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Author

Black Diamond stoppers (nuts)

jens

30-Jan-2004
12:47:12 AM

Hi, has anyone tried the BD stoppers? I'm thinking of getting some and just wanted to know what the beta is on them.

Thanks, Jens

IdratherbeclimbingM9

30-Jan-2004
9:35:04 AM

On 30/01/2004 jens wrote:
>just wanted to know what the beta is on them.

Black Diamond rules! Their gear has stood the test of time and you would not go wrong with any of their products.

Other threads on this forum talk of different gear types, but someone summed it up well when they said words to the effect;
.. that all the basic gear works well (most any brand) and the high-techo-innovative stuff generally become specialistic items on the rack for occasional use.

This is evidenced by availability issues some time after they hit the market, ie if they are not popular (due to being too specialised), then they soon become difficult to obtain.

Personally I find the larger sizes nuts get used less than the medium and smaller ones, as friends in those sizes are too easy to use!

James

30-Jan-2004
9:46:23 AM

personally I like the shape of WC Rocks & DMM Walnuts better than the Stoppers (but each to their own).

nmonteith

30-Jan-2004
9:59:52 AM

If you can get the stoppers for same/cheaper price as an equiv rack of Wild Country Rocks then go for it. There is no real difference betwen them.

jens

30-Jan-2004
11:51:57 AM

Thanks guys, the stoppers seem to be about $10 cheaper anyway and you get a free krab with the set.

Jens

tmarsh

30-Jan-2004
1:01:50 PM

BD stoppers were my first pro, and they have served pretty well. They are a bit 'boxier' than some of the other nuts eg wallnuts or rocks. This seems to work better in placements where the taper of the rock is gradual ie the crack is predominantly parallel and then tapers only slightly. Rocks and particularly wallnuts have a 'pointier' shape, and work better in more bottlenecked placements where the sharper taper lets them seat better.

My rack is now basically a set of stoppers and a set of rocks. As I climb almost exclusively on grampians and araps sandstone, where parallel cracks are the exception, not the rule, My rocks tend to get more use. For Victorian climbing I would imagine a set of rocks and a set of wallnuts would be the best choice.

That said, at the end of the day, they're all blobs of alloy on a string. Most of the time, any nut will do the job. This is just me being picky.

tim

ps: one benefit of the BD Stoppers is the slight sideways taper. Very useful in flary cracks.

pps: another is that you can use the slot in the larger sized nuts to tighten loose bolts. Quite handy.

Rich

30-Jan-2004
1:10:23 PM

i've got the walnuts as the standard nuts onmy rack and also the smaller peenuts.. anyone else got them? i reckon they are great, fit some nice flared placements

Richard

30-Jan-2004
1:18:18 PM

Yep, I like the peanuts - the purple ones, they are quite nicely taperd, and can go into a crack a number of ways - the RP's are very square in comparison - and often harder to fit. The micro rocks are pretty good also - the peanuts are quite large in comparison.

jens

30-Jan-2004
2:13:00 PM

How about the BD micro stoppers? Any good?

Rich

30-Jan-2004
2:23:21 PM

On 30/01/2004 Richard wrote:
>Yep, I like the peanuts - the purple ones, they are quite nicely taperd,
>and can go into a crack a number of ways - the RP's are very square in
>comparison - and often harder to fit. The micro rocks are pretty good
>also - the peanuts are quite large in comparison.
ahh mine aren't purple.. damn! i think they all have they're own apps, rps are great in many other spots where peenuts just don't work & vice versa

James

30-Jan-2004
4:11:00 PM

I like my Walnuts for the flaring & funk-ier placements. I use RPs a lot, but for small offsets HB brass offsets are the way to go (much better than peanuts IMO).

Rich

30-Jan-2004
4:25:39 PM

On 30/01/2004 James wrote:
>I like my Walnuts for the flaring & funk-ier placements. I use RPs a lot,
>but for small offsets HB brass offsets are the way to go (much better than
>peanuts IMO).
yea i've got both hb offsets (sml and lge) as well as the sml peenuts.. peenuts taper less than the hb offsets so again fit diff placments. but some of the most bomber placements are when u can get an hb offset in a crack that flares inward and tapers downward so the large side is at the back. works great as it can't even be lifted out except directly up! one of those grinner placements :D

IdratherbeclimbingM9

30-Jan-2004
9:10:46 PM

On 30/01/2004 jens wrote:
>How about the BD micro stoppers? Any good?
They have less taper than RPs. I find I don't use them much and prefer RP's instead.
It depends where you climb.
Sandstone - (seacliffs) they are generally useless.
Trachite - good.
Granite - fair
Limestone - fair, but opportunities for use are less than granite.
Basalt - as for limestone, but use-opportunities are even more limited.

There are 13 messages in this topic.