Review > Entreprise > Jug'R-Nots & Small Patina Edges

Noodles has had a pretty long history with Entrepries as he's from the UK and has had his own indoor walls for around 15 years or so. He was pretty keen to see the new urethane shapes that Boone Speed had (re)shaped for them, if you've never heard of Boone then you've either been hiding under a rock for years or aren't as old as Noodles. He's a World renowned climber that put up or climbed many many hard test pieces back in the day, these days he's turned his hand to shaping and is a rather good photographer... if you're feeling skeptical about his shaping skills just remember that he shaped for (P)usher and the entire line of EP holds were reshaped by him in 2003

What we received from Ent were three sets, two of which we'll be looking at today (the third will be reviewed early next year), the ones that concern us are:

Medium Jug'r-Nots

Small Patina Edges

Both sets stand out from the get go, the Jug'r-nots because of the texture thats on the holds and the Patinas because they remind us of some other shapes that we received a little while ago, if you've got other Patina sets from other company's get these in the same color and they'll fit into the line nicely!! Before we even bolted these holds onto the wall Noodles was looking at the Jug'r-nots very closely, in fact a little too closely... whenever this happens it means that there's something that's bothering him, in this case one of the holds has a problem. The texture as you can see from the image above looks harsh, but that's not the part you hold (for the main part), it's just there for show, but on one hold, it is the area you hold and there was one specific area that really caught his attention!
"This is going to rip your skin off" was what he said, he showed me this one little raised bump that is close to the edge and is quite sharp... "They should reshape this hold and get rid of that bump, it's going to rip skin and dig into fingers!", ah more words of wisdom :) And I agreed, there is one hold that has a problem that needs to be addressed, so we went over the rest of the set with our hands to see if we could find any more obvious problems before we started hauling on them, and there are areas that are going to really dig into your fingers if you're using the granite like texture as the part to grab, if you're using the area you're supposed to grab then they're fine. The Patinas got a pretty good going over as well, and there are a couple of holds that look like they're going to be sharp but because of the Patina shape your fingers slip into a comfortable position and there's no problem!

Overall both sets climb pretty well, these shapes aren't as comfortable as some shapes on the market and the urethane although strong feels slightly rougher on the ol'fingers than a lot of holds that are on the market. But that comes down to personal preference more than anything else.. we found that extended sessions on the holds does take off a little bit of skin and that we had to stop climbing earlier than we wanted.

The route we set was an interesting mix of moves that allowed us to grab the shapes in a variety of positions and over most of our wall (we avoided the roof for once), and when Seb came over he managed to flash the sequence first time, which is a pretty rare thing. Once the congratulations died down we stopped and chatted about the holds, Seb weighing in quote vocally about the shapes, our comments are at the bottom of the review as per usual.



Good friction, positive edges and large enough to get a good grip both these sets are suitable for a variety of terrain. The route that I put up went across the overhang and into the vertical wall and even when I put the holds on less than optimal angles, we were able to get through the sequence with no sweat. These holds are great for pinches and I think that climbers from all levels will be able to increase their pinch strength training on these holds.

For the most part the Jug'R-Nots are positive jugs with a couple being closer to steep wall crimps than jugs. When you go check out the Entre Prises site they suggest that these holds be set on vertical to 45% overhanging terrain but we would go as far as putting them up in the roof.


SEB

• Well priced
• Colour easily matches other sets from different companies
• Good on most angle walls
  

Review > E-Grips > Stealth Edges

Just a quick note before we start this review, we've added some new stuff to the reviews that hopefully you'll all find helpful... we've added:

• Suggested Uses: this is the angles that we think these holds will be good on, this of course depends upon you're ability.
• Overall Build: are the bolts in a good place? Urethane / resin good? Good design overall? We've added a short section on the quality (or lack of) of the holds we're hauling on.

As usual, enjoy. Any comments are welcome, just click on Contact Us up on the top right of the page or chuck a comment onto the post, we're always happy to hear what you have to say.

