Neccessity is the mother of invention aint it? Question(again) alex............sorry fella. Why is the slx seemingly more prone to grit than say, the extel..............Is there a reason? Do ya think it might be related to the diameter of the hole in the base cap??
This may be due to the tighter section tolerances, but generally will be down to working environment. I do not think that end cap hole size will make much difference. Personally I have found them no more prone to grit than the X-Tel poles.
Why can't the SL-X pole be made of the same hard wearing carbon composite as Facelift's pole to give the SL-X a longer service life as well or would that compromise too much on the weight and slimness of the pole?
Any increase to wall thickness will unfortunately greatly affect the overall diameter and the weight, hence the decision to go for the lightest most compact specification we could. I personally use these poles every week (SL-X18 - 3 years old, SL-X22 - 3 months old, SL-X25 - 2 years old, Super-Max44 - 1 year old) so my main concern is strain on the body and ease of use. We could have engineered one to last twice as long, but I for one wouldn't want to be working with it.