Hello All, I'm considering my first new baitcasting reel purchase in a long time to replace one of my trusty Daiwa TDHi's. They've served me well over the years, and are still in great shape but I'd like to try one of the newer styles. I was considering all the reels in the $150 ~ $200 price range. But after reading a good review on Tackle Tour (http://www.tackletour.com/reviewdaiwaairdcasting.html), I was considering adding the new Daiwa Aird to my list of prospects since it appeared to have similar specs. I was adding all the reels to a spreadsheet, and one thing that glared back at me was the difference in the price of the Aird vs the number of bearings it has compaired to other reels of similar price or with similar bearings (both the review and Diawa's website say it has NINE bearings). Other reels with the same or even less bearings are much more expensive (such as the Tatula which only has 7). Concurrently, other reels with i the Airds price range have quite a few less bearings. So since the parts list are available on the Diawa website, I decided to download and review the Aird and Tatula's parts lists to see where all their bearings were and how they compared to each other. But when I reviewed the Aird parts list, I could only find THREE: one on either side of the level wind (#'s 52 & 66), and one on the right side of the spool shaft (#13). The review said their were two in each of the knobs, so if they are counting those (which I think would be lame), that's still only SEVEN by my count. So where are the other TWO? The Roller bearing was counted separately (the total would be10 if you include it). After not being able to find all the bearings, I decided to do a similar review of the Tatula's parts list. I found FIVE out of the seven bearings for that reel. So are the other two for that reel in the knobs too? As I said, I haven't look at new reels for quite a while, so I'm not up on how they all count their bearings these days, but to me that kind seems like cheating. You expect the bearings to be in the REEL not necessarily the handles. Don't get me wrong, that's a nice feature, but say that's where they are. No where in the reels online liturature does it say it has bearings in the handles. Do other reel mfg's count them that way too? Or is Daiwa trying to put lipstick on a pig by being able to say the Aird has NINE bearings? Any thought would be appreciated. Can anyone share where the rest of the bearings are on the Aird. Is it typical for reel manufactures to include the bearings in the handles? If so, how are you suppose to know that they're there? Not everyone posts their parts lists online, AND besides, at least for Daiwa, they don't show the handle bearings in the parts list anyway (the handle is shown as ONE PART). Thanks in advance for the advise. Cordially...Chugbug5
