The CPSC were notified for the initial recall and it was posted on there website.

I think that all of the talk about aliens is about older ones and I think that if you really love aliens then go buy a new set because they are bomber now. I stopped using them for a few years while they worked their problems out. Nobody has reported a failure since they started using the pull tester in 01/06. If you have old aliens just get rid of them and buy some new ones.

Holy Shit, I hadn't seem any pics of a new one breaking thats crazy

Im convinced! no way am i using them anymore

Just FYI guys, the person who bootied the Red just posted what she knows about it on RC. If you scroll up from that a bit I posted cross sections of all three heads in my possession to show just how bad the braze joint on it was.

I've also dropped the guy I got the Purple from an email to get the history of that one. His name is and here here on MP somewhere. unfortunately I no longer have his phone number or MP username. I believe he lives in area and will now go search through the old FS ads to see if I can find him there.

-a.

EDIT- Dammit! Looks like that ad fell off the list last week. We did the deal 2nd week of January and the list only goes back to Jan 24.

Awesome:

www.shariconglobal.com/misc/pulltesting/nrr_alien_failures/c>>>

That's the whole story there, to me. Bottom one likely overheated, middle incomplete, and both invisible to inspection or partial load testing - a way out of control manf process.

No thanks, man.

Yup, troubling indeed, JLP. In case someone doesn't see the post about this pic on RC (there's other pics of the heads there too, so worth a look)

...the first thing I did was to hit the bottom of all three heads I have with a brass brush to clean up all the grot and make the fillet of the braze easier to see. Having done that the braze on the Red looks horribly underfilled to me as there's absolutely no fillet on the joint.

Here are the cross sections mounted on a 0.250" shoulder bolt I had laying around (same diameter as the axle and I used it to keep them in line and avoid issues with differing shadows/reflections in the pics). On top is the one from the Purple, which has some porosity but was apparently stronger than the axle. Notice how it doesn't line up with the others... The deforming axle actually bent the top of the head!

Next down is the Red that broke under 5kN. In one of her emails to me Nadia from CCH stated and a metallurgist is needed to evaluate the joint, but frankly I don't need a metallurgist to tell me that thing's hollow. Hell, you can see the individual strands in there with absolutely no braze on them!

The bottom one is from the Red I broke a while back and posted a cross section of earlier. (it failed at 11.3kN)

Thanks for posting the info Aric. Do you have any pictures of your pull-testing fixture itself--specifically just the cam-holder 'crack' metal plate configuration? For your tests do you set the fixture width to say, the middle of the manufacturer specified range or eyeball a good cam placement?.
(though these failures are independent of how the lobes are cammed, I was curious what that part of the testing procedure was).

-Dan M

JLP - that's a horrifying photo, it got my heart rate up. That may be the most effective visual of the problem I've seen yet.

I've been following this thread and the related thread on rc in the lab since they started, and I've got a sort of ethical question.

I have a set of Aliens from the Recall period, Blue - Red. Stamped dates are all between 0105 and 0505. All were purchased at REI. I returned a dimpled Orange when the recall first happened, and REI was great about it, I didn't even have to explain why I was returning it.

The rest of my set are not technically part of the recall, even though CCH is recommending sending them in for testing - though they have nothing officially posted regarding the recommendation. I'm sure there are some who would recommend sending them to CCH, but the trust issue weighs heavily in my mind. I no longer trust these cams, and I'm not sure if I want a new set. Given that there aren't many options for independent testing I'm ready to be done with the whole thing and return them to REI and get a set of MasterCams or more TCUs. The ethical issue is that while I'm sure REI will take them back - it's why I usually buy from them - it's not their fault and without an official recall on these units I doubt they'll get any compensation from CCH.

Thoughts?

I just realized I left out Aric - thanks for doing the testing and making the information available, and thanks for all the very convincing photos. I stopped using my remaining Aliens after the recall, and was just adding them back into my rack this year. Now I've lost my faith in them altogether, especially given that all of mine are from 2005.

Thanks for bringing up such a serious safety issue, however, as a mechanical engineer I don’t believe that your study was designed well enough to take to court or anything like that. There are too many variables involved. The fact that the cams were used (one bootied) would raise a big issue. The fact the trigger wires were fixed with wire would also raise some flags. I realize that the trigger wire has no effect on the strength of the cam but it could show that the cams have been abused.

My opinion is that your tests do raise some serious concerns, enough to keep me from using aliens, but you would need to run a much more controlled study if you wanted any real results.

A used cam breaking at 11 kN does not concern me too much, but one with no brazing is pretty scary!

Mark- Well, as an REI member I'd say don't return them as it'll cut into my dividend.... ;-) (joking... )

Dan- Pics of the setup and everything else is over in the thread on RC (pics before testing, in the fixture, after testing, load curves, etc). If you wouldn't mind looking there it'll save me having to make edits in multiple places should something come up. You may have to go a page or three to get to the specs on the puller, but a full description is there somewhere.

-aric.