E-Grips have a great number of grips on the market, we were able to pick and choose what we wanted to see, we chose two sets, the first set we've already reviewed; you can see our review of the 2-Tex Pure Crimps by clicking on the link...

The other set we grabbed are the Stealth Edges, pictured below:

All though the resemble a jet fighter or a space ship, the Stealth Edges aren't as low profile as you'd think; they stick out way more than you'd expect, the only thing that is kind of stealth about the holds is the texture which is more stealth than most companys products; in fact when you first grip the holds you're going to wonder if it's going to be OK to hold onto!

We've had these holds on some pretty steep walls and they're great to grab, it's really surprising what kind of angle you can use them on, OK some of the edges are flat and others in-cut so they do end up being harder to hold as the angle gets steeper , but not as hard as you'd think given the area you have to play with. These holds are easily matched and have a texture, as Noodles would put it, "like petting a panther", you could session on these all day and have the softest climbing hands out there:)

All joking aside if you got these into a competition the climbers would just love them; unfortunately the set is limited by the number of holds....5. On a bigger wall, like they have at the gym, they could set some good dynos, and short boulder problems (if you added some feet) but on our home wall we lacked the height and the crash pads to be attempting those kinds of maneuvers. (Noodles: Phooey, we still went and dyno'd about anyways)
We set a number of traverses with long committing moves starting on the overhanging wall and into the vertical.As you can see even when I'm fully stretched and on the tips of my fingers the hold is still solid because they're HUGE! (They came at a good time considering all the crimp reviews lately).

Combined with other sets; the Stealth Edges can be used for system training as they don't tear your fingers to shreds, you'd probably want a couple of sets for this, but as E-Grips have a range of Sytem Training Holds it's probably cheaper and easier to get something that was built and is therefore dedicated to system training!

These holds have a big radius so they don't dig into your fingers when you campus, that coupled with the texture means lots of climbing time and little or no skin pain. The holds are pretty damn versatile, it really depends upon how strong you are and how crazy you are when you set, but bear in mind that for us these holds are large flat or slightly in-cut edges, so people with small hands will find that the in-cut holds err more towards a slight jug. We've used the holds in a number of different areas from matched side pulls to under clings, but where these holds start to really get going is when you set something that makes the climber use the slick part of the hold for their feet... Noodles got spat onto the mats a number of times trying to rock on up and over a hold on one route we set, getting your feet to stick on these is super tricky!
What's apparent about these holds (and the other holds we have from E-Grips) is that they're super well made, the sanding on the backs is impeccably flat, these things are smooth as hell! I was interested to see just how flat they were so I grabbed Noodle's level from the cupboard, they are FLAT!, all of them, they're just well made.. there's no burr's where you'd expect to see them where the textures join there's just a nice smooth arched line which must have been a plain in the ass to get right! I'd love to know how many times they carved these to get them right :), mind you considering I used to work in a metal work shop the line is so precise it could have been done be a computer, that, or someone has a very very steady hand with a Dremel!!

SUGGESTED USES





We suggest the above angles for the holds, most people will be OK using the holds on the 15, 30 and of course the 90 (vertical wall), but if you're strong you're going to be able to have a blast on anything up to 45 degrees, we have a couple of the holds on our 60 degree roof section for a while and although they're hard to hold with the right feet they're more than do-able.

The shapes are a mix of flat and in-cut edges, when we say in-cut they are flat but cut at an angle that makes them semi-jug like, not super juggy, but big enough!

OVERALL BUILD
You're going to get what you expect from this set, bomber urethane, clean lines and backs as flat as anything out there. The bolts are well suituated so you don't need to worry about the holds bending or snapping. Texture wise its clean and consistant with the lines between the 2-tex and the texture being well defined thus no sore skin... quality workmanship sums these holds up!

