They're essentially big handles, like the Jugs from Project Holds, and having their similarities and differences.
Despite the simplicity of the shape, they're really useful for big comfy holds or roof jugs. Teknik has done a good job in using a simple shape and giving it a new edge. Their old resin handles are the same size and despite the look of the hold there is only room for two hands....barely! It wouldn't be much of an issue until you get into the roof and you have all you weight on you hand with no room for the other. The old shape was geometric and the jug (handle?) is more shallow than the lates re-incarnate. I found that those holds on the roof would dig into my fingers especially when I went to match the hold. The new shapes are round and big and are very similar to the Jugs from Project. But the similarities stop with the aesthetics and Tekniks shapes are a bit smaller that give them a character of their own.... and there are more of them, 20 in all!We set on with some long moves into roof. On 45 degree wall, even with our feet on big holds it was hard to match the holds with all the weight on one hand. There's one of the holds on the 45 that has a cool twist to it and it iss by far the most comfortable hold of the set (its the one that Noodles talks about at the end of the walkthrough). The hold is twisted so there is a place to get both hands on it but if you're in too deep there's not much there for the second hand. The others are big wide handles and easy to grab, but if you grab the way you'd really like to then you end up overlapping your fingers on top of each other and will have trouble getting your bottom hand out to move :P
One thing that we lack are good holds for the roof. We have some jugs but once on the roof the sequences get hard and sketchy. With these holds we could set hard sequences on the roof without being on marginal holds; all of the holds are matchable if you don't mind bumping your hands a little. We do a lot of bouldering here and at the gym and we wanted to work on other aspects of the sport so we put bunch of bolt hangers on the wall and practiced using quick-draws. (We don't put those in the video, the rope gets in the way) If you have a roof on your home wall these holds and hangers would be a good investment. They're good for any grade climber and we all had fun climbing and setting with the holds.
Where these holds come into their own is on the roof or steep terrain with people that want to monkey about or just work on their foot technique, the one thing that they are lacking is a set screw hole (which Teknik are looking at adding) as these holds when set horizontally will spin on you if you hit a little off of centre on them. It's one thing that we've mentioned on a lot of holds and Teknik really should have taken note before now! We've retro fitted screw holes into all of them now because even on the roof you can see the ends of the holds lifting from the wall by about 1/4 of an inch in some cases... why do we mention this so much? Because in the case of holds like these the force on the t nut is torquing it into the wood of you wall rather than being evenly distributed across the bolt and a screw, you could get locked tnuts / bolts in the worst case and possibly a nut that's at a funny angle in the best! It's a minor downpoint to be honest as Tekniks mix doesn't need to be pre-drilled you can just add a screw to the hold and it should be fine. We've since learnt that we should use a counter sink drill, which we since grabbed from the store and you can drill a screw hole in one shot without three drill bits.
SUGGESTED USES:
Want to try out some long moves? Campus train maybe? Although these holds are big old jugs, they have their uses anywhere on the wall. Their shape is ideal for roofs and steep overhanging walls and you could easily set campus routes or sequence train. We all learned early that a holds difficulty is not judged by its size and the Fat Rings are no exception, they look simple but in some cases they're harder to grab than you rhink
Depending on how you set you can get a work out with these holds... they're great on the skin
Having a couple sets of jugs like these is always a good investment. On top of being well thought out shapes and great for the roof, they can also be set into difficult sequences on vertical terrain without having any problems returning e-mails the next day ;) (Your fingers don't get tweaked incase :P)
When you see the shape you can tell what it is but its when you get your hands on the hold is where you`ll get the real feel for the hold. The holds are thick and might be a little hard to get your hand around the hold to get a better grip especially if you're like Dora or Eve, they both have small hands, but they also have the advantage of an easier match
OVERALL BUILD
- Number of holds: 20, we have 5
- Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt ons
- Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): 5 /62 = $12.40 per hold
- Color: Dark green
- Bolt placement: Well placed on one side
- Sanding: Ok. some sides were a little off
- Texture: Better than you think
- Set size: Large
- Versatility: Not bad. great for all terrain
- Pre-drilled screw holes: No
- Shaper: Zoe
She mentioned that with their material you don't need to drill a pilot hole you can just put a wood screw in and attach the hold to the wall. We'd still recommend grabbing a counter sink drill the same size as the screw you're using just to be on the safe side.
