Hello,
Yes we have made some changes to the poles, all our poles now clamp together. We found quite a few people were having problems with the poles jamming together and I know other suppliers are getting those problems as well that's why Skyvac also do clamped poles and I believe Grippa do to. We use a metal insert as we found carbon inserts wear over time whereas metal doesn't. Also making the poles this way we can achieve a better finish than with tapered poles due to the rolling process.