Bearing Upgrades

[Crankbait]

I’m curious about what everyone else thinks about bearing upgrades….? I did a video tell me what your opinions are.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPc1EKqJvK0 Upgrade or not.

[Tavery5]

Crankbait, welcome to the forum, I checked out your video, it was a little long, but overall I thought it was good, you seem like a natural speaker. I liked that you said several times that the things you were speaking about come from experience. I find that some of the time people get caught up with repeating what they have heard or read and do not speak from actual experience, so it was refreshing. As far as ABEC 7 bearings are concerned, I think my opinion is somewhat the same as yours, they have their place, I find they work well on reels designed to throw finesse type baits, but as the baits get heavier the advantage is somewhat less. I would agree that before you spend the money on upgraded bearings that you should remove the stock bearings and properly flush and then lube them. Once that is done form your opinion based on the true potential of the stock bearings and not stock bearings full of grease or other contaminants. Again welcome to the forum, look forward to hearing more from you.

[pro reel]

Crankbait, welcome to the forum. I'm also on the Alan Tani site, I'm a mod there. Alan and I have had that same discusion several time also. You have to remeber, Alan isn't using small casting reels and he isn't doing any finesse fishing or pitching. I use the Boca OS 7 bearings in most of my reels. Did you remove the seals from yours and did you clean them good? The seals will rub, even though they are not suposed to, and the bearings will often have a film of lube , even of you order them dry. I also have found that with Boca, just as with most suppliers, you can't find 10 bearings that will be equal. I buy them in 10 packs. I find 3 to 4 of the 10 are amazing. 4 to 5 of the 10 or very good, and a couple are duds. I clean the duds and make sure they didn't just get some lube in them or something, and if they are still duds, i send them back. They also recently had a manufacturere change, the new ones are way nicer. I just got a 10 pack of the new desihn a few weeks ago and there is a noticable difference. I could talk about bearings for hours, but would just confuse most non reel techs, so if you want to discuss them in depth, send me a pm.

[Crankbait]

thanks Kevin i'm sending you a pm

[Crankbait]

Originally Posted by Tavery5

Crankbait, welcome to the forum, I checked out your video, it was a little long, but overall I thought it was good, you seem like a natural speaker. I liked that you said several times that the things you were speaking about come from experience. I find that some of the time people get caught up with repeating what they have heard or read and do not speak from actual experience, so it was refreshing. As far as ABEC 7 bearings are concerned, I think my opinion is somewhat the same as yours, they have their place, I find they work well on reels designed to throw finesse type baits, but as the baits get heavier the advantage is somewhat less. I would agree that before you spend the money on upgraded bearings that you should remove the stock bearings and properly flush and then lube them. Once that is done form your opinion based on the true potential of the stock bearings and not stock bearings full of grease or other contaminants. Again welcome to the forum, look forward to hearing more from you.

Thanks for the complement.... i like talking about fishing!

[Jrob78]

Welcome to the forum Crankbait. I liked your video. I think that I mostly agree with what you said too. I've got 3 or 4 reels with upgraded bearings, it seems that some of them take to upgraded bearings better than others. My Curado seems to be the most affected. I agree that ease of casting and finesse baits are where upgrades shine the most but I feel as though I have definitely gotten some added distance. I will have to play with it on my pitching set ups too.

The biggest improvements overall for me came when I started using an ultra sonic cleaner to clean my bearings. Getting them flushed out completely and using a high grade, fast oil really makes stock bearings reach their potential.

I also wonder how mag vs. cent brakes play a roll in casting performance as it relates to bearing upgrades. My reels with cent only brakes seem to perform the best with hybrid bearings.

Another thing I've started doing with some of my reels with stock bearings is taking one shield off on the spool bearings. I can't tell if it makes that much of a difference casting wise but it definitely helps with cleaning and re-lubing.

[boloson]

Hey pro reel, do u take off both sides of the Orange seals from 1 bearing or do u only take off the OS that's facing out? I cant seem to do a 1 minute free spool like u see on YouTube vids.

[pro reel]

Originally Posted by boloson

Hey pro reel, do u take off both sides of the Orange seals from 1 bearing or do u only take off the OS that's facing out? I cant seem to do a 1 minute free spool like u see on YouTube vids.

I take them both off, they don't need them if you keep the reel clean and don't leave it in the bed of a truck while driving. You can only get that much free spin with reels that don't have any mag braks and the pin brakes all turned off, you also have to clean the bearings and run them dry to get that.

[boloson]

1 more question. what is included in your "supertune" service? what parts gets sanded & do they get polished with some kind of polish or just machined polished to a mirror finish?

[DVT Mike]

Proper cleaning and lubing including flushing of the stock bearings should always be the starting point to evaluate the potential gain of a bearing replacement or upgrade. This is the only way to see how much of a gain came from the bearings and how much just from proper tuning. In most cases I recommend bearing upgrades when the stockers need replacing anyway. In the case of a tackle enthusiast that just wants to trick things out, that's another story.

Traditional Super Tuning generally benefits reels with a solid spool shaft design by polishing spool friction points. The spool ends, pinion gear collar, pinion gear inside surface, metal cast control cap spacers are sanded with varying grits and finished with a soft buffing wheel and polish like Brasso. I also polish the centrifugal brake drum if so equiped. I'm a big believer in Carbontex drag upgrades and encourage that upgrade for almost every reel I service. They are the real deal and relatively inexpensive.

[Crankbait]

Originally Posted by DVT Mike

Proper cleaning and lubing including flushing of the stock bearings should always be the starting point to evaluate the potential gain of a bearing replacement or upgrade. This is the only way to see how much of a gain came from the bearings and how much just from proper tuning. In most cases I recommend bearing upgrades when the stockers need replacing anyway. In the case of a tackle enthusiast that just wants to trick things out, that's another story.

Traditional Super Tuning generally benefits reels with a solid spool shaft design by polishing spool friction points. The spool ends, pinion gear collar, pinion gear inside surface, metal cast control cap spacers are sanded with varying grits and finished with a soft buffing wheel and polish like Brasso. I also polish the centrifugal brake drum if so equiped. I'm a big believer in Carbontex drag upgrades and encourage that upgrade for almost every reel I service. They are the real deal and relatively inexpensive.

Carbontex rule….. they make my 2 washer pfluegers feel like a 7 drag washer Diawa!

[DVT Mike]

Yup, I even put them in Revos even though they come with a carbon washer. The weave is different and the Carbontex are somewhat stronger but much smoother.