Totem basics

Are the totem BASICS a worthwhile purchase if you can get them?  Mostly climb granite but getting more into bigwalling.  Or there are better things out there now vs the basics, already have a set of totems

They are different enough in size to make useful alts for the regular totems. I especially like the little blue one, which is smaller than the black totem and seems like a perfect pinkie size piece a lot of the time. 

Andrew Rice wrote:

They are different enough in size to make useful alts for the regular totems. I especially like the little blue one, which is smaller than the black totem and seems like a perfect pinkie size piece a lot of the time. 

How are they compared to other offset cams?  Are you happy with the stems flexibility?

Chris S wrote:

Scroll down in this forum, there's a very recent thread titled "Totems" that asks this question and has plenty of replies 

You mean this one?

https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/126323601/totems

I read that before but I'm asking about the basics

RWPT wrote:

How are they compared to other offset cams?  Are you happy with the stems flexibility?

I don't use offset cams. I'm talking about the standard totem basics. 

I actually like them as backup to my normal totems. They are super light to copliment a normal rack. Green, yellow red are great! The blue can be a little finicky because it has a wide profile for the size( prefer c3 or metolius tcu version in that size. 

I was a big fan of the original CCH Aliens, and even a bigger fan of the Totem Basics while they were in existence.  Very well made, some durability improvements over the Aliens, and higher quality.  It's a bummer their production was hindered by supply chain snafus (amongst other things if I remember correctly).

I wouldn’t recommend the Fixe Basics based on their (lack of) customer service I experienced, can’t speak to the Totem version.

Charlie S wrote:

I was a big fan of the original CCH Aliens, and even a bigger fan of the Totem Basics while they were in existence.  Very well made, some durability improvements over the Aliens, and higher quality.  It's a bummer their production was hindered by supply chain snafus (amongst other things if I remember correctly).

Do you recall original cost of basic offset?

Kevin DeWeese wrote:

My totem basic offsets are my go to offsets. Stems are in that goldilocks no too stiff not too flexible range, cam action is good and the metal softness seems goldilocks as well, they hold up well to years of consistent bigwall aid usage. They don't go as small as I'd like so I supplement with dragonflies and C3s

I only have them in offset, never saw a point to the non-offset versions

Seconding the offsets. I have those and some alien offsets and both of those are my go to over the x4 offset every time. I think I picked some up for ~35/pop on the sale forum.

I have some regular aliens/basics and sometimes they fit right but more often than not I’m placing something else. 

Tim Cooney wrote:

Seconding the offsets. I have those and some alien offsets and both of those are my go to over the x4 offset every time. I think I picked some up for ~35/pop on the sale forum.

I have some regular aliens/basics and sometimes they fit right but more often than not I’m placing something else. 

Do you recall how many offsets make a totem basic hybrid set?

3 make a set - blue/green, green/yellow and yellow/red

Graham Johnson wrote:

3 make a set - blue/green, green/yellow and yellow/red

Any idea how much they were new?

RWPT wrote:

Any idea how much they were new?

This price search seems like an obsession. 70€ ish. When Kailas was selling them in 2018, $89 MSRP.

Lol as he's going to use the MSRP price to haggle for something that's not made anymore.

I do have a set.

Colonel Mustard wrote:

I wouldn’t recommend the Fixe Basics based on their (lack of) customer service I experienced, can’t speak to the Totem version.

Fixe were the next gen of CCH aliens not Basics. The Totem Basics are similar to, but not aliens.

Love my Basics! Sold my aliens when I got the Basics.

RWPT wrote:

Any idea how much they were new?

$70 or $80. And that was more than 7-8 years ago/pre-insane inflation. I can’t believe the prices of C4s now. I remember buying the gold camalot for $50 in 2006.

Someone in the EU should try and buy these
https://www.ricardo.ch/it/a/3x-micro-friends-kailas-nuco-1259849330/
or
https://shop.basisrausch.ch/search?sSearch=friends

In later versions of the basics the cam tooth pattern was changed to diagonal same as the totems, so the camming angle is not as affected by the teeth in textured rock. Gotta say I like that. 

I have several of the original Basics, back from when you couldn’t get Aliens. They are great, still use them. Just like Aliens but no doubts about the build quality. The red one is smaller than the red Alien, closer to the gray size.

Are the Kailas Nuco cams still being produced? Kailas took them off their website earlier this year. Too expensive for my budget but I was always hoping to catch them on sale.