So I recently ordered a set of UL trekking poles from Locus Gear, a Japanese company. I like them a lot, and they come in a 5.5 oz a pole with 3 parts and flip-locks. I was looking at some of my old poles and I noticed I really do wear out the carbide tips before the poles fall apart. I talked to Locus and they don't really sell replacement tips. They do repairs if something "breaks" and they sell the whole last pole segment for $20.
I have some unused replacement tips (I think they are Komperdell) lying around – I measured the opening in those. I know Leki has replacement tips as well. Using a micrometer on some of my Leki poles I found the the diameter of the poles going into the tip was 10.5 mm or there about. The locus poles seem to be have a greater end diameter, least 11mm. I'm not ready to take apart my new Locus poles just to check dimensions. However I was playing around with just the business end of the Locus poles and found the carbide part can be removed with pliers. They go back on just fine, but if I do this enough I'm sure I could use some heat activated glue to hold them in. So far they are tight.
This might be an expensive proposition doing by trial an error, so I wanted to ask if anyone knows if there are any replacement tips where the carbide part can be removed like this, and that I might be able to use in these poles when I wear out the tips? Any ideas? Do you think I could tap the hole an use the black-diamond style threaded tips?
Alternately, has anyone ever tried boring out the other end of a replacement tip (the full plastic ones) so a pole will fit better? How universal are these replacement tip that can be bought for about $10 a pair?
