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Ray Jardine examines Cuben Fiber


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Home Forums General Forums General Lightweight Backpacking Discussion Ray Jardine examines Cuben Fiber

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  • #1299863
    Steve B
    BPL Member

    @geokite

    Locale: Southern California

    Did a search here, didn't find any posts showing this already.
    Dated 2/18/13, down the page a bit: http://www.rayjardine.com/News/index.htm

    So, who would like to go first? :)

    Steve

    #1960261
    Ken Thompson
    BPL Member

    @here

    Locale: Right there

    One reason they don't make square tent poles.

    #1960281
    Luke Schmidt
    BPL Member

    @cameron

    Locale: Alaska

    People have hiked thousands of miles with Cuben gear without problems. Sorry but some little video isn't going to change my mind on that. A real test of cuben would be how hard it was to rip a tie out off a tarp or rip a strap off a pack.

    #1960285
    EndoftheTrail
    BPL Member

    @ben2world-2

    Would be really helpful if folks like Joe of Zpacks — those who work with cuben and are familiar with the fabric will chime in.

    #1960286
    David Ure
    Member

    @familyguy

    He needs to tear 0.53 oz silnylon. Trust me, it tears easily.

    He is such an opportunistic Prick.

    #1960290
    David Olsen
    Spectator

    @oware

    Locale: Steptoe Butte

    cuben 1 vs sil before.jpgcuben 1 vs sil center seam.jpgcuben 1 vs sil failure 42 lbs.jpg

    Simple seam with .51 cuben one side 1.3 oz silnylon other side. Pulled to failure.
    Stitching, cuben and silnylon all failed together at 42 lbs.

    The fabrics are comparable in strength in my experience. A second row of stitches would have increased the
    strength of the seam overall.

    Note the unreinforced web tie outs remained undamaged.

    #1960294
    Jerry Adams
    BPL Member

    @retiredjerry

    Locale: Oregon and Washington

    "So, who would like to go first? :)"

    Good one Stephen

    Yeah, that "test" is not very useful

    Ray is such a self-promoter

    #1960295
    Luke Schmidt
    BPL Member

    @cameron

    Locale: Alaska

    I don't presume to know Ray Jardine's character but it does come off looking bad. Sorta like "hey Cuben stinks so keep buying my silnylon kits."

    I don't think Jardine has come up with a new idea since the 90s but he's still trying to pass himself off as an expert and peddle his gear kits. He has a right to do that, but I also have a right to say a new backpacker would be much better off looking to Ryan Jordan, Andrew Skurka or Brian Robinson for ideas.

    #1960299
    Jeffs Eleven
    BPL Member

    @woodenwizard

    Locale: NePo

    Screw Jardine- I wanna know what Gross thinks.

    #1960301
    Michael Ray
    BPL Member

    @topshot

    Locale: Midwest

    Same guy that can't seem to properly care for or keep dry his down bags either. See Page 17

    #1960305
    Bob Gross
    BPL Member

    @b-g-2-2

    Locale: Silicon Valley

    I've never seen a Jardine kit, so I can't say much about them.

    The cuben fiber stuff that I have has turned out nicely, but maybe that is because I figured out how to treat them to avoid damage.

    –B.G.–

    #1960306
    Travis Leanna
    BPL Member

    @t-l

    Locale: Wisconsin

    I'm sorry, but his take on certain things reads like a parody.

    It also appears that, despite all he has done for the backpacking world, everyone has moved on and he doesn't know how to adapt to more modern techniques and gear.

    For example, he claims that his synthetic quilt should last decades if properly cared for. Ok, sure. But then…

    "Unlike goose down which eventually goes flat, our synthetic insulation does not."

    Apparently only Ray has this magical synthetic insulation?

    #1960312
    Miguel Arboleda
    BPL Member

    @butuki

    Locale: Kanto Plain, Japan

    Steve, didn't you know that Jardine won't allow you to copy that URL and post it without his permission? Just wait. He's going to come after you!

    #1960322
    John Brochu
    Member

    @johnnybgood4

    Locale: New Hampshire

    >>>I don't presume to know Ray Jardine's character but it does come off looking bad. Sorta like "hey Cuben stinks so keep buying my silnylon kits." <<<

    Jeff Lowe (famous climber and founder of Latok Mountain Gear) had this to say about Jardine's character:

    "But to the point of Ray's character:
    I was there in '71 or '72 at my brother Mike's house in Gunnison, CO. Mike, Ray and I were Outward Bound instructors and therefore had something in common. Greg was over from Utah to work with Mike on the camming concept, which he'd been developing since 1967. Jardine had been invited to a spaghetti dinner, and Greg offerred to show him the current state of development of his new protection device for climbing, but first Ray had to sign a non-disclosure/non-compete agreement.

    Ray was a quick engineering study and soon grasped the essentials of the constant-angle cam and spring-load concept. It was all-in-all a very convivial and exciting sharing among friends. This is why, several years later, when word began to leak out about Ray's secret devices, Greg sent the first of a string of registered letters to Jardine, seeking to come to some sort of agreement over his breach of faith. All the letters were refused, so it was that, finally, after Friends came out on the market and Mark Vallance began producing them under license from Ray, that Greg finally filed suit. To make a long story a little shorter, Mark, who is a stand-up guy, but had not been told the whole story by Ray, finally agreed to pay Greg a settlement for the use of the camming concept. Who needs an enema when you've got a friend like Ray?"

    Source: http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=385308&msg=387286#msg387286

    Post #87 — User Jello is well known to be Jeff Lowe.