RATING
NOODLES SAYS
Wow, the name doesn't really explain these holds, they have a bigger profile than you'd expect, and a texture that is weird to start but once you've climbed on them for a little while you're going to be surprised. Like Chris says they're bigger than you expect, for a home wall they take up a lot of space, which is a good and bad thing depending upon your priorities... The 2-tex nature of the holds means that if you're using them with your feet following you have to be a little bit sneaky with how you place them to get full use of the slippy side of the holds, more holds are needed so you can set long routes at the gym. but chucking these onto a wall mid way through a route will stop most people and will make them think! Mix these up with the Pure Crimps and you're going to have a route that's going to be absolutely killer... infact that's just what I might do! Climbers at Allez Up beware, I have a wrench and a whole bunch of 2-Tex holds that are coming your way in the next week :P

CHRIS SAYS
Not what I expected. Don't get me wrong, I really like using these holds. Since the texture is soooo skin friendly and the edges are nice and round, they're a whole lot a fun to dyno on. With the limitationa higher roof we might have been able to experience the real potential of these holds. Maybe they'll be the next set to go to Allez Up, our local gym :) On the whole there's not much you can say that's wrong about these holds, they're skin friendly and built super well, i'd like to see more of this type of hold, there's only 5 and more would be very welcome. The texture takes a little getting used to because you feel like you're going to fly off of it when you first start using the holds, but once you realise that its actually very grippy then you'll have a blast

PROS

• Super skin friendly
• Great construction, no burrs to catch your skin
  
• Matchable, their large size allows you to match pretty well on them
  
• Depending on how strong you are these are well suited to overhanging walls to about 45 degrees (then they'd be super hard to hang)

CONS

• Not enough holds in the set, there could be more and if they expand the range they could make the radii a little smaller so the range could go from small to large
  
• Could be stealthier, these holds do take up more room than expected on your wall
  
• Do get a little clogged with shoe rubber and chalk after a while, so cleaning is needed every so often!

PRICE
The Stealth Edges are $57.50

Review > Asana > Joes

Asana has been in the holds business for a short time now and they have been able to create some unique shapes from their shop. They offer a hold of the month club so we hold junkies can sample the latest abominations to come fresh out of the mold. The Joes’s are modeled after the sandstone boulders found in Joe’s valley, Utah. So throw away your chalk bag, you won't be needing it to stick to these holds. After an afternoon of climbing on these we lost a couple layers of skin. From shallow jugs to crimps, this set has a bit of everything. They range from large to small, so you get a mixed bag when you pick these up.We've had these around the wall for a while, from some simple bouldering problems to full on get over the roof screaming your heart out routes, and there is one thing that is going to become painfully clear... painfully clear... these holds hurt. Not just hurt a little, they hurt a lot to climb on! I thought that it was just me, but Noodles has backed off of some of the problems that we've set because as he said "I like my skin to stay where it is!", he even backed off of the route in the video that's below a couple of times just because where he was gripping one of the holds (one of the biggest in the set) as his thumb was getting bruised quite badly.Now maybe it's because we set the holds across the roof, but I'm afraid it's not, we set simple problems with a traverse and found that they still hurt. There are good things to be said about the holds thou, they do work on most angled walls but anything over 45 is going to start your skin hurting more than normal, they even work on the roof, if you're brave enough (Or a sadist)

As you can tell by the picture these holds do not have a nice smooth texture and aren’t made to be sweet on the hands, although when you’ve got in your grip they won’t let go, which is why sometimes when you do get off of the wall your fingers will be screaming at you for mercy. We've had small holds on harder routes across the roof and haven't had this kind of skin pain from them, I guess it's just the nature of the beast :)

Now Noodles spoke to Jamey over at Asana and was mentioning that we found the holds painful, and this is what he said "I shaped these holds after I came back from Joe's Valley. They were shaped because I got my ass kicked and I wanted to train specifically for the area", so there is method behind their madness!

