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Time to get trekking poles. What do I look for?


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Home Forums Gear Forums Gear (General) Time to get trekking poles. What do I look for?

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  • #1651546
    Bradley Danyluk
    BPL Member

    @dasbin

    I've got the Ti Goat poles. Love the weight, and they actually feel a lot better in use than my old Komperdell aluminum poles with shock absorbers did. I think this is because I value vibration dampening more than shock absorbtion. The shock absorbers would just provide a bit of give when I put weight on the poles. Don't see the point in that, because if I'm putting weight on the pole, it's because I want to use it to push off of, and not move away from me! Aluminum, however, transmits the initial vibration of hitting something hard much better than CF, and the shock absorbers did absolutely nothing to lessen that initial light hit.

    It's not all rosy though. I really don't like the rubber expander locks. They're lightweight and simple, and make the units modular (you can get a Tenkara fishing pole extension that screws in using the same expander…. cool!) But I have a lot of problems locking them. They need to be pre-expanded a bit by screwing them down BEFORE entering the pole, but if you've done this enough (it needs to actually be a fair bit, because the inside diameter of the upper poles isn't exactly constant), it makes it really difficult to slide them to where you want.
    And if it's wet/raining, you can forget about a 100% reliable lock. It will slowly slip down on you and you'll need to readjust every half hour or so, regardless of how much you tighten. I think this is because at a certain point the expanders will no longer grip the walls to expand as you're twisting; they just slide as you turn. Ti Goat warns against "over-tightening," but frankly I've not once been able to get them even "tight enough," much less over-tight. It's just not physically possible.

    I thought this should all get better over time as the rubber softens, but it hasn't at all. I've tried using a rough sandpaper to roughen up the rubber, and even dirtying the locks with fine grit, but nothing really helps.

    All that said, they're worth the weight. Flip-locks would be great but we're talking over 3 times the weight for the next lightest option.

    #1651855
    Bradley Danyluk
    BPL Member

    @dasbin

    Great. I was taking my Goat poles apart to provide a photo of the expander mechanism for this thread, and pulled the lower section out at a slight angle by accident. The expander popped out under stress and the lower pole cracked vertically in several places.
    I guess the Goat god is paying me back for speaking ill of him!

    #1651861
    Travis Leanna
    BPL Member

    @t-l

    Locale: Wisconsin

    D'oh!
    I know how you feel. I just ruined the bottom section of my Leki's by using it under my Trailstar. I had the poles pulled out past their maximum length by accident.

    #1651865
    Rusty Beaver
    BPL Member

    @rustyb

    Locale: Idaho

    Ohhhh man!! I feel some what responsible. Sorry about that. I really appreciate your effort to take photos though! Thanks too for the candidness on the downfalls of the mechanism.

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