By following the Trekking Pole thread in the MYOG forum and doing some of my own experimentation and sourcing, I've developed a really simple ultralight graphite trekking pole. I mean really simple--single piece shaft, carbide tip similar to Leki Universals, a slightly tapered, cylindrical EVA grip, and some judicious use of Gorilla Glue. The whole package weighs 3.2 oz for a single pole, although these particular poles are made for a 5'6" person, so YMMV. I've made a pair for myself and a couple of friends so far, and here in Austin we've been using them occasionally on the local trails.

What I'd love to do is find out if these are commercially viable, at least in the cottage-industry sense of viable. It's unlikely that I can get these any lighter, stiffer, or more durable than Stix or LightTreks, but I could sell these for quite a bit less than either of those, thus making these poles (if they're viable) an easy and cheap option for a new ultralighter who wants to try some featherweight trekking poles. That's my angle, that's what I've got for now.

However, I don't have the time or the expertise, or the breadth of terrain available to test these poles and find their practical limits. Therefore I'm looking for reasonably experienced testers to volunteer for a $15 pair of highly usable trekking poles, tell me how they do and how hard they are to break. This is a scheme I hatched only this afternoon, so if anyone has any useful questions or things to point out that I haven't considered, all of the above would be amply appreciated. All inquiries are welcome to be posted publicly, or you can contact me directly at shoeman426 [at] mail.utexas.edu. Thanks a lot guys.

I'd help you out ;-) I am really good at seeing if I can break stuff. And I am short. Double bonus!
But seriously, drop me an email (ssvien @ yahoo.com) and I'd give them a run.

Have you considered people headed to Philmont? They can sometimes be pretty tough on equipment.
Just a thought.

MikeB

Just to make you aware of other competition... the LuxuryLite 46" Trailstiks are 3.25 oz each and they break appart for easy travel / packing.

Hey thanks for the inside on Philmont, that may be something to look into. For the moment I've already gotten a few positive responses, and so I feel like I'll probably get enough volunteers without riling up the boy scouts. As for those LuxuryLite poles--good God they are bomber. It says you can do pullups on 'em! Thanks for the info but these are definitely in a separate class and marketed to a different kind of hiker. My angle is fast, light, cheap, and a little breakable. The Trail Poles from LuxuryLite, on the other hand, are fast, light, indestructible, and exorbitant. I doubt anyone will have trouble choosing between my flimsy graphite pencils and LuxuryLite's . . . well . . . burly, deadly weapons.



Edit: Well no, I was definitely looking at the 16 oz Assault Pole. Aptly named. The trail poles, as you indicated, are probably going to be somewhat competitive with what I will eventually bring to market. However, a few things:

My poles will likely be even cheaper

They will be, to some degree, custom made in terms of pole height, grip style, and extra features (maybe).

They will be 5 oz at most, and maybe closer to 3 oz, which is less than half the weight of the Trail Poles.

They will accomodate short people (minimum height for Trail Poles is 48").

There is one more juicy possibility that I didn't mention before, because I don't want to raise hopes unnecessarily. But I might be collaborating with a very clever professional masseuse and practitioner of eastern medicine (ooh!), and her part in this play might be, just maybe, helping me to design a new kind of adaptable, extremely functional ergonomic grip made out of some kind of foam or other moldable material. This is in the early preliminary stages and if this endeavor is fruitful, might surface during a later batch of beta testing (gamma testing?).

In any case, this idea is still evolving, and if I find that there's another product already on the market that competes too strongly, I'll either A) change my product or B) call it a day. Either way, it will be a good time. Thanks everybody, keep it coming if you like. All info and conjecture is perfectly welcome.

Edited by freeradical on 07/10/2006 22:37:36 MDT.

I'll happilly test it.

I'll even guarantee nothing below 9000ft ;-)

Ah good, I didn't even see the potential for puns on "Beta," but I'm glad somebody capitalized :-D. Summit CO, shoot me an email or give me yours and we'll get the ball rolling.