SUGGESTED USES




We suggest the above angles for the holds, which as you can see is everything from slabs to 45 degrees over. But the steeper the angle the more your fingers are going to hurt, so bear that in mind.. we didn't include anything steeper than 45 or suggest using them upon a roof unless you're well warmed up, know what you're doing. We're obviously going to try to get them on the roof and the opinion is pretty unanimous over here that they shouldn't really be up there!

Incut and very dimpled!! The Joe's are positive enough they include everything from a big two hand match to small crimpers. The texture and shape of these holds allows you to crimp down on them or use it as pinches. We were able to match every one of these holds although a novice climber will find it challenging to match some of the smaller holds of the set, but you pay the price with skin loss pretty much most of the time :(

OVERALL BUILD
I'd love to see who ever shaped these, they must have been a pain in the ass to make, mind you I think that getting these out of their molds must be a challenge everytime they pour!

The urethane holds up pretty well, and considering that some of the holds have quite shallow areas I was expecting there to be some bending, but there wasn't any that we noticed (and it got pretty warm in the wall). The bolt placements are nice and clean, we didn't suffer from any spinning holds even when we were matched on one side of the largest hold.

The backs of the holds are flat, and there's no big bubbles in the urethane so the mix is nice and consistant. There aren't any huge burrs to mention other than the obvious Joes Valley texture which we found to be pretty hard going on the finger tips. And this being said, if you chalk up alot these holds will take a lot of chalk in the dimples and do take a fair ammount of brushing to get clean.

These holds are a deep red that i've not seen before, so they do stand out on the wall, they are a little dark but at least the red is different from the other shades on the market so you can see the holds when you're chucking to them

RATING
NOODLES SAYS
The latest edition of Urban Climber (Issue 23) has the Joes in there on their gear review page, and here's what they had to say about the Joes:
"Gritty, gnarly, pock-faced Joe's Valley inspired grips. One minute you're sweating blood, biting down on itsy bitsy razor crimps, praying for relief - and the next you're moving off welcoming jugs to, well, more crimps. It's a vicious cycle for the send, but one thats completly worth fighting for. Bring it home"

Thought inspiring text... but I have to agree. I backed off of some of the routes we set on our 30 degree wall and the roof just because the holds were biting my fingers, I wasn't enjoying the pain... outside is a completly different kettle of fish as you'll do anything to get the send, but indoors I prefer to keep my digits with skin on them so I can climb more rather than less. I've got a wicked bruise on my thumb from where I was bearing down on one of the holds on the roof and it just dug in so well I had to drop off (This is why you don't see me in the video, because I get onto the roof and then go "ow" and just let go)

If you're sensible in your setting and don't mind a bit of pain then you'll like these holds, but for me unless i'm taking it nice and easy (moves and angle of wall) and not dynoing to them they're fine, steep walls and roofs on these holds are out for me just because i'm a big girl.

CHRIS SAYS
The larger holds of the set work well on overhanging terrain but aren’t quite big enough to set on a roof. Being the crazy yahoos we are we put them up in the roof anyways. Our problem started on a small crimp undercling and went straight into the roof. It continued into the overhang and back onto the vertical. Initially we put the three biggest holds of the set into the roof. Our sequence went through a couple of overhauls before we realized that they were not meant to be bolted onto the roof. Our test: try hanging on them with one hand, result: FAIL, but here at climbingholdreview we like a challenge so we continued working the sequence. The moves throughout the route are long and the roof is no exception. Although the big boys of the set are positive they don’t go in very deep so when we were on the roof it required the use of our thumbs. I guess that would classify them as crimps on the roof and jugs on a vertical. Even with the assistance of our thumbs we couldn’t manage to get through the roof so we decided to switch one of the jugs with a smaller hold that had a bigger thumb catch. It worked. This made our roof sequence easier to execute and we were able send the project.

