Wow - a 10-year challenge! One of you Lew's guys will have to take this one since I don't have any Lew's and I'm already in the middle of the BPS PQ 5-year challenge... :lol:
I like long-lasting stuff (my two cars are 24 and 40 years old)...but I think sometimes the longevity thing, especially for lower-cost items like fishing reels, can be given more weight than it deserves. If the only important criterion for a BC reel was longevity, then we would all be using Ambassadeur 5000 round reels for the rest of our lives. As long as a reel gives you adequate value for money spent, I don't see why a reel can't have a "lifespan" - after which you consider it used up and move on to later and greater reels. And even before the reel is used up, technology advances might make you want to move on to something else. I used my 1980s vintage Shakespeare spinning reels until just recently and retired them not because they were used-up, but because newer reels have features (like silent, instant anti-reverse) that I considered more important than continuing to try to extract more economic value out of the reels.
I think most of the folks on this board will most likely be fishing some newer reels ten years from now......
