Totem Basic : no black, grey and orange cams

Hi,

I just notice totem does not produce those 3 cams .
Any reasons for that decision ??

Walter, I don't know why but I'll guess.

Black has external springs and is pretty wide, a few of the other brands are better in this size. C3 notably.

The Grey has a boat load of overlap between the yellow and red, it was a new addition and was never really needed.

The orange is a great cam but usually isn't better in the alien configuration, a .75 is stronger and more than adequate in this size. Also the reason for no purple or clear.

at that smaller size the purple mastercams or red x4 are just as good, then the grey mastercam, then even smaller the C3 000 is also good enough (or ballnut). the usable range from different cam angles becomes just about equal at those small ranges.

With microcam designs you get diminishing returns bigger than off fingers or smaller than tips.

Because Totem makes Totem cams in those larger sizes.

Black Totem Basics are nearly ready. The UK distributor has seen them. I don't know the exact timing of when they will hit the shops.

No need for a grey as the sizes of the yellow and red basics are slightly different to the original Aliens giving more overlap.

Orange and larger sizes are covered by the Totem cams which are a better design for this range. There will probably be a Totem cam smaller than the current Blue at some point. I'd like to see gold and blue (Dragon/Camalot) equivalents too but apparently the demand is mainly for the smaller sizes.

Thanks !
That's make sense !

Good news about the black. I love my orange alien. It's friend sized and fits between a .75 and #1 camalot, and like other aliens, it's lighter than similarly sized pieces from BD or metolius. Love the purple and clear aliens for the same reason.

I believe that totem said that the basic cams actually have different sizing to better cover grey.

Crotch Robbins wrote:Good news about the black. I love my orange alien. It's friend sized and fits between a .75 and #1 camalot, and like other aliens, it's lighter than similarly sized pieces from BD or metolius. Love the purple and clear aliens for the same reason.

Hi,

Anyone had a date for the availability of the black cam in Canada ou US ??

duncan... wrote:Black Totem Basics are nearly ready. The UK distributor has seen them. I don't know the exact timing of when they will hit the shops. No need for a grey as the sizes of the yellow and red basics are slightly different to the original Aliens giving more overlap. Orange and larger sizes are covered by the Totem cams which are a better design for this range. There will probably be a Totem cam smaller than the current Blue at some point. I'd like to see gold and blue (Dragon/Camalot) equivalents too but apparently the demand is mainly for the smaller sizes.

Hi,
I just contact Totem, here their response about the availability of the black
Unfortunatately it will be for 2017 ! but at least it is in their plan !!

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Hello,

The development of that size is planed to for next year, and to be released in 2017.
We got stuck at the beginning due to the difficulty to maintain the design guideline we use for the rest of our Basics (springs and trigger wire mainly).
But this size is requested by many climbers and we want to answer to their need. So we will make it. How? next year we will see.
Best regards,

Mikel Apezetxea
Technical Manager
Totem MT, Koop. E.