When I say easier, I mean painful, the route got sent once and then we dropped it because it's just too painful to have up all of the time. The Joe's are staying on the wall but as parts of easier routes for now, if you're a huge fan of Joe's then these are a great buy, if you're a fan of skin... then we'd shy away from them and would suggest the "Nut Jobs" from the Asana line!

PROS

• A good mix of hold sizes for a good price
• Solid construction
• If you've been to Joe's valley these seem like a good representation of the terrain, that's what they were made to do, and that's what they do do!
  

CONS

• Not skin friendly
• Are ok on most angles, but the steeper you go the more skin you'll probably loose
• These aren't holds that you want to train on for prolonged periods of time
  

PRICE
The set costs $39

Review > Asana > Sharks

These bite size crimps from Asana are actually named Sharks, but we took the liberty to call them Sharks Teeth cause they bite and when we saw them that's what Noodles said they looked like, so we had a little fun at the expense of the movie Jaws.

At first glance the Sharks from Asana are, for lack of better terms, tiny. These holds are very similar to the Contact Hex and Rex that we reviewed some time back in that they're quite positive. Although the Asana Sharks could be put up in the roof, we came to the decision that one crimpy roof sequence on the wall was enough, besides my fingers have finally had enough of the strains and pains of bearing down on crimps. Hats of to you noodles, you were right:P

The color of the holds that Asana sent us are in a cotton candy pink and beige/brown tone. Since we like to have our holds in primary colors so we can see them on the wall, we weren't to keen on the colors that Asana chose for us. We also noticed the back of the holds were not flat, in some cases we were able to jam the tips of our fingers into the space between the wall and the hold.

Asana only sent us five out of the ten holds in the set. This made it difficult for us to set a problem so we decided on using some intermittent holds (also from Asana) to not only make it longer but to relieve some stress on our fingers. Out of the five holds that we received, all of them were crimps with the exception of one tiny sloper but thankfully Asana have designed this hold with a small thumb catch so I guess we can classify this hold as pinch as well

Like I said we chickened out on sticking the Asana Shark teeth in the roof so I started the problem on the overhang and ended it on our newly built box of death :) I set the problem so that we can bump off of each one of the crimps. My fingers hurt and I don't think they would hold up to the stresses of matching or crossing into another crimp. To my surprise Noodles was able to flash the problem quite gracefully. Then it was my turn. The Shark Teeth are much bigger than I had expected. Now that I think of it, I should have put a match in the problem or thrown them on the roof....Ok...maybe not the roof....that's just plain evil!!

SUGGESTED USES






Vertical terrain always works best with any crimp but with the help of the thumb catch, the Teeth can be used on angles from vertical to 15 degrees. These are not for the roof! The Asana website suggests that they be used for feet and vertical walls and I know that when we're done with this review they're going down low to be used by our toes only.

Depending upon the hold they're either incut or slopey, but these holds are small, you're looking at maybe a half pad at best. The thumb catches help an awful lot in making these holds better than you'd expect.

OVERALL BUILD
So far we've done four reviews for Asana: The Waffle, The Logo, The Joes and The Teeth. Out of four sets only the Joes and Waffle hold would sit flush on the wall while the remaining two sets could use some more work with the belt sander. So Asana is batting a 50/50 on the sanding. Remember that all of these holds turned up at the same time, speaking to Jamey over at Asana he assures me that they've sorted the problem out and the sanding issues that they've had have been fixed. We've got some more sets on the way, so we'll see what's up.

The urethane mix that Asana uses is solid and the holds didn't want to rotate even though the backs weren't completely flat, bolt placement is nice and clean and in the centre of the hold. You're going to want to run cap headed bolts in these holds as a normal socket head does stick out, so you've not got any of these bolts make sure you pick some up! These puppies don't exactly have the best coloring, but they do the job well enough.

RATING
NOODLES SAYS
((Considering in the same evening I managed to semi rip my index finger's tendon as we were climbing, and then had to leg it to the hospital you'd wonder if I'd ever go near a crimp again! And know what, I didn't even nail my finger on these tiny holds, it was on a jug!))

