redmeansdistortion

I just use 90W marine gear oil in those areas. It stays put for a long time and gives a smooth and connected feel. I run a reel service and the reels I most often see with rusted bearings are those fished in saltwater. Those that have spent their lives in freshwater just had a lot of gunk built up, even reels fished for decades never having been opened up. Usually, if a bearing from a freshwater reel is rusty, it's because it is chromed steel and not stainless. I like to think most manufacturers don't cheap out on bearings in their middle and upper tier models, as quality stainless bearings aren't costly at all. I buy them in bulk from Minnebea Mitsumi Japan for between $1 and $2 each. I can imagine a manufacturer buying in larger volumes gets them far cheaper. Minnebea Mitsumi supplies bearings to both Daiwa and Shimano.

Honestly, scratch the 5500 and look for a 4600. They can still be found even though production ended 4 or 5 years ago. Abu only discontinued them because they were eating into Revo sales. A newer 4600 has a "light-ish spool" (15g) and already comes with a lighter line guide compared to its predecessors. With a polish tune and low viscosity oils, they will cast in the 5-7g range fairly easily. If you need to go lower, you can always do the 2BB cog, 2BB level wind, and an AMO spool. If a magnetic brake is your thing, Avail makes a good one that is pretty set and forget.

This is why a quality ABEC 1 bearing spins better than a Chinese ABEC 7 bearing. A quality bearing manufacturer can machine ABEC 5, or even ABEC 7 tolerances without much effort at all. It's essentially a marketing tool these days. A good ABEC 1 bearing will remain stable at a RPM far beyond what a spool will see. These are the bearings you see in high speed machine tools, aircraft instrument panels, and even dentistry tools.

Keep in mind that TT often tests the drags of many reels past the manufacturer specifications. I'm not saying that's a bad thing as it shows the true potential is often beyond what the factory says. The fact of the matter, the part numbers on the drag stacks of all of those Alphas models is the same, so they should all measure similarly.

ABEC rating has nothing to do with internal clearances, but how a bearing fits to a shaft or housing. It doesn't account for internal clearances, raceway finish, cage quality, or ball quality. For a bearing to be considered precision, it needs to meet ABEC 1 standards at the minimum. Both Shimano and Daiwa use NMB stainless bearings many of their reels, which are rated J0, the Japan equivalent of ABEC 1 in the West. NMB, along with NSK are probably the best quality stainless bearings you'll find. Both are Japanese brands who make them in Japan, Singapore, and Thailand. NMBs can be bought in bulk for as little as $2 each when buying from Japan. If bought domestically, they run ~$6 each. I run them in all of my reels, even my bench tuned Ambassadeurs set up for light line fishing. They actually perform better than the Hedgehog Air bearings I ran previously.

No offense taken. What kept Abu relevant were the Japanese. The former distributor for Abu in Japan was Olympic, who went bankrupt in 2000. This is when Pure Fishing took over and created Pure Fishing Japan, who then slowly introduced more American market type reels to Japan while watering down the Ambassadeur in the process. Some of the best reels ever made by Abu were Japanese market only, like later releases of the 1500C/2500C, Morrum Mag and Ultra Mag, 1600C/2600C, later versions of the Cardinal 3 and 33 spinning reel, and some others I'm missing. It's what the market there wanted, while those elsewhere were wanting something different. It had to do with the Ambassadeur being a status symbol in Japan. When the yen was weak in the 1970s, an Ambassadeur cost a month's salary, so only the well off could afford it. This spawned companies like Daiwa and Isuzu who made reels inspired by the Ambassadeur for their own market, but at a cheaper cost. Isuzu now is without a doubt the finest maker of classic style round baitcast reels.

The Alphas variants, OG Pixy aside, all have the same drag capacity of ~9lb, whether it's an Alphas 103, Alphas Ito, PX68, Alphas Finesse Custom, or Air Stream Custom. The newer TW variants, the finesse models do in fact have a lesser drag capacity by about 3lb, but that drag is still plenty good. 7lb is more than plenty for any form of light line fishing. The only guys around me fishing drag that high are skipping bass across the surface of the water or fishing musky, sturgeon, or trolling for Great Lakes kings.

