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hosh
May 30, 2007, 11:16 PM
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How do these compare? Which has a narrower head width? Will they fit essentially the same size crack? Just wondering...
hosh.
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pornstarr
May 30, 2007, 11:28 PM
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perhaps...
which will fail first??
....might be more appropriate???
lol
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chumbawumba
May 30, 2007, 11:35 PM
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I have an orange tcu and a grey alien on my rack. They pretty much fit into the same places. I don't have it in front of me but I believe the grey alien has a slightly narrower head which is nice in pin scars. I like them both. You can't go wrong with either piece.
Edit: I have the older TCU's not the new "ultralights". I'm not sure how the shorter stem will perform. The TCU will definitly last longer than the Alien which has softer metal in the cam lobes. Some of my partners don't like the double stems on the TCU. In really small pin scars (where there is not much crack below the scar) the double stem is sketchy as it seems to leverage the piece out of the crack.
(This post was edited by chumbawumba on May 30, 2007, 11:48 PM)
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ja1484
May 30, 2007, 11:40 PM
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Well, for me, the germane item is that one of them is an Alien, and one of them isn't.
That pretty much settles it for me.
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hosh
May 31, 2007, 12:53 AM
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I have the gray Alien, but I have my doubts. I like Aliens, but with all the failures, you can't be too careful, eh?
hosh.
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ja1484
May 31, 2007, 1:18 AM
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hosh wrote: I have the gray Alien, but I have my doubts. I like Aliens, but with all the failures, you can't be too careful, eh? hosh.
Heh, not sure how you interpreted my post (I see now that I left it rather hard to decode), but to me, Aliens might as well be balls of wax paper. Won't touch 'em. There's just too much mischief surrounding all the reported failures and the lackluster response to them by CCH.
Just my personal opinion.
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pilgram
May 31, 2007, 2:15 AM
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http://www.metoliusclimbing.com/offset_cam.htm
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fulton
May 31, 2007, 3:03 AM
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I wish we could vote.
I wish we could vote on whether or not people who continue to buy aliens are dumb.
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hosh
May 31, 2007, 4:28 AM
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I've had my aliens since long before the Alien catastrophe. I haven't bought any since. All the Aliens that I have are dated before 11/04 except for three. One of those three is a Gray Alien that I have been thinking about replacing and I was looking into the new Ultralight TCU's. Hence the reason for this post. So how do the two stack up, all stabs at the integrity of the Alien aside...
hosh.
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ryanb
May 31, 2007, 5:40 AM
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I have both sitting right here (just got back from climbing).
They fit the same sized cracks, orange tcu might be *slightely* smaller but not so that you would notice it in use.
The alien head is narrower from axle end to axle end, the tcu is narrower from outside of lobe to outside of lobe.
The tcu is much shorter and stiffer...it works well in little pods/pin scars where one side is flat for the two lobe side and the other side has a dimple to put the single lobe in. I used to place the alien first, lately i have been placeing the tcu first, they both work. The alien works better unless it doesn't.
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bennydh
May 31, 2007, 5:45 AM
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I hate thinking that climbing on an alien is like flipping a coin as to whether or not its construction is gonna hold and keep you alive or not. That aside I'm not sure about the sizing but I'm all about Zeros and a Zero 6 on top of an orange TCU is money in place of an alien about those sizes. Just do it. The TCUs are bomber the Zeros are bomber and seriously so hot, sticky, and super sweet if van halen were to sing about em. I have this combination on my rack and they perform excellently. I also don't have to check this forum or other websites incessantly to find out if either cam is recalled. ;)
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medicus
Jun 4, 2007, 7:05 AM
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Head size orange tcu = 1 inch and somewhere inbetween ½ and 9/16th
Cam Lobe to opposite cam lobe = somewhere between 7/8th and 15/16th
Head size of grey alien = 1 inch and somewhere between 3/8th and 7/16th
Cam lobe to opposite cam lobe = 1 inch and somewhere between 1/16th and 1/8th
To me it appears that my gray alien might fit a smaller sized crack instead of what was said earlier about the orange TCU fitting smaller... but it's really a small difference and with CCH QC, my grey alien might be a tad smaller or something... but my grey alien definitely looks like it will fit a smaller crack than my orange TCU... but the difference is so small that it probably won't matter most of the time.
