20 each for an medium size. we produce climbing holds for pool environments using aliphatics in which the colors should last forever, but they are expensive. sorry if this is too much info!
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sidepull
Jul 28, 2006, 12:22 AM
Post #40 of 68
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every time I see this post on the front page it just makes me want to hit myself in the head. I know, a free jib and a jug - not that big of a deal, I just can't believe I missed it - doh!
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cheapholds
Jul 28, 2006, 3:30 AM
Post #41 of 68
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as long as everybody responds as they said they would we will do it again, just keep watching this forum :)
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sirus2400
Jul 28, 2006, 3:36 AM
Post #42 of 68
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I just got my holds on Tuesday... but let me clarify, I'm currently living in JAPAN. When I PM'd James at cheapholds I told him that he could send them to a relative in the US and they would forward them to me, but he said he would be happy to send them directly to to me here. Props to them for that, a little over a week for overseas shipping. So, as for the review.
Out of the box I gave the holds a quick once over. I noticed a lot of the same things that have already been posted; nice feel, not too abrasive, but pretty grippy. However, I also noticed that the holds felt a little slick. I figured that this may be from the casting, so I gave them a quick rinse in soapy water and this issue was resolved. I do have to agree with zeroion on the texture, it may be too non-abrasive for me, but I'll have to get back to you on that after some more use.
Since we were given a go ahead to throw the holds around, I did just that. I first dropped them a few times on the pavement, nothing... So I decided to give them a good throw. I've worked in a gym before and had a lot of holds chip on the edges, but this wasn't the case with cheapholds, no chips even with a pretty strong throw against pavement. After this, I kind of got into it. I went to the top of the building that I live in, and dropped the holds off (I made sure no one was coming), nothing, not a chip. I then did this again, but threw the holds instead of just dropping them. No major damage, just a few scratches (hey extra grip).
The last thing I did was crank the holds onto my wall. One of the problems I've had (and I'm sure many of you have had) is that chips tend to break if you over tighten them. Well, I cranked the holds on as tight as I possibly could and they didn't crack. I'm sold, but was wondering if there are any holds at cheapholds with a rougher texture?
(Sorry there are no pictures, the holds I got are almost exactly the same as zeroions and there was very little damage from all my tests)
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cheapholds
Jul 28, 2006, 3:54 AM
Post #43 of 68
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if only our texture could please everyone... :D we design our texture to appeal to the masses, but of course some people may like it more smooth or more rough. thanks for the feedback!
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wrbill
Jul 28, 2006, 5:43 AM
Post #44 of 68
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I got my holds the same day as everyone else, but I have been busy and have only climbed on them for two maybe three times. I love the holds and would buy some, and I will be buying about $300 to $400 at the beginning of the year with my tax money. I have nothing to add to the reviews that have been put up thus far. I holds feel great and are fun to climb on.
I would like to say thanks to the people at Cheap Holds for making such great holds at a great price (free to some of us). But no kidding, after looking that the price of there holds the price is great and so is the services.
Bill
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wishiwasamonkey
Aug 1, 2006, 1:55 AM
Post #45 of 68
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My samples arrived today. I would consider this exceptionally quick considering i live in the middle of nowhere Alberta. I will be away for a few weeks but i look forward to trying them out.
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ratmnerd
Aug 1, 2006, 3:37 AM
Post #46 of 68
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I also just received mine, in my case on Saturday. I was mightily impressed, seeing as I live in New Zealand, which is right on the other side of the world.
1. The packaging was great. Noone has addressed this, but I'm gonna, simply because I hate receiving stuff from the US in a damaged state. Well packaged, and kept together well too - no half opened boxes.
2. Not living at home, I was unable to put them on a wall for good, simply cos I don't trust my mates to not booty them. However, in the 2 days of climbing I did on them, they stayed confortable to hold and still had good friction (but not too much for my poor little handsies to cope with). I then removed them and tested the f--k outta them.
3. I did pretty much what everyone here did - hit em with a hammer, threw em against a wall (the dude in the room next to mine was NOT happy with that). I also threw em from the second floor into a hard asphalt surface. Nothing in any of the tests. No chipping or anything.
That's pretty much all i have to say. Oh yeah, they also gave me the bolts for em too. Mot sure if that's standard or what, but I was still impressed there too. Overall, when i gets rich and stuff, cheapholds.com get my order.
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jgould21
Aug 4, 2006, 9:09 PM
Post #47 of 68
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Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for all the posts about cheapholds.com. A friend and I are working on a plan to open a rock climbing gym and we've been researching equipment prices. A lot of holds online are VERY expensive. I don't know about the quality of them though, because we haven't tried them yet. But, now cheapholds.com will definitely be among our first choices.
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c-money
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Aug 12, 2006, 12:56 AM
Post #48 of 68
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Got back from a road-trip and found my samples waiting for me (sorry I didn't post sooner). I got the same jug and footchip/crimp sample. I had used some Cheapholds in the past and had not really been impressed (at least three years ago, an older mix, not urethane). The latest version seems to address many of the old shortcomings:
First impressions:
Out of the box nice, bright colors. Texture feels OK, kind of slick (maybe this is just how urethane feels?), but still grippy. Holds are light. Designs are simple/basic.
Testing:
I rubbed the two holds against each other. After a quick test, there were no signs of wear. So, it was time to really sand/smash the holds into one another with effort = still no signs of wear. With the comments from other testers, I would expect these holds to last.
Climbing feel:
The samples went up on a route at the local gym.
I hate jugs that don't have enough "clearance", scraping your knuckles against the wall each time you grab them - not a problem with the sample, which is a very usable jug. I think this is super-important to note, as jugs are probably the most used holds on many walls (based on this sample, I would say CheapHold's jugs are good).
Texture - what felt slick out of the box actually felt quite grippy (maybe too grippy) with a little chalk. I was surprised at how it felt - while a lot of holds I have used have more of a "sandy" texture (I have mostly used polyester resin holds), the CheapHolds texture felt a bit sharp, like more of a "pock-marked" or "cratered" feel. Maybe due to the urethane or casting process? Maybe simply because it was brand-new? Anyway, I am not sure how I liked this and would count this just slightly against them...
(*That being said, it is pretty hard to make any comments about the texture from a brand-new mini-jug. A sloper would probably tell you a lot more about the overall feel of the texture...)
In conclusion:
Good color, weight, usability and great durability. The price was right. Really, what more could you ask for?
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wishiwasamonkey
Aug 17, 2006, 4:58 PM
Post #49 of 68
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Just got back to Alberta and got to look at the samples - the same jug and footchip as everyone else. I love the shapes. The clearance mentioned by c-money is great and you won't remove your knuckles dynoing for the jug. The non-symmetrical design lends more options for hold placement. The footchip in particular could be anything from a really tough footchip to a decent crimp.
I really like the grippy texture on cheapholds, it is very grippy without being too hard on the skin. However, I was disappointed to find that in the thumb pocket was a spot about the size of my thumb pab devoid of texture.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=77328
The spot with little texture is visible just to the top and right of centre, directly below this is the normal texture of cheapholds for contrast. This was quite surprising as I have yet to see any serious texture inconsistecies from cheapholds outside of their cosmetic seconds and only a few in those.
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sidepull
Aug 22, 2006, 9:44 PM
Post #50 of 68
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if you compare the pic above with zeroion's post (page 3), it seems that both holds have white, non-colored spots (or those could just be highlights from the flash).
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