DRCC Bleepin' Pinches Review

The Bleepin’ Pinches are a dual textured line from DRCC, comprised of 15 holds – 1 Large, 8 Mediums, and 6 Smalls.  The sized sets are sold individually, but you can buy the whole line and get a nice discount.  As we mentioned in our review of their Deep Cut Crimps, DRCC has the best dual textured holds on the market; remarkably shiny and slick as snot.  The boundary between the 2 textures is abrupt and crisp – flawlessly executed.  This line was the first set of holds we purchased; we bought them before the wall was even finished after watching CHR’s review.  We had that set poured in color stripes (they also do some sick swirls), another of DRCC’s trademarks, at no extra charge.  If you or the gym you set at don’t care about monochromatic setting, these striped holds are a great way to add some flair to your wall.  They pour in standard Aragon colors and provides color matching at no extra cost.

Having set with DRCC quite a bit over the years, we have found their plastic is relatively brittle and is prone to cracking – especially on uneven surfaces.  However, they offer an optional rubber back for a few extra dollars that mitigates the problem by providing a thin (~1mm) cushion of rubber for the plastic to nestle into when tightened.  The rubber also reduces the likelihood of spinners and protects the edges of the hold from chipping.  Bottom line – the rubber back is well worth money, and we would encourage DRCC to make it standard.  They do color matching and standard colors on the backing as well, so you can either hide it or add some funk with a different color.  The Mediums and Large all have predrilled, counter-sunk set screw holes as well.  Customer service has always been great and since they pour their holds in house, order turnaround time is nice and quick!

Black rubber-back layer

The holds without rubberbacking chipped readily when dropped from 3' onto concrete floor

When we received the sets for review, we immediately noticed how much deeper these pinches were than the ones we had.  We called to ask if they had changed the mold or started pouring them deeper, and they didn’t know what we were talking about - they said nothing had changed…  We compared thicknesses of the like holds in each set and found that the newer set was as much as 25% deeper than the old one…  That is a big deal, especially with such shallow holds and reveals some quality control issues that need to be worked out.  We won’t geek out with numbers here, but if you are interested, email us for more details.  Even if it was unintentional, we preferred the deeper holds.  Some of the smaller holds from the older shallower set have really limited use.  Curiously, the extra 12-25% thickness really opened up the angle range of usability without changing the difficulty all that much.  Maybe DRCC should consider pouring them a touch deeper?

The red hold is 25% thicker than the striped hold

Same hold.  Note larger footprint of the red - it is 14% thicker than striped

The Large pinch is definitely our favorite in the line, and we were thrilled to add another to our arsenal - like most large holds, this one sets really well in pairs.  One side is flat and the other is slopier which makes it versatile on lots of wall angles.  The base of the hold flares out preventing fingertip contact with the wall.  It is easily matchable, but still tapers thin at the ends making the match a bit technical and even less usable as a foot.  This one is a must have.  Get one.  Better yet, get two. 

Large Bleepin' Pinch

The Mediums are slightly less versatile, but most of them are still useable and comfortable on a wide range of angles.  We recommend these with slightly less enthusiasm than the Large, but they are still a great directional set.  

Medium Bleepin' Pinches

Small Bleepin' Pinches

The Smalls are a bit more of a specialty set.  Most of them are extremely challenging on even moderately steep terrain and would work very well for low angle/vertical setting.  Their size makes actually using them as pinches sort of uncomfortable and they end up being sort of strange crimps.  The scarcity of textured surface on these could yield some deviously technical problems.  They are worth a look if you have the right terrain, especially if you are going to purchase the other 2 sizes and get the discount on the whole line.