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BD distance trekking pole repair
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Home › Forums › Gear Forums › Gear (General) › BD distance trekking pole repair
- This topic has 7 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 5 months ago by Sam Farrington.
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Sep 29, 2022 at 7:36 pm #3760986
I’ve got a pair of BD distance poles. The flexible joints are cracking/breaking down and no longer protecting the cord. Has anyone had any luck with a lasting repair? Silicone caulk, self fusing tape?
Sep 30, 2022 at 3:37 pm #3761043My experience with these poles included rusting and failure with the stainless steel button (BD wouldn’t discuss outside of the 1 year warranty period) … and a few actual pole breaks. I know these poles are a BPL fav but my personal experience says otherwise. Wouldn’t trust my life leaning in these.
Sep 30, 2022 at 5:30 pm #3761046I’ve been lucky with them. Maybe 10 years. They tend to be my go to unless I need adjustable.
Sep 30, 2022 at 6:50 pm #3761050My BD Distance poles are aluminum, purchased in 2011, and I find them very sturdy. I love the balance and weight distribution. But I have several gripes:
Mine have been frozen up for years. Not a problem for me because I never broke them down anyway, but still.
The grips are too thin, so they rattle around in my hands, even when using the straps correctly. I had to increase the diameter of mine with some foam rubber handles I peeled off a couple of three-dollar ice scrapers.
The straps are over-engineered (right and left are different) and *extremely* difficult to take off over gloves. They also wear out very quickly; I had to purchase new ones annually when I was using them a lot. I relegated them to backup duty when I realized I had completely re-spent the original purchase price on strap replacements. (Newer models may have improved this??)
The baskets are far too small to function as baskets, but they snag on brush like fishhooks. Shoot, they’ll even snag on rocks. To make matters worse, they are not removable and are too close to the pole tips to work well as tent poles.
Edit: And I have no ideas on how to fix the inner cord problem.
Oct 1, 2022 at 5:41 pm #3761091I have the same problem…gonna try disassembling and slipping some silicone aquarium tubing over the cord. Those plastic cones have turned nasty!
I’m not sure how much protection the cord really needs, if any? BTW, mine are the fixed length all carbon model.
Oct 1, 2022 at 11:19 pm #3761123I think for many of us BPLers the additional protection beyond the cord is overkill. Not everyone, though!
Oct 2, 2022 at 7:09 am #3761126While they obviously provided some cord protection, I suspect the main purpose of the cones was to guide the two sections into place during assembly.
Oct 2, 2022 at 6:34 pm #3761188While segmented poles do have a use for avalanches, could never understand what’s wrong with flicklocks. Even those on low cost poles, like Cascade Designs, work very well. And you can divide the overlap between the upper and lower flicklocks for provide more overlap for more strength. The adjustable height is great for pole supported tents, but their best feature is the ability to telescope the sections to quickly slide closed or open to facilitate carrying. Maybe telescoping poles that screwed tight often malfunctioned and were annoying; but the flicklocks, if well made, changed everything.
Am sorry to hear about BD’s attitude. At one time, you could write to the owner and get a helpful response. So often we see that when the owners and staff change, the company changes with them.
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