Flex Cam

 

When we introduced the FlexCams™ last year, we knew we had something truly exceptional. We’ve always been fans of function and versatility. We think that FlexCams™ embody these qualities better than any other cams on the market.

FlexCams™ are a superb blend of flexibility and stiffness: They’re flexible enough that the cables won’t kink if you catch a fall over an edge, yet stiff enough to offer precise control for tricky placements and sticky removals. The aircraft-grade stainless steel cable provides flexibility and strength, and the 1.5mm-thick nylon shrouding provides stiffness and protection.

Most mono-stem cams are finished with a cool little forged piece that gets swaged onto the cable-end and has a hole in it for the sling. These look great (and are easy on the manufacturing budget), but they require you to get your fingers around the trigger bar, then fumble to get your thumb on the end. Once your hand is finally set, you have little control of the cam the trigger just twists around the stem. Our low-tech but high-function swaged loop solves these problems, giving you precise control over the cam. Plus, it lets you clip in short for super-efficient aiding.

The expansion range of a cam is the difference between its smallest and largest size, so a large expansion range is a good thing. You can be a bit sloppy when choosing a cam to fit the crack your hands are stuffed into. Even if you blow it, the cam you grabbed might fit—if you’re lucky. But a large expansion range doesn’t reduce the number of cams you have to carry. If you want to place pro every 15 feet on a 150-foot pitch, you’ll need 10 cams, regardless of their expansion range.

Which brings us to weight. Take a look at a popular cam, known for its expansion range, and compare it to our FlexCams™. In the popular hand size, this cam has 12% greater expansion range. That sounds great, until you look at the numbers and realize this is a whopping 3mm: the thickness of a tortilla. That same cam weighs 20% more than our comparable FlexCam™, meaning you can carry 10 FlexCams™ for every 8 of the “expansive” ones. We use a double-looped 12mm Ultratape™ sling, so you can clip in directly, at 4 inches or at 8 inches. That means you’ll rarely need a quick draw, which saves even more time and weight.

The cams lobes are CNC machined from 7075 aluminum extrusions, allowing us to control tolerances to a fraction of a millimeter. New for 2002 are full-strength, machined-in cam stops. While we don’t recommend placing cams in a fully open position, in the event that your cam walks into a wide spot and ends up fully opened, it won’t invert under load.

• Size range: 11.5mm–90mm (See our website for complete specs) www.trango.com
• Strength: 8kN–12kN (passive or active) • cam angle: 14 degrees

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