FIXE Alien REVOLUTION cams? Better now?

It seems that FIXE has recently improved upon their Alien Evolution cams by addressing some of the problems - namely the breakable plastic components are now aluminum and frayable cable trigger wires are now traditional, solid (and replaceable) wires.

The name has been updated to "Revolution" instead of "Evolution" along with the other changes. Has anyone used these new versions? Curious to hear how they might compare to Totem Basics (function, finish, spring tension, etc).

Fixe sure hopes you will think so.

I have nothing constructive to add ;)

Sloan was raving about these things on one of the other FIXE threads.

I wrote multiple times over a fixe evo cam I sent in for repair (at fixes direction) and never even got word back. This is over 7 months now. I am over that cam or any iteration over that issue alone regardless of any "fixes". I wish I'd gone through Totem for their version. Buyer beware.

Colonel Mustard wrote:I wrote multiple times over a fixe evo cam I sent in for repair (at fixes direction) and never even got word back. This is over 7 months now. I am over that cam or any iteration over that issue alone regardless of any "fixes". I wish I'd gone through Totem for their version. Buyer beware.

Yup. Until they make MASSIVE improvements to their treatment of customers (for starters recalling the pieces of shit they called the Evos), I am never buying anything from them. The competitive products are really good, and the companies that make them have much more respect for their customers. There's just no reason to support Fixe unless they get their act together.

shoo wrote: Yup. Until they make MASSIVE improvements to their treatment of customers (for starters recalling the pieces of shit they called the Evos), I am never buying anything from them. The competitive products are really good, and the companies that make them have much more respect for their customers. There's just no reason to support Fixe unless they get their act together.

Yup back atcha. And I'm up to my tits in Fixe cams, I have 2-3 offsets, all the evos until I had to send that one in for repair (my bad on the repair reason, not the exploding/falling apart cited by others). So, I'm a sucker now for being a loyal customer. Sweet!

Even hearing, "hey, your cam is fucked because you're an idiot" would have been closure, but they didn't even bother with that. Most gear suppliers and equipment companies I have dealt with deal above board and in a professional manner. Not these guys.

These cams improve/eliminate the limitations in the 'Evo' style of Aliens. They work great.......that said, like many of you I am disappointed that Fixe chose to rename their cam, instead of offering to fix all of the 'Evo' cams out there with these new, improved parts. Can we get a response for Fixe?

I recently bought the 3 smallest Alien Revolution's for 20% off at CampSaver. The new metal bits look nice. I've been building a trad rack of the last 6 months and was waiting for these over buying Alien Evo's.

I'm new to trad climbing and haven't used them yet, so I don't have much to add except that some of the heads are misaligned quite a bit. If you look down the stem of the cam, the head is off alignment by ~10-15 degrees on one, and ~5 degrees on the other two.

As I'm a new trad climber, I'm not sure if this really matters, but the one head is off by enough that you have to rotate your hand a bit extra to slot it into a crack. So at best it looks sloppy and is a mild inconvenience. All my DMM cams are perfect.

I would recommend getting totem basics instead of the Fixe aliens. Fixe has really poor craftsmanship with their aliens whereas totem basics have DMM level craftsmanship. Plus they also made some minor improvements to the original alien design included cutting out the stupid grey alien.

One word: totems

eli poss wrote:I would recommend getting totem basics instead of the Fixe aliens. Fixe has really poor craftsmanship with their aliens whereas totem basics have DMM level craftsmanship. Plus they also made some minor improvements to the original alien design included cutting out the stupid grey alien.

Hey, I like my gray aliens.

The new metal bits on the Revolution are really nicely machined - DMM like. It's the assembly that is sloppy. I'll try to remember to post pics.

I would have bought Totem's but they don't make them in double sling versions, and they don't have the small black one. It's really just the tiny sizes that I want.

Dan Durston wrote:and they don't have the small black one.

Seriously though, the original black & blue aliens weren't all that. But leave Totem to miniaturize internal spring to the blue size (and rumor of the same treatment to the black), which is far superior to the FIXE equivalent.

Isn't the totem blue bigger than the alien blue? I don't have totem blue so cant compare

I'm talking about the blue Totem basic, which is the same size as a blue alien other than having a narrower head due to internal spring.

I would imagine the blue basic covers a slightly different range than blue alien to adjust for the entire range being covered without the gray alien. Probably not noticeable off paper, though.

Grey alien covers yellow to red aliens. Totem basic red is slightly smaller than a red alien to "cover" that gap.

CCH Alien

Black .35-.47"
Blue .43-.55"
Green .55-.71"
Yellow .67-.91"
Red .83-1.1"
Orange 1.1-1.42"
Purple 1.3-1.69"
Gray 1.5-2.01"

Totem basic

Blue .44-.69"
Green .54-.84"
Yellow .65-1.03"
Red .78-1.24"

Fixe Alien

Black .33-.55"
Blue .39-.67"
Green .53-.86"
Yellow .61-1"
Grey .68-1.2"
Red .78-1.3"

• CCH specs per: docs.google.com/spreadsheet…

Nick Drake wrote:CCH Alien Black .35-.47" Blue .43-.55" Green .55-.71" Yellow .67-.91" Red .83-1.1" Orange 1.1-1.42" Purple 1.3-1.69" Gray 1.5-2.01" Totem basic Blue .44-.69" Green .54-.84" Yellow .65-1.03" Red .78-1.24" Fixe Alien Black .33-.55" Blue .39-.67" Green .53-.86" Yellow .61-1" Grey .68-1.2" Red .78-1.3" *CCH specs per: docs.google.com/spreadsheet…

How is it you managed to get all this in imperial when both companies are based out of spain?

I divided by 25.4 Seb. I'm afraid I'll be deported if I post anything in the metric system.

Bump to hear if anyone has any experience with the newer Revos. I had some of the Evos, and I didn't like how sluggish the cam action got on the blue and green after a relatively short period of use. But I loved the yellow, gray, and red. I'd specifically like to compare the black Revo to an X4 .1, including a width comparison