SummitPost.org

Sick lookin cams!

Thanks for sharin the pics, they look great!

Just saw this on rc.com -

http://rockclimbingcompany.blogspot.com ... -cams.html

Some changes to the design -

The Dragons now feature an anodised 7075 aluminium thumb grip – this patented feature allows the Dragon to use a doubled 8mm dyneema sling to reduce the number of quickdraws that climbers need to carry.

The doubled 8mm dyneema sling can’t be used on a standard wire loop because under load the loop collapses and the dyneema then cuts through the wire at around 10kN (the same does not happen on the DMM 4CUs because the rear spacer stops the wire collapsing.).

The aluminium thumb grip is massively strong and lighter than the steel wire it replaced.

wow, those cams look mighty tasty! i always hoped the UKers would make them one day (dual-axle cams). happy to take em over the now-china-made BDs... i got a little gear envy since i cant afford to replace my WC rack with these... hhehehee

Personally, I don't see a big deal. Gear weight, for back country stuff yeah BD is a tad heavy but I like the utility, durability and the reliability (for me three biggies). For desert stuff, I haven't run into situations YET, where I say, "damn, this rack is too heavy". Even when I am carrying 6-9 pieces of the same size, and I've brought pretty big racks with me to places.


Gear for just the third pitch (not including the second pitch which took 6 BD 0.5's and the last pitch with the wider stuff.

I agree with Dingus, gear envy gets pretty old. Its just tools to get to an experience. But if you see my rack, you'll notice that I'm BD all the way (as a disclosure, though I don't get gear from them nor do I have pro-deals with them).

A little research has uncovered the reasoning behind why DMM switched from their original loop design, similar to Black Diamond's. Apparently the extendable sling/wire loop design would fail at 10kN, with the sling cutting through the cable(!). This is substantiated by Black Diamond's testing seen here:

http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en ... ts-and-c3s

Black Diamond's solution to this problem was to create a specific type of sling, doubled-over, stitched and non-extendable. DMM created a different solution, apparently they felt quite strongly about keeping the extendable sling (a feature which Camalots don't have) and they designed a new forged end-piece which enabled extendability and 14kN rating.

Very clever those DMM lads.