Tough lightweight trekking poles

[Decker9]

well Black Diamond came through on the warranty I think the fact that I had two failures relatively close helped in extending the warranty a bit

they let me pick any poles, as already purchased a pair of two piece Flicklock aluminum ski poles, I went with Alpine carbon corks- more robust carbon than their uber light carbon poles and they use Fliclock for adjustment

my exact experience also, after two broken sets of flz’s, they sent me the acc’s. They’v proven to be a great pole so far.

 

[mtwarden]

my exact experience also, after two broken sets of flz’s, they sent me the acc’s. They’v proven to be a great pole so far.

thats good to hear

 

[AK Troutbum]

well Black Diamond came through on the warranty I think the fact that I had two failures relatively close helped in extending the warranty a bit

they let me pick any poles, as already purchased a pair of two piece Flicklock aluminum ski poles, I went with Alpine carbon corks- more robust carbon than their uber light carbon poles and they use Fliclock for adjustment

Good for you, I wish I could have gotten a little better service from them. I couldn't get BD to work with me at all on a Alpine Carbon Cork that I broke a few years back. The poles were about 3 years old and I (actually it was my son), broke the center section on one, called BD and they said that it was too far past warranty so I would have to pay for a new center section. I went ahead and bought the section for something like $42, with shipping, and it took about 2 months to get because they were back ordered. I probably should have just shit canned them, or tried to rig something up, but I figured that since I had so much into the poles in the first place, I may as well get them fixed properly. Anyway, I don't believe I'll ever do business with BD again, there's just too many companies out there that make these types of products, and care about CS, to deal with a company that really could give a shit.

As far as getting what you pay for, I think that the $29 Cascade's that Costco sells are probably very close to being as durable as the $135 Alpine's, and the Cascade's are 3 oz. lighter/pair to boot. I'm also pretty sure that they're both made in China, or some place like that, so it's not like the highly inflated price of the Alpine's is because they're paying American's a good wage to make them.

 

[mtwarden]

yeah my first pair of FLZ's broke about 1.5 years after I purchased them and they denied me the warranty- they did offer to give me a 40% off coupon on anything, better than nothing, but obviously would have rather had the poles replaced. I actually said what about just replacing a single pole and said they couldn't do that- not sure why.

good to know on the Alpine carbons that there are replacement parts available anyways

also I'm guessing on the carbon poles (regardless of who makes them) they could be repaired in the field with a metal sleeve and a couple of hose clamps, where the FLZ's break it's impossible to do a field repair (unless you happen to pack a cordless drill D)