i hate the BD Z4 #0.2 so much

i got a brand new (without tags) .2 Z4 i’d sell, too lazy to throw up a post but a few $k worth of MP sales if you check my account. make me an offer

they truly are too “mushy” in that size, and for some reason, the camming range (not that it’s big to begin with) feels smaller than say a TCU of a similar size. but that could just be in my head

I bootied a 0.2 X4 and the trigger action is so much better than the Z4 of the same size I pretty much never carry the Z4 unless I need lots of 0.2's. How did they redesign a great cam and make it worse?

climber pat wrote:

BTW A black totem fully retracted is only 0.06 inches (1.3 mm) larger that a .2 z4.  They are really pretty close in size. 

that's right. put a yellow carabiner on your black totem and forget about it. 

wcz 0.2 has bigger range in both dirs but is too floppy and kinks too easily, they use a thinner cable than 0.3+. yellow dragonfly is better.

25’ up a heinous tips crack:

0.2 X4 = Okay, keep pulling.

0.2 z4 = Why is my leg shaking? Are those plastic bits going to break?  My follower won’t love this…

WCZ .2 = The lobe tilt really didn’t look this bad in the ebay listing.  

Golden Dragonfly =  I paid $100 for this.  Just breathe and pretend you’re Pete Whiteaker.

Black Alien = How old is this thing? If I can just get my eyeball close enough to see the lobes…

Blue Alien = I swear this thing doesn’t have a divot, right?  Okay let’s run it 20’.

Black Totem = I feel so light!  Aliens are stupid. Wait, all I have left now are 0.2 Z4’s…!

Purple C3 = The gods have been kind before…

Green C3 = All those other whips should make me feel good about this…

Stacked C3s = This route should be downgraded.

Caleb wrote:

Golden Dragonfly =  I paid $100 for this.  Just breathe and pretend you’re Pete Whiteaker.

You'll have to get some micro friends if you want to pretend to be Pete. 

that guy named seb wrote:

You'll have to get some micro friends if you want to pretend to be Pete. 

I only have one old one and it’s kind of mank.  The new ones look better.

What if I just get a WC t-shirt and hang out in a 5’ high cellar?  It’s gotta help.

In addition to feeling shittier. Z4s in the single axle sizes actually have a smaller range than X4s did.

This is because BD quietly stopped using the "stacked axle" design. Basically the single axle of the X4 was machined eccentrically to offset the pivot points of the lobes. This made it act more like a double axle cam and gave it more range than any other single axle cam in the size.

Here's a picture that shows this. The T-shaped piece is the axle and you can see how it's stepped.

I guess the manufacturing cost of that was bad for shareholders because they now use a straight axle and charge more for it. Kind of cool engineering though if you're into that kind of thing.

This is because BD quietly stopped using the "stacked axle" design. Basically the single axle of the X4 was machined eccentrically to offset the pivot points of the lobes. This made it act more like a double axle cam and gave it more range than any other single axle cam in the size.

Here's a picture that shows this. The T-shaped piece is the axle and you can see how it's stepped.

I guess the manufacturing cost of that was bad for shareholders because they now use a straight axle and charge more for it. Kind of cool engineering though if you're into that kind of thing.

Wild. I never really understood what the stacked axle actually meant. Thank you for explaining it. I would have hoped the cam rating would have gone up a hair, but they also seem unchanged.

Wawawa, get over it. Why are you even comparing the X4 to the Z4? The X4's received middling to crap reviews when they came out, hard lobe materials that would skate out of cracks, a bulky stem that would readily get stuck in cracks, cam wires that would easily break, heavy, and an "increase in range" that is about 1mm across its entire range. 

People massively prefered even old aliens to X4's. If you hate a company that's fine whatever you do you, but don't apply that to the products as that's purely misleading. 

If you want to hate on BD you should just start your own thread and talk about your feelings instead of making shit up. 

Some hostile takes here… what else is MP good for? Trolling I suppose? As someone who regularly falls on their gear projecting “harder” (to me) traditional routes, I think the quality of metal on the Z4s is absolutely garbage compared to basically any other model of cam I’ve used at this point. I’ve broken the .5 z4 and .3 z4 more than once since I bought them in 2019. My c4s of the same size I bought in 2016 have wear and tear of course, some fraying of the trigger wires I’ve had to fix, but they’ve never broke or looked as mangled as the Z4s. Just my anecdotal experience. The metal is softer, which makes them probably stronger overall in their placement? But at the cost of longevity. BD probably loves that.

Eh, love my Z4s. 

The 0 size I haven't really used other than on aid pitches, but I place the .2 plenty. 

Love Aliens too. And Totems. And TCUs... whatever stays in the rock and is quick to place.