C3's discontinued?

A reviewer/gearhead at backcountry made note that these are being discontinued. Has anyone  else heard anything, as my search has not found anything to back this up.

Hope not.

The BD rep in the site's chatbox confirmed a couple months ago they're discontinued

What are the most useful C3 sizes? I may try to snag a few before they’re all out. I have a 000 grey already. 

So what's the best alternative? I only have C4's on my rack at this point, but it was my understanding that C3's would be good to add to the rack eventually. When it's time to expand, what should I get instead?

cmqr9001 Black wrote:

What are the most useful C3 sizes? I may try to snag a few before they’re all out. I have a 000 grey already. 

I love the red and green (#1 and #0). Yes I have heard from a BD rep that they are discontinued. Apparently the ones out on the shelves now are the last ones out there. No more being produced.

Andrew Krajnik wrote:

So what's the best alternative? I only have C4's on my rack at this point, but it was my understanding that C3's would be good to add to the rack eventually. When it's time to expand, what should I get instead?

Metolius TCUs are going to be the most comparable.  But you could also just go with Totems or MasterCams in the small sizes -- only very rare and finicky placements will take a TCU/C3 but not a mastercam.

BryanE wrote:

I love the red and green (#1 and #0). Yes I have heard from a BD rep that they are discontinued. Apparently the ones out on the shelves now are the last ones out there. No more being produced.

Love my green and red as well, most of the time I carry brass and Ballnuts for anything smaller.

BryanE wrote:

I love the red and green (#1 and #0). Yes I have heard from a BD rep that they are discontinued. Apparently the ones out on the shelves now are the last ones out there. No more being produced.

Did they say anything about a new 3 lobe cam to replace the C3s or is BD just getting out of that market completely? I hope they don't do something like what WC did with the zeros and discontinue the product without coming up with a new product to replace it. I only have 1 C3 on my rack right now (green) but the difference in head width between those and a u-stem TCU is insane. 

Does anyone know of any good deals?   Been looking and can’t find any at rei, mgear, campsaver etc....

They are selling them on their Outlet section on their website FYI

Only the 000 still available on BD outlet.

I have the #2 yellow (not our best friend the gold hand jam #2, but the lil tiny yellow C3).  It's great.  Lost my green and reds over the decade.  I've taken a good fall on the little purple (00) on the traversing pitch of Rewritten, lived to post on mp about it.

Any word on whether bd will come out with a new cam to follow in the c3’s footsteps?

I think sizes 1 and 2 are still available in the "Rock protection" section of BD's website.

As for a new cam, I remember the chatbox BD rep saying low sales compared to the X4 led to discontinuation and if there's a replacement, it'll be years. fwiw idk how current these reps are kept on future items and i've been misled in the past

Yeah I heard  something similar to Peter. No current plans for any replacement cam.

I really like the red C3. It fills a gap in the X4's between 0.2 and 0.3

Chris Dunn 510 wrote:

A reviewer/gearhead at backcountry made note that these are being discontinued. Has anyone  else heard anything, as my search has not found anything to back this up.

The C3's were last produced in China and were never moved to the Salt Lake factory.  A large batch was made during the shutdown of the factory and that was it.  Everything sold in the last few years has been dwindling down that pile.

I can see why they were discontinued, as 4 cam units have become much more popular and are generally better except for certain very specific situations where the narrower head width allows them to fit where others couldn’t.  For those situations, I guess we’re SOL, although Totem Basics are pretty close and much better overall.

While the vast majority of climbers could care less, C3’s are irreplaceable at the moment for hard climbing with thin protection. Especially in the 00 and 000 sizes. Between discontinuing these and upping the prices on X4’s I have to admit that, being a company of climbers, it’s hard to understand some of these decisions.

I agree with Josh, none of the hard trad climbers I know hold the X4 in the same league as C3s

Yeah that's a bummer, purple and green C3s are awesome pieces.  Not much compares with the purple C3.