Hey Ian,

I don't know what happened to the LuxuryLite trailstick... it's not on the site anymore?! Anyway... as I say... they are 46" long (the short ones... there is also a 5' long model) and weight 3.25 oz each. I don't recall the price. They also use (used?) straps instead of grips. The advantage of the strap is that you could slide it up and down the pole so the pole was, in effect... and height you want. The disadvantage of the straps was that well... I just don't like them... personally. I don't like the feel of straps 'tugging' at my palms with every step... I much prefer the feel of a traditional hand grip and no straps. One HUGE (I mean huge) advantage of the latest trailsticks is that they are segmented. I found this to be great for shipping, travelling, and packing. One thing about the Gossamer Gear and BMW pole is that they cannot be shipped to Canada... due to some weird postal restirctions on long skinny packages. Maybe you could use some carried to ship them... but it would cost a fortune. So having a smaller package for shipping is also an advantage. The joints would add weight tho'.

Edited by davidlewis on 07/11/2006 05:29:21 MDT.

I'd love to test them out, Ian. I'm looking for something different to replace my Leki, super, bomber, cook-ya-breakfast, heavy as a bad place, anti-shock, poles.

The only drawback is that I'm a bit taller than what your prototype may acomodate (6'1"). However, I can promise you at least two trips every month testing them, beginning when I receive them.

I'm in Arkansas so that might hit a different type of hiker/terrain as well.

Let me know what you think.

Jon
"Gonzalez"
jon (at) slacked (dot) net

Edited by jwetzelp on 07/11/2006 13:27:51 MDT.

I am also interested. Drop me an email:

eshelmanaaron (at) msn (dot) com

Drop me a line
johnmrandom (at) mac (dot) com

I have several long trips planed later this summer.

I'm interested.
ggrayum |at| gmail.com

Whoa billy, time to call this a day. I've accumulated a handful of volunteer beta testers, a sufficient number on which to experiment (evil laugh) for the moment. To anyone who posted or sent me email, and hasn't heard back yet, thanks for the inquiry but you've missed the boat on this one.

For those that have lingering interest, let me say: this chapter really should have been named alpha testing. The design I've got is functional but bare bones, minimally tested and kind of thrown together haphazardly, honestly pretty far off from the polish and uniformity that I hope the finished product will have. And the finished product might end up being a very different animal from what I'm sending out to my testers in the next few days. Accordingly, I've been sort of scrambling for material sources and doing research of that sort, absorbing technical info by the seat of my pants, deciding exactly where I should (or can) go with this. In the meantime I have my own life and two summer jobs to keep up with, plus vague travel plans before school starts again in August. And then I'll have school.

When the dust settles (which could be next week or next month), I'll have some choices to make regarding materials and design, and I'll still need help from testers to insure that those choices are indeed wise ones. So stay tuned, and thanks.

Edited by freeradical on 07/12/2006 13:01:02 MDT.

I would love to volunteer to test for you. I am right up the road in the Dallas area (Irving). I will shoot you an e-mail.

Sorry about the delayed response.

Email:
thu_avatar
at
hotmail
dot
com

I eagerly await information. :)

To Matthew and Summit CO above, please refer to the previous post by me. I got flooded with beta testers, and so I've already selected enough of them for my immediate needs. I may have a later phase of testing for a different design.

Hi

Been looking at those LL Trail Poles but as far as I can tell just one pole weighs 7oz at 48", 10oz at 66" and costs $49 - which doesn't really get me very excited.

Can anyone tell me otherwise re the weights?

Thanks

Sebastian: Bruce has been changing his products a LOT lately. He used to have the "trailstik" which was a carbon fiber hiking pole. For the longest time... a couple of years I think... the trailstik was a single section 5 foot long carbon fiber pole. Then... for a few months... he had sectioned carbon fiber poles. I have a pair of 2 section 46" trailstiks which weight 6.5 oz for the PAIR. Now it looks like he only sells the giant "assult" pole in carbon fiber... and the regular poles are now aluminum. Don't ask me why he's decided to start making heavier poles.