The Sharks a.k.a: Sharks Teeth aren't as bad as you think, they're by no means huge and aren't for most people, unless you're rocking them as feet, but on the whole I was impressed by them. What makes these a little different from most tiny crimps is that these have some nice shallow thumb catches on them that allow you to hang on a little bit more. I'm going to be taking some time off of small stuff for a while whilst my finger gets back to full strength so these holds will be getting moved and will be used for feet!

On the sanding front they were a little bit off, for larger holds you notice it, on smaller holds you don't, but there's really no excuse for these not being flat. But like Chris says, even with the sanding not being on par these didn't spin.

CHRIS
When I first laid eyes on these holds my thoughts were I hope this is the last crimp review that we do for a while. My fingers are screaming at me. I like working on crimps because when they are under my fingers I feel that there is no way I will pop off the hold. The Teeth are no exception. Now that I've climbed on them I would say that they're on the bigger side when it comes to crimps. (Actually Noodles informs me that these are about the same size as the E-Grips 2-Tex pure crimps, and a big smaller than the Contact Hex and Rex's) So big enough for the roof you might ask? Now that both my hands have some degree of tendon strain I'll have to say no, these are a set of holds that aren't going up there at all!

The texture was good and my fingers didn't burn after the send, which is good when you're on crimps as you bear down on them more than normal holds!

PROS

• Looks can be deceiving, they are quite big for crimps.
• The set included crimps, pinches and slopes
  
• Great for feet
• Well priced at $35 for ten holds
  

CONS

• The back of the holds aren't flat
  
• Not for beginners
• You're not going to put these on much more than vertical or 15 degree overhangs
  

PRICE
$35.00 gets you ten holds, which is a great price for holds, even if you use them only for feet!

Review > Fricton > Moon Rocks & Organics

Along time ago we were sent some Friction holds, at the same time Routesetter had just run a fairly long expose on the company so we decided to hold back and review the holds later. I just checked and the review on Routesetter was in February, so we've been more than slack :( Now this means we've had these holds for over 6 months, Luigi was one of the first people to help us out in getting started and really helped by letting me chew his ear off on the phone about problems that we experienced with the site and how we went about reviewing the holds that people were sending us.

So let's get rolling and talk about Friction a little!

Hailing from Toronto, Friction has been around since 99', but their shapers have been around the block a few times, most gyms that I've visited in Canada have a good staple diet of Friction holds, and rightly so when they're so skin and tendon friendly. Luigi who owns Friction is pretty well know in climbing circles because of the Tour De Bloc, the Canadian bouldering league that's running right now... and I've always loved their comp posters (on the left) and the comps have always been pretty well run, and same go's for his company, I've always found him to be very approachable on any subject that springs to mind.

We've had our holds since the beginning of the year, I'd brought a bunch from Le Mec before I started running this site, so we're pretty well versed on the holds... and we have a great variety of shapes to choose from... today we're looking at two sets, with some extra bonus holds :P
The Moon Rocks:
and the Organics:As per usual we looked at the suggested uses and saw that they're not recommended for the roof, and yes you've guessed it... we set a route across the roof. Thankfully as we've got some bonus holds from Friction that are prototypes of their new urethane range that will be dropping in 09 we had a couple of extra jugs to play with :) Looking at the video of what we set and the way we set it I was super happy that the Friction holds are so skin friendly as there is one roof move that stopped me dead, and this is a comment that will probably come up more than once... the shapes even though they may look that they're going to be mean on the fingers and skin are really really nice! Sure when they're new they do take a little bit of skin off of your hands, but once they've got some chalk on them they really do become nice to hold onto, the resin is just good on the skin.