    #1960328
    Andrew F
    Member

    @andrew-f

    Locale: San Francisco Bay Area

    It always amuses me that Jardine has a good reputation in the backpacking world, because it's the opposite in the climbing world. Aside from the story above, there are numerous other tales of his less than ethical behavior. For instance, the Jardine Traverse on the Nose route on El Capitan bears his name- because he chiseled the holds on it into the rock with a hammer.

    #1960333
    Brian UL
    Member

    @maynard76

    Locale: New England

    I had not heard these stories. I thought he was a bit eccentric but this is a new perspective.

    #1960334
    M B
    BPL Member

    @livingontheroad

    he compares 1.35 silnylon to 0.51 cuben, a factor of 2.5 x lighter material.

    Why doesnt he compare it to 0.74 or 1.0 or 1.4 cuben? Because he would look foolish, thats why. Those materials, although lighter or equal to silnylon still, are much much stronger than the 0.51.

    He only wants to make a flawed point, to steer people to his kits.

    #1960365
    Dale Wambaugh
    BPL Member

    @dwambaugh

    Locale: Pacific Northwest

    Jardine can be a crank on certain subjects. He seemed very grounded when writing on UL concepts but sounded a little freaky when he got on the subjects of food and nutrition. I swear I could hear the Twilight Zone theme and the book spoke to me in Rod Sterling's voice :)

    #1960371
    Anthony Weston
    BPL Member

    @anthonyweston

    Locale: Southern CA

    I'm not going back to silnylon. Much less condensation with cuben.
    No problems in the field.

    #1960375
    Dale Wambaugh
    BPL Member

    @dwambaugh

    Locale: Pacific Northwest

    Well just don't put your Cuben up against a square edged piece of wood and pull sideways on it :)

    From the North Sails web site:


    Cuben Fiber gives North sail designers the opportunity to design very light and easily pressurized sails with enough strength to handle high shock loads. There is no other lightweight sail material in the world that offers the strength needed to absorb the energy of an asymmetric sail refilling after a gybe, or the loads generated when sailing in lumpy seas. Super light Cuben Fiber styles weigh 33-50% less than the lightest coated nylon spinnaker cloths. A Cuben Fiber asymmetric spinnaker will stay pressurized and will load the spinnaker sheet at significantly lower apparent wind angles than any other material, providing a significant net VMG gain. The advantage is most pronounced in small-medium size boats where “traditional” spinnaker fabrics are tend to be somewhat overweight by nature.

    If you can run a 50' sailboat upwind, you should be able to use it for a tarp!Cuben sails

    #1960386
    Dirk R
    BPL Member

    @dirk

    Agreed. +1 "If you can run a 50' sailboat upwind, you should be able to use it for a tarp!"

    Also

    "I'm not going back to silnylon. Much less condensation with cuben." +1 Anthony

    #1960394
    John Donewar
    BPL Member

    @newton

    Locale: Southeastern Texas

    I'm not sure that cuben in and of itself as a material is less prone to condensation than say PU coated, silnylon or any other material.

    If the temperature outside of your tent or tarp varies greatly enough from the temperature inside or underneath your shelter I believe you will see condensation.

    Condensation is produced by the evaporative effect of a temperature differential in much as the same way it occurs in an air conditioning unit "evaporator" coil.

    I'll agree that some materials are better conductors of heat than others. This is confusing to me though because if for the sake of discussion cuben is less prone to condensation wouldn't that make it more breathable?

    Correct if I am wrong, but by nature isn't silnylon more breathable than cuben?

    What kind of shelters are we speaking about? How are they set up? Are they single wall, hybrids or double wall shelters?

    I want to understand what makes cuben less prone to condensation if it is so.

    Party On,

    Newton

    #1960395
    William Chilton
    BPL Member

    @williamc3

    Locale: Antakya

    Perhaps Ray should watch this video .
    It's well known that cuben fiber tears easily from a cut edge. It would be interesting to see the same test with a seamed strip of cuben. Also, is it just me or is Ray pulling the cuben differently from the silnylon? He seems to be jerking it more, and angling the pull to maximise the stress on the weak cut edge.

    #1960397
    Dale Wambaugh
    BPL Member

    @dwambaugh

    Locale: Pacific Northwest

    "It's well known that cuben fiber tears easily from a cut edge. It would be interesting to see the same test with a seamed strip of cuben. Also, is it just me or is Ray pulling the cuben differently from the silnylon? He seems to be jerking it more, and angling the pull to maximise the stress on the weak cut edge."

    Obvious to me. Note the grunting on the soundtrack for the silnylon video. Pure PT Barnum!

    #1960414
    Jennifer Mitol
    Spectator

    @jenmitol

    Locale: In my dreams....

    I've only had a chance to use my hexamid about a dozen nights or so, but I find the condensation is far easier to manage, not that there is necessarily less of it.

    When the silnylon would get wet it would hold onto the moisture, sag like crazy no matter how tight the pitch was the night before, and seem to just stay wet. The cuben does get wet, especially over my head (which happens to be where the dog sleeps too…so I blame him), but doesn't seem to drip, sag, or cause me difficulties in any way. It slides down the wall of the hex, runs into the netting on the floor, and voila…no worries. (As an aside, while initially quite skeptical of the net floor, I find it rather ingenious now)

    This is why, sadly for my bank account, I don't think I would ever buy a silnylon shelter again.

    I guess I just need to be careful about pulling it against a sharp edged piece of wood, as some previous folks have warned. Thanks for the heads up!!!

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