In reply to Richie Patterson, Wild Country:
Thanks for the detailed reply Richie; that's a surprisingly big difference in the wire weights, decision to go with 7kN now makes more sense.
"Mine would be weight on a long trad route (as long as the strength is up to a standard that is acceptable) and for me 7kN is plenty. Most biners for years and years have been 7kN gate open and everyone uses biners all day every day without worry."
My first choice biners are Phantoms or Heliums due to their hooded nose and/or higher gate open strength, and second choice are wire gates rated at 7kN but with hooded noses (e.g. Xenon Lite). I'll use standard 7kN gate open biners if needs be but given the choice I'd rather not.
"And nearly all micro nuts are way less than 7kn but it doesn't stop people carrying RPs."
No it doesn't, but the sub 7kN rating on most RPs is not a matter a choice as it is with bigger gear like the SLORs.
"For me the kicker is that you state that the product would be much better stronger and heavier - I don't agree and Wild Country didn't agree in this case. We decided to go ahead and produce the lightest set of nuts available (and truth be told had a lot of debate about this subject) because in the end it felt right to go that way. Someone has to break the mould and decide to push in ways that not everyone will, it's now for the public to decide if we were correct."
I didn't state that they'd be much better stronger and heavier, I said that it seemed to me that a stronger and negligibly heavier version of a great product would have been even better. Now you've supplied the figures I can see that's not really possible and decision to go with 7kN makes sense. So good on you for coming up with these, I'm sure they'll sell well and deservedly so.