BD Alpine Carbon Cork 2012 vs 2013

[David Chenault]

Clayton, how'd you get the BD grips off?

[MFR]

I put a pot of boiling water on and then held them in for 2-3 minutes. They twisted right off after that.

Originally, I planned to do something like the pole you put together last summer with some spare Leki pieces I had leftover from a warranty claim. But they weren't the right size for the Probe lower, and the Traverse poles were only $80 and would go a few inches higher (I like to sink my tip into the ground for better stability).

Given the weights of the Leki pieces, I figured I could get them down from 300 g to 225. The poles weigh 227 and 228 respectively.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

I had the Alpine Carbon Cork poles last summer, but found them a bit sluggish to use after coming from an 8oz/set pair of GG LT4 poles. A 16oz/set pole doesn't whip around as effortlessly for my tastes.

I highly recommend the new Locus Gear CP2 FL poles, which seem to sell out really quickly every batch. They're beautifully made 3 piece carbon poles with flick locks and weigh 9.9oz/set with the straps off. They also sell a twist lock version but hold out for the flick locks. Only small con is I prefer the larger diameter GG LT4 grips. They extend to 53", but the stop allowances seem quite generous – I run them at about 55" in my DuoMid.

Clayton: Do you think the GG grips could be worked onto a pole that was a few mm larger in diameter than the LT4's?

[MFR]

Dan, I don't think you'd have any problems with it. The Traverse upper is 16mm in diameter, the same as the CP2 poles. The Kork O' Lon stuff is pretty stretchy.

I used Gorilla Glue for my grips, and the first one took a lot of work to get on. Since the glue needs water to activate, I lightly wet the tip of the pole, spread the glue around there, and worked the grip on. It took maybe 10-15 minutes of pretty continuous pressure.

On the second pole, I forgot to put the water on before the glue, so I sloshed some around inside the grip and shook it out. This time, the grip slid right on with far less work.

Here's a thread where others have gotten the GG grips on 18mm poles too: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=75235

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Thanks. I appreciate the info. I'll likely give it a go at some point. It's just too bad GG wants $30 to ship a 2oz pair of grips to Canada.

[Jennifer Mitol]

Are no more.

I emailed the company to ask about when they'd be back in stock and Jotaro said they were making some design changes and had no idea when they would be offering them again.

So sad….

Why aren't these nice poles ever in stock anywhere??

[Ian]

I took the BD carbon corks backpacking again this weekend. As previously mentioned, I've gone bushwhacking with them and never had any concerns of the 2013 flip locks being pulled open. The trail we were on this weekend had numerous sections where the brush was growing over the trail and I had to push through it. I paid more attention to the flip locks to see if the brush would pull them open and nada.

You can't adjust the position of the highest lock is but you can with the lower one. It's possible that he had the lock lever facing forward where it would catch on brush. I don't know if that would be a problem but it's easy to prevent. I'm also wondering if he had a defective pair? I don't have any reason to sell one version over another but so far the concerns seem to be unfounded.

What I can say is that I had a very ungraceful moment on the trail where I was on the express elevator to the ground. I'm a pretty big guy and I threw a lot of weight and force onto my poles to keep me from redecorating my face. They lived up to their bomber reputation.

[Author]

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