Scott,
Great news that they are working well. I have "tweaked" the design slightly from what you might be testing to make them slightly stronger in some key areas. New tooling should be delivered in a week or two to make more "test samples". I'm sure you know how much testing goes into these products so they won't be released until the big GUY says they are ready!

Since I also design and make golf shafts I can tell you that you can probably get by using them BUT these are designed completely different in several key areas that make these better for their intended application. Golf shafts have huge amounts of torque applied to the shaft during the swing and impact so they are designed with plies running in a direction to reduce the torque. Much less is needed in a tent or hiking pole and the plies are used in different shapes and patterns to give you much more strength and stiffness. Also, a golf shaft is designed for a taper from the butt (.600" average) to the .335" or .370" tip section to accommodate a golf head and not a hiking pole tip. If you grind this down to be used with a tip for a hiking pole you are left with a VERY thin cross section of fibers. We have revised the tip section of a hiking pole a dramatically compared to a golf shaft and use a very special grinding process. I'm all for do-it yourself projects and using golf shafts can work out o.k. but have limitations compared to hiking poles and tent poles that are strategically designed for this application.

Edited by kegelhoff on 06/08/2010 17:07:05 MDT.

Kevin I'm interested in one, where can I get one.

Thanks

I just got the new tooling in yesterday and plan on making some test samples this week. They have to be put through the ringer first and IF there aren't any problems they could be selling them in a few weeks maybe?? I will let everyone know as soon as they go up for sale. Gossamer Gear is the company that will be selling them. Grant at GG has a lot of great ideas and things he is working on!

Hi Kevin,
What is going to be the minimum and maximum dimension of the pole, assuming it will be adjustable?

Grant has come up with a great idea in being able to have lots of options on this adjustable pole. JUST GUESSING ... I would say you can use different lengths and options to go as low as 22.5" up to maybe 74". These are just my rough estimates based on making the parts and Grant may decide to add or subtract pieces or revise the lengths to go shorter or longer.

I would think that the market may be bigger if it could be as long as a Hex 5 pole. I think that is 6 ' 8 ".

Rog,

Roughly how much money are these carbon golf club shafts?

Thanks,
r

Kevin,
I've actually been waiting for those carbon fiber poles to be released by GG for a looong time. I've been bugging Grant about them ever since he told me about them. I need one for an MLD Duomid. I have held off on buying the Duomid until I find a carbon fiber pole that I'm satsified with, and the poles GG plans on releasing in the future seem to be just what I'm looking for. I hope you will have an option for these poles to be without a shock cord for weight savings. Do let us know when these poles finally get released.

-Sid

Sid,
Knowing Grant, he will make these super light so I don't see them using the shock cord ?? Even if he did, the way they are designed it could easily be removed.

The first round of test parts off the new tool looks really good.

Test parts sent to Grant for additional testing!

I have MLD's carbon tarp pole.
I like this, but shorter for my hexamid.
Anyone know the shop where I can order carbon fx?

Lightheart tents sells adjustable poles for their Solo and Duo tents. They are adjustable. I do not know what length they are.

The poles are 48 - 52 inches. a tad over 4 oz each. Aluminum.

Judy/ LightHeart Gear

Edited by heartfire on 07/11/2010 14:22:06 MDT.

Kevin, that's awesome news on those poles. I've been searching for a long time to cut the weight of the poles I use with my Cooke Custom Whelen. The current poles are almost a pound a piece. I only use for my paddling rig, but still try to cross over as much UL gear as I can. Nice to make portages as light as possible :)

Bravo!

Edited by alifeoutdoors on 07/11/2010 17:47:14 MDT.

I have received a few emails from people lately BUT I'm not able to reply to some people ... Not sure why and sorry if you didn't get a response. I tried .......

Quick update after talking to Grant at Gossamer Gear on Friday.
All the testing on his end is COMPLETE and he said he is ready to start selling the tent poles. He has a few more tricks up his sleeve as I just found out and has one option that creates a SUPER LIGHT tent pole extension utilizing existing Lightrek 4 poles! Crazy light and still strong. Also, options will be available to just purchase the tent poles if you don't have Lightrek 4 hiking poles. I have a bunch of parts in work and plan on shipping the first set of parts to him in the next week to 10 days.
All the options and parts aren't up on his web site yet but if you are interested in getting the first run of parts I suggest you give Grant a call to get your name on the list.
I will post a few photos of the first run of parts as soon as they are complete as Grant gave me the go ahead.
Kevin

Thanks for the update Kevin. I am greatly looking forward to these; especially for larger 'mids.

To experiment, I purchased some carbon ski poles, alum ski poles and a carbon golf club at the thrift store. $6 total.

Though I liked the sturdiness of each different method, the lightest I was able to get was 4 oz...and that was with a single pole. Was hoping to go lighter plus have the pole be in two sections to make carrying it in my pack easier.

So, I went down to the archery shop/range and after telling the guy what I wanted to do, he pulled out a box of about 100 broken carbon and alum arrows. Said to take as many as I wanted for free as they were just destined for the trash.

I grabbed two carbon and one alum arrow. Cut the carbon shafts to desired length and cut a section from the alum shaft that fits inside one of the carbon shafts.

Total wt is 1 oz. It appears it'll work fine in the summer but I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for larger diameter arrow shafts anyway.

Edited by rustyb on 09/20/2010 09:44:55 MDT.

Rusty,
This same inquiry came up very recently.
Would just say "Bravo," but you state you're still looking for larger diameter but lighter poles (than ski poles and golf clubs).
The kite material websites have carbon tubes in larger diameters than arrow shafts. They will have less flex, and be more suitable for 'mid tents.
You have to do some figuring, but you can get material on the same sites for internal ferrules that fit to make a collapsible pole.
The sites also have good specs, so you can figure out what your weight will be before making the investment. Cheap end caps are in many hardware stores, but how to attach elastic cord inside to hold it together?
There are collapsible avalanche carbon poles on the market, but they are quite expensive. Looking at one, though, might help with design ideas.
Kite shoppe, kitebuilder, or goodwinds are 3 sites.
They have all kinds of gee-gaw fittings to ponder over.
Good luck.
Sam f.

Yet another option you have presented. I looked at those sites and see where one could have a lot of fun. Thanks for that! I see the prices were a little more than a cheap DIYer like myself would like to spend, however. Not counting my $6 experiment with the ski poles and golf club, my current DIY pole cost $0. Granted, it's not as rigid as I'd prefer but it'll work (for reference, these shafts are .325" dia).

The archery shop had some larger dia shafts that looked to be nearly .5"...but they were new and only sold in a set of 12...for $50. I'm guessing that size of arrow doesn't break as often -or not as many people use them- so finding them for free may be a challenge. Regardless, I'll keep searching as the challenge of coming up with these type of no cost (or little cost) pieces of the puzzle is part of the fun for me.