The Pixzilla drag is a kit that adds one more drag washer and an additional drag disc, increasing surface area which adds to the capacity.

New gears for the 2500C courtesy of Simon Shimomura. The new gears are 6.3:1 and good for 23" per turn. Even better, they bring the drag capacity up from 6lb to 11lb as Simon went with a tighter tolerance over OEM and less teeth, while retaining the factory dimensions of the gears. Here is an Avail pinion on the left, and Simon's on the right. The Avail pinion is only good for 2lb. I have installed the gears and they are noisy, but Simon did say they will quiet with use and so far that has proven to be true. He made these himself and they are very smooth even though they aren't micro gears. The ice should be off the water soon enough, can't wait.

Believe it or not, some of the saltwater rods are rated to near that weight, but they also have a minimum weight in the 1.5-3g range due to the progressive taper. Abu KRX Prototype Bait Finesse comes to mind. Major Craft also has a trout rod that's rated 5-21g, so 3/16-3/4. Plenty of examples out there if you look around. Those examples are not bass rods. Many of the bass rods top out at either 7g, 11g, and in some instances 14g. Pick your reel and choose your rod according to your target species.

The biggest misconception about BFS is that it's the equivalent to ultralight spinning. This is the general mentality of the YouTubers and other social media with a predominately Western audience. Much of that stems from where most of them got started; cheap AliExpress reels and trout rods. First and foremost, BFS is the reel itself. A light shallow spool, low inertia bearings, and a brake to make them work in unison. Aside from the spool being light weight, the depth also keeps the retrieval rate somewhat consistent. With a deeper spool, the retrieval rate nosedives as you get deeper into the spool. BFS spools, while not immune to this, do mitigate it to some extent. Second, the thinner lines used are also beneficial to casting distance since there will be less friction with the rod eyelets. Next, the rods. The only rods that come adorned with the BF nomenclature are bass rods and saltwater rods. Trout rods are entirely different, even though the powers and weight ranges may be similar. Bass rods tend to have a more narrow range of weights, mostly because they are para taper which means they bend more in the middle and butt sections. This is required for some bass fishing due to the environments they're found. It's much easier getting a bass out of the slop with a bass rod than it is a trout rod. Conversely, trout and saltwater rods are progressive taper, meaning they bend more in the tip and less the closer to the butt you get. This serves two purposes; to keep the fish pinned during the fight, and offer a wider range of weights to cast. Not all trout rods are meant to cast tiny spoons and spinners, some are meant for larger lures for bigger migratory fish. My three favorite trout rods are 3-18g/4-10lb, 3-12g/3-8lb, and 5-16g/4-10lb respectively. They're meant for big fish and have tapers that help keep them pinned and under control during those runs and head shakes. Those rods were designed from the ground up to work with BFS reels. I use them for lake run brown trout, steelhead, and coho salmon. For those I'm often throwing 4-10g spoons and minnow style baits. As far as AliExpress trout rods go, most of those are built on American style UL spinning blanks, which are usually para taper buggy whips. They can cast very light lures, but they can't handle more formidable fish very well. For smaller resident trout and panfish, they're just fine. Sure, you can fish bass and larger migratory fish with them, but they aren't the right tool for the job due to their inefficiencies for such fish.

I don't discriminate. If it's good, it's good. I can appreciate anything that's well made regardless if it's a vehicle, knife, cookware, or fishing gear.

That converts to 0.152mm, slightly larger than X-Braid #0.8, which is 0.148mm. Not too bad of a discrepancy, I'd try it out myself.

Yep, many of us here run YGK X-Braid. I just spooled my '17 Conquest BFS with #1.2 (25lb) that I will use for migratory trout on a Palms Rera Kamuy 6'9" ML. I run #0.8 (16lb) on my bushwhacking reels. Lines developed for the US market have arbitrary measurements which makes the listed strength meaningless. Additionally, many of those lines have false diameter measurements, often listing the diameter thinner than what it truly is. Sufix is a big offender of this on both fronts, but this new line they have may make me consider them again in the future since it's made from Izanas.

Tatula takes an 830 in the palm side and a 1030 in the crank side. Like I said, I have them if you need them. I just sent a set out to a guy in Grand Rapids the other day for the same reel.