Now when Luigi sent us some prototypes of the urethane mix and their shapes I was worried that his shapes would loose the feel that is unique to their brand, the holds feel very very sandstone-esqe, which lets face it is a good thing for me as I spent a great number of years in Font and climbing on Southern Sandstone in the UK. We compared a resin hold and urethane prototype hold side by side and here's what we found:

• The urethane is lighter than the resin, by a country mile
  
• Thankfully the proto uretane actually took the texture so they don't feel all that dissimilar to the resin holds... and remember there has been lots more work done since we got our holds!!!
• Urethane.. well this mix is just plain STRONG, these holds are light (and I know I've said that already) but these holds are two things that we love... STRONG AND LIGHT

I was really worried about the pending switch to urethane and I talked to Luigi about the pro's and cons of what I'd seen with some urethane holds, thankfully their holds look like they're going to be sick, and with being so light you're going to save a bunch load on shipping costs :)

(there's no sound, we know, youtube was being a pain)

As you can see from the video we set some fun moves, with the roof being the crux (as per usual). Whichever way you put the holds they're pretty bomber to grab onto, or course there is always going to be an exception if you're being completely crazy, but we've found that from vertical to steeply overhung there's more than enough space on the holds (even the small ones) for you to grab and then haul on. If you're looking at getting some holds we'd suggest you look at the Friction line.

Review > Nicros > Burly Bits / Diff Tex Footchips

We've have had the pleasure of reviewing some sweet holds in the past month, some big jugs, some not so big jugs and slappy sloppers, but now we're going back to my personal favorite the crimps :P Enter the Burly Bits from Nicros.If we want to get technical, the Burly Bits aren't all crimps. The set was designed by Kimberly down at Nicros to simulate the feel of granite. Although all these holds are small (three fingers at most) they aren't all crimps. The set includes pinches and (for lack of a better term) slopes. Enter stage right the Diff Tex foot chips from Nicros, the perfect compliment to the Burly's:So we took the two sets of holds and put up a route at our local gym, Allez Up. If ever you get a set of the foot chips in your possession you`ll realize that its going to take a laser sight on your shoes to pinpoint the good part of the hold, we had a lot of people with sloppy footwork get some air time! The holds are ideal for mad balance moves and are great for face climbs and that is where I ended up setting my route, it started below a fairly large bulge, went up and over the top and then straight up a vertical wall to it's conculsion, if your footwork was bad then you were going to have a hell of a time getting to the top, even though the route was only graded 5.9+

You would think that the Diff Tex foot chips are dual tex but they're not they have a textured area and an non textured area (Editors note: isn't that dual tex?), which is different from a Dual Tex hold, confused? So where we... here's what the Nicros site says this about them:
"1 Tick footchips offer a little more texture and varies the location of the texture when compared to the No Tick footchips. We offer three different sets of the same shapes that sport both a "textured" area as well as an "untextured" area with the texture located in different areas of the hold. These holds force you to really look at your foot placements. Isn't that what improved footwork is all about? Technical Course Setters rave about these footchips!"
Ah see, these are different from normal footchips! Nicros are being sneaky!! So these aren't your normal Dual Tex foot chips these are really really deciving... more than you think, they should pretty well be in most setters bags we think, especially as there four different variations of the same shapes!! Yup FOUR, one set textured, one set with practically no texture, and then two sets with small areas (like we have) but in different places, so you can leave up the same handholds and just switch the feet!! Would we be so mean to do that?? HELL YEAH, i'd bring a chair and a cup of coffee and watch people just get spat off of the wall :)

The Burly Bits on the other hand are dual tex! They're all made with the textured part on either side, and can be used as pinches, while the center part is smooth. It doesn't make much difference when you're using them as hand holds but there will be no smears when it comes to your feet. After bringing them back from the gym you could see the rubber on the textured part of the hold only. The crimps are bigger than you would expect due to some of the large incuts but they can still bite the fingers a little, not in a "ow ow ow" way, but in a positive way that lets you know you're on the hold properly! The sloping shapes from the set would be best on a slab. Once again balance is needed to navigate these holds.

