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Been doing some reel tuning and thinking bout upgradeing my bearings..But heres my question to you guys in the know.
Does it really make that big a difference? And heres the part I dont understand.. If the bearings you have spin the spool fast enough that you have to use the magnetic braking and tighten the cast control knob any at all then what good would faster bearings do?
Thanks in advance for any help..
Billy
There's some discussion about this on bassboatcentral.com and other internet forums. Everyone seems to be of the consensus that it makes a HUGE difference in the casting distance and smoothness of the reel when using the high end, orange seal, Boca Bearings with ceramic balls. Been thinking about replacing my Curado bearings, when I get a little extra cash.
I thought about replacing the ones in a quantum, but decided to take it apart clean and lap them really well. lots of improvement for free.
one of my buddies has them replaced in most of his reels...you can cast pretty dang far and it makes for easier flipping/pitching...downside is your gonna have backlashes
Here seems to be a pretty good article about it all.
[URL]http://www.tackletour.com/articlebearings101.html[/URL]
FYI, here are the links to part 2 and part 3 of the reel bearing article:
[url]http://www.tackletour.com/articlebearings201.html[/url]
[url]http://www.tackletour.com/articlebearings301.html[/url]
[QUOTE=billyp;460329]Been doing some reel tuning and thinking bout upgradeing my bearings..But heres my question to you guys in the know.
Does it really make that big a difference? And heres the part I dont understand.. If the bearings you have spin the spool fast enough that you have to use the magnetic braking and tighten the cast control knob any at all then what good would faster bearings do?
Thanks in advance for any help..
Billy[/QUOTE]
Billy I changed mine out to gain a little extra distance but I found that the reel was much smoother fighting the fish as well. I also found that I could throw lighter baits a longer distance when paired with the right size line. I followed the "super tuning" that was posted on another post and honestly it was a fun little project and i could see better results, I didn't notice any more backlashes but I did notice a lot more smoothness overall, I did mine 3 years ago and they still feel as smooth today as they did then and I put alot of hours on my reels.
i couldnt stand it. So I got a set of Bo** ceremic hybrids. put them in tonight..
Much to my surprise. I actually lost casting distance. I left all settings the same. Swapped out bearings and lost distance. Tried them with oil first. Less than one drop. Then flushed them out using naptha and blowing them out with carb cleaner, then air pressure to dry.. Still no better. But alot noisier, even borderline grinding on some casts.
I use Revo sx. And as I said in original post those bearings already spin fast. Now to be fair i tried the abec 5 bearings. The orange seal abec 7 may do better.
But on a positive note after some trial and error. i have been able to make the magnetic braking better on the Revo's
[QUOTE=billyp;460675]i couldnt stand it. So I got a set of Bo** ceremic hybrids. put them in tonight..
Much to my surprise. I actually lost casting distance. I left all settings the same. Swapped out bearings and lost distance. Tried them with oil first. Less than one drop. Then flushed them out using naptha and blowing them out with carb cleaner, then air pressure to dry.. Still no better. But alot noisier, even borderline grinding on some casts.
I use Revo sx. And as I said in original post those bearings already spin fast. Now to be fair i tried the abec 5 bearings. The orange seal abec 7 may do better.
But on a positive note after some trial and error. i have been able to make the magnetic braking better on the Revo's[/QUOTE]
While the orange seal would definitley be the highest quality, I've read excellent testimonials abou the quality of the abec 5 bearings. At one time, Boca had a warning on their website that there are knockoffs sold as Boca brand. Is there a possiblility you were duped by the seller?
Bought them direct from Boca.
I never tried the "Boca" I bought the abec 7 ceramics from VXB,
[url]http://www.vxb.com/page/bearings/PROD/Kit7300[/url]
And they were smooth from the git go, also after research I believe I read that the abec 5 vs 7 wouldn't be noticable to the everyday person that the difference is just a closer tolerance fit.... but again I bought the 7's so i can't compare. What type of oil did you use (with the sounds you described I doubt oil would be an issue though...)