While shopping around for a new set of technical cams (i.e., small) to supplement my eight or so year old run of Metolius TCU’s 00-3 the question, ‘whose technical cams reign supreme’, came to mind.  I primarily climb in Eldorado Canyon and Front Range areas.  Initially, I leaned towards the new Metolius Master Cam as much out of brand loyalty as wanting the latest in single stem technology.  I bought a 1-Blue to test drive and liked it, but in the mean time a voice in my head keeps telling me these are good cams, but something else might be better.

To appease the nerd in me I dumped the raw available numbers (i.e., range, strength, weight) into an Excel spreadsheet and started calculating.  BD C3s are the clear winner on weight and CCH Aliens hold the upper hand for both strength and range.

This MP.com thread has strength and weight chart images.

Note:  I wasn’t able to figure out how to use Excel to come up with a nice looking cam min/max range floating bar chart so if someone could pave the way great!  Download the Excel spreadsheet if you wanna give it a go.

I couldn’t find any numbers for head width to gauge how deeply cams need to be placed for all lobes to engage.  Further, I don’t have a clue about cam physics.  How does cam lobe shape and design impact holding power in sub optimal placements (e.g., tipped out vs. over camed)?

Enlighten me.  I am more interested in hard numbers then nieve allegiance/bias towards a particular product.  Granted CCH has had QC issues, but their base numbers on paper look good from a non scientific view point.