My TCU's are the ultralights. As for which one I would prefer QC issues aside, it appears that both have only seen like one placement from me. I think the time I placed my orange TCU was actually a time like what was mentioned earlier. The gray alien just didn't fit without the risk of overcamming if it walked much, but the one cam love side of the orange TCU fit in a little dimple really well or something to a similar affect. But like I said, this size of cam just hasn't seen a lot of use for me.
The flexibility of the two is no comparison with the alien obviously being drastically more flexible than the TCU.
Hope that helped some Hosh.
(This post was edited by medicus on Jun 4, 2007, 7:07 AM)
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j_ung
Jun 4, 2007, 11:54 AM
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Word on the street is that Metolius has an Alien-like cam in prototype as we speak.
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svilnit
Jun 4, 2007, 12:48 PM
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j_ung wrote: Word on the street is that Metolius has an Alien-like cam in prototype as we speak.
"Word on the street" huh? I need to start hanging out in your neighborhood, you hear all sorts of cool things there!
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medicus
Jun 4, 2007, 6:22 PM
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So it is metolius that I have been hearing about. 
Last I heard it was just "some manufacture might be,"...kind of had the hunch it might be metolius. I want to know about this design. Is there any word on the street about when more info might be available?
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j_ung
Jun 4, 2007, 6:27 PM
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Word on the street further indicates that summer OR Show might be when this particular new cam might make an initial appearance. Or maybe not. Bear in mind, all this was secondhand when I heard it. Now it's thirdhand.
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hosh
Jun 4, 2007, 6:28 PM
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I want these when they come out. Metolius makes quality gear and Aliens are the coolest cams, if they just didn't fall apart...
hosh.
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medicus
Jun 4, 2007, 6:35 PM
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I thought it was kind of a given that aliens are the crap when it comes to small cams...
I think metolius may see it more as a way to take control of QC issues while making a cam that all the people who love aliens will like... with how many aliens are sold, if you could, why wouldn't you make a cam similar to an alien?
I agree hosh, I'm particularly interested in these mysterious new cams. If they are as good as all the vague hype would indicate, I'll probably be picking some up a bit after they are released.
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caughtinside
Jun 4, 2007, 6:39 PM
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medicus wrote: I thought it was kind of a given that aliens are the crap when it comes to small cams...
There have always been people who don't like them for one reason or another (aside from the falling apart thing).
Floppy stem, soft lobes, garage machined look, etc.
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j_ung
Jun 4, 2007, 6:56 PM
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If this isn't just a rumor, don't expect them to be exactly like Aliens. And if they are, don't expect them to be inexpensive. Yet still more word on the street is that one of the problems with any company purchasing the Alien design from CCH is the prohibitive cost of producing them exactly to design. CCH likely has a tiny profit margin. And if so, it may be one of many factors contributing to their recent problems.
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j_ung
Jun 4, 2007, 8:05 PM
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hosh wrote: j_ung wrote: If this isn't just a rumor, don't expect them to be exactly like Aliens. And if they are, don't expect them to be inexpensive. Yet still more word on the street is that one of the problems with any company purchasing the Alien design from CCH is the prohibitive cost of producing them exactly to design. CCH likely has a tiny profit margin. And if so, it may be one of many factors contributing to their recent problems. I get the feeling that you know more than you're letting on that you know... hosh.
A little. But some things I'm sworn to secrecy about, others I can't say because I have to protect sources and yet more would be just plain crass to talk about publicly. The above is the important stuff, anyway.
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fulton
Jun 4, 2007, 8:33 PM
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I think its time that Metolius broke into the single stem cam market. Furthermore, my friends took a tour of the metolius production facility and said the employees at Metolius are prolific for testing gear to failure.
So I hear, while one of my friends was climbing at Smith he had a problem with a metolius cam and took it into metolius on a rest day (in Bend) for repair. Metolius gave him a new cam and pull tested the old one in need of repair.
The reason for this they said was to - 'back test' the older gear that is now in the field - sort of a random sample - to make sure their gear stands up to the wear and tear. Now there are some folks who love their job!
I've only got 18 cams on my rack - but 15 of them are Metolius. I've said I'll never buy an Alien - but that'll change if they'll now say 'Metolius' on them instead of 'CCH' (may as well be '666').
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j_ung
Jun 4, 2007, 8:36 PM
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I don't have quite that big a ratio of Metolius to other cam makers, but yeah, I'm with you. Long time happy Metolius user.
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