And onto our wall :) We had them on the wall before they went to the gym, and we were having a hard time with them on the 30 degree overhang, they're do-able, but you really need to hold on! They make for some great powerful climbing, and again when you pair them with the footchips, you're going to be screaming to hold on and to get your feet on the good part of the hold. It's well documented that Noodles doesn't like crimps, he likes his fingers and would rather leave the superburly (HA!) climbing for outside or when he's competeing, but that being said even he thought that they were some pretty interesting shapes, with a good mix of shapes.











When we brought the holds to the gym they where set on a vertical wall. Most people could get through the climb and there where no complaints about the size but when you put them on any kind of overhang, look out!!! The crimps are bearable and the little "slopers" are only good for your feet. Some people did come back with the comment that the hold shapes felt a little too similar from hold to hold, it's a interesting point and one that we looked at once we brought the holds home, there is a degree of similarity between some of the holds but as they're all crimps with a small variation in size we can see why people think this! (It's also because we did have some duplicate holds up there aswell :P) Overall it was fun watching people try to grab the footchips rather than some of the holds to get up the route... wrong move!!

If you need to set some technical balancy moves on a slab or vertical wall these are something you should look at, if you want crimps for anything past 30 degrees overhung we suggest you give them a miss.... hopefully Kim-Burly will shape some more of the same style holds that are better suited to steeply overhung walls :)

The footchips can be used anywhere, they're going to tax peoples footwork to the absolute limit, from vertical to steeply overhung terrain we're having a hoot and will probably pick up the other sets pretty soon... they're that good!!



EVE
Ok, so I don't want to sound like a hater but... What happened there? First of all, these holds are ugly! It's like they tried to go all 80s about it (which I would luuuuuuuv) but then chickened out of it last minute and ended up with lightly colored wannabe tie-dyed swirls on a easily dirtied boring white background! The hand holds are shaped alright, crimps being crimps they're not comfortable per say but fairly easy to stick to. Gives a nice challenge, for me! The foot holds on the other hand are a bloody nightmare (great, the Brit rubbed off!) Either I'd slip right off or, when I'd find something more usable, I'd have to hang there, looking like I've got a twitch, trying to land EXACTLY at the millimeter where your toe fits nicely. Personally, I like a little more flexibility. It should be noted that the swirly Burlys were much more appreciated (by me mind you) on the boulder than on the wall. I think it's because having the right hand sequence is crucial to success with these holds (since your feet seem to hang there for show more then for support) and if you screw up on the wall, it quickly becomes a long power route. No good for my girly arms! Conclusion....you want a challenge? There's a challenge! I hope you don't use much leg flexibility and balance work when you climb though! (Editors note: Chris' route at the gym was all flexibilty and foot work, and it was wicked)
DAN
I love 'em! As far as small holds go, these are definitely among my favorites. There is a really good variety of angles in the set, both positive and negative, and also a good variety in the depth of the holds. It keeps climbing interesting, while keeping you from getting too comfortable up on the wall, which is a good thing. The texture is by far my favorite thing about them though. The best word I can think of to describe it is "chunky". Don't ask why, you won't understand until you've held the hold yourself. It's not like anything I've ever really seen in the gym before. Probably the closest plastic has ever felt to real rock to me. Kudos to the designers on this one! The foot holds are nice, but in my opinion nothing to get too excited about. Definitely a good addition to any climbing wall and definitely a challenge. Not too many flat edges here! I would say a really good set to practice keeping your feet on the wall while its trying to spit you off.

• Great for setting
• Big pinches, small pinches, crimps... mini slopes, this set has them all
• Footchips are super technical, you will end up with great footwork!!
  

CONS

• Could pop a tendon on an overhang, crimpings baaaad!
  
• Some of the shapes do feel a little similar to one another
  

PRICE
Burly Bits are $27.97 (Normally $39.95 THEY'RE ON SALE!) for 10 holds
Diff Tex Footchips are $37.95 for 10 holds, there are four different sets for your setting pleasure!