I've personally converted totally to the superlite, and won't be going back to a telescopic pole any time soon (Though there was one at the NEC...er...no, hang on....it was a carbon fibre modular
By a Canadian with a pony tail, heavier than the superlite, lighter than the..sigh...whats the name of it?? The name has left my addled brain for the moment, but it is a telescopic carbon pole....)
Sorry! I digress
In use I've found the superlite absolutely top notch, but it does have it's downsides, namely it is very fragile, particularly the top sections.
I think the joints need to be toughened up, I'm intending to fibreglass the inside of the male sections of my own pole, only an inch or two, and on the female sections the outside could also be fibreglassed, only an inch or so, as it is this area that suffers the wear and tear the most.
I'm only going to use fibreglass because it is DIY, Alex from Gardiners sent me one end section (not part of the carbon pole) that fits onto the end of the superlite, the plastic angle joint is then attached to it.
This section is about two and a half feet long, I do a lot of shops so it is ideal to simply slip off and use as a short pole.
but an added bonus is that as it is the female part of the joint, it has a short rubber...er, flange over the end of the section, and this makes it really robust.
~In an ideal world I would love to see the female end sections have something similar, it would stop these thin end sections from fraying or splintering.
And I think that the male ends could have something similar on the internal edges of the pole, thereby reducing wear and tear.
It will be interesting to see how things develop, but lightweight poles are an absolute must!
whether modular or telescopic, the race is certainly on to produce lightweight options.
Prior to the superlite I used Unger poles, as these supply the pole hose on the outside of the pole, in use they are like a modular in that you disgard the sections you don't need, they give greater versatility that through the pole, but it isn't as tidy looking, and you have to deal with the hose flapping about, there are ways of dealing with that, but in use you don't bother as it adds time to what you are doing.
Ian