The sanding is a little off on one of the holds and it's just a little off, nothing serious. Texture-wise well if you compare this to the Arnold (another of Tekniks holds) it does feel different, the texture is almost the same but with the Arnold you're open handed slapping alot of the time and with the Fat Rings you're grabbing around; it's a little disconcerting at first as it feels like it could be slippery but it's not at all.
When we look at the color, well it's best to watch the walk through for that one, Noodles makes a point about Teknik normally having very vibrant colors, these holds aren't vibrant which is kind of surprising as when we take a poll on Teknik holds color is always something that crops up. That being said there's nothing wrong with the color, it's just a little muted for our taste is all
The holds have some heft to them, they have a nice solid feel that really inspires confidence in the build quality.. again Teknik have taken something that should be plain and boring and have added a new twist that makes them prett interesting, the sneeky double match on one of the holds is sweet
WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Poly wants a cracker... urethane
PACKING / SHIPPING:
Actually pretty good, the holds all came through without a scratch
RATING:
Noodles:
When you think of a Teknik hold what do you think of?
Me, I think of some of the best shapes on the planet and I always think of semi mental colors, two tone or just a plain yellow... but they're never really just a two tone or just a yellow... I always find the colors to be quite vibrant. This time it wasn't the case, the color is a semi-dark green and I'll be honest it's not a color I think of when I think of Teknik; of course some people don't care what color their holds are and of course it makes no difference in the way the holds climb!
These holds climb really well, they're a pleasent surprise, you can monster around on these at will on anything on any angle they're super easy to climb on, they're skin friendly, the only problem that I have is when I match on them I find that I get my hands locked one over the other, it kinds of makes some of the routes we've set harder for me as I have to sort my hands out a little before moving.... since filming we've continued playing with the holds and I've managed to figure out that when I grab with one hand I need to have my hand at one end of the hold so I can get a couple of fingers in for the match before I remove my original hand... simple really, I should have been a little smarter when I was chucking myself at the wall :)
The price is pretty good considering the size of the holds, I'd like to see the rest of the holds from this range I'm sure there are some pretty tricky holds in the set that look like they're plain but are a little more than is expected
Chris:
We don't receive too many holds from Teknik, but when we do the holds always stay up for awhile. The holds are really comfortable to climb on in comparison to the old handle shapes. We've done quite a bit of climbing and reviewing of crimps and small holds and to have received a set of jugs was welcomed with open arms:)
What I like with these holds is that we're able to easily set routes that are hard enough to pose a challenge for everyone. Dora came over to climb with us on the Fat Rings and she wanted to work on long moves. She's small and at 5"2', one of her weaknesses are the long moves that some of us don't think twice about. We set a problem with some long moves and although Noodles sent it the first time, it took me a couple of attempts before I got the move down. Dora got through the sequence after two or three attempts.
I've always likes Teknik's holds. Their shapes are really well thought out and they tend to be more technical holds, like their geometric shapes and crimps. These holds find themselves on the other end of the spectrum, but that doesn't mean you can't climb hard on jugs. I liked having them on the wall and setting hard sequences, it gives my body a work out without any strain on the fingers. If there is any black marks on this set, its would be in the fact that their heavy and don't come with a preset set screw holds. The holds are solid all the way through and if Teknik can figure out how to remove some material, setters will have an easier time hauling these holds up and down the ladder.
PROS:
- You can put in a set screw into these holds without a pilot hole, Tekniks material will allow it
- No set screw holes
- Color isn't all that Teknik on this set of holds
