Bearing Upgrades

[jmorisaki]

Lakes are all frozen up here and I'm going a little stir and feel the need to tinker. Wanted to see if anyone has upgraded their bearings using the hawgtech or bocas and what your thoughts were. Was it worth the cost of upgrade for distance? I'm thinking of upgrading 2 Lews TPs,a bb1 and a curado.

[KritterGitter]

Upgraded my Citica 201E and my buddies 201G with hawgtechs..... For the money it was well worth it. Easy to do also, free spin went from 7-10seconds to 1:56 seconds. Casting 1/2oz cranks probably lookin at 15' more distance easily...

[jmorisaki]

Upgraded my Citica 201E and my buddies 201G with hawgtechs..... For the money it was well worth it. Easy to do also, free spin went from 7-10seconds to 1:56 seconds. Casting 1/2oz cranks probably lookin at 15' more distance easily...

I've only been using bait casters a few years so definitely not a pro. Do you notice it being any more difficult to control the spool or get more back lashes with the spool being so much faster?

[KritterGitter]

Ive thrown everything from 1/4oz up to 3/4 and havent had a problem yet, this is my first year using BC setup so im far from a pro, novice at best. I normally keep my spool tension really light and 2 brakes on. The first day I put em in I was whipping the lures as far as I could just to test em out and didnt have a single issue.

[jmorisaki]

Awesome! Thanks for the info!

[Jaheff]

Lakes are all frozen up here and I'm going a little stir and feel the need to tinker. Wanted to see if anyone has upgraded their bearings using the hawgtech or bocas and what your thoughts were. Was it worth the cost of upgrade for distance? I'm thinking of upgrading 2 Lews TPs,a bb1 and a curado.

In my opinion, just make sure your stock bearings are clean and properly lubed before you spend your money on upgraded bearings.An average cast only lasts maybe 3-5 seconds? I could care less if my bearings can spin for minutes in actual on the water fishing. Upgrade when your stock bearings go bad. Just my opinion.

[rippin-lips]

Exactly! Free spool means zip zero nada unless you're a pro with your thumb and use no brakes or tension. Usually with better bearings you end up using more brakes and tension if you can't harness the power so to speak.

Op you see that typically you get the same distance with less effort. So you gain some distance using more effort but as mentioned it can cause problems.

[new2BC4bass]

I've only been using bait casters a few years so definitely not a pro. Do you notice it being any more difficult to control the spool or get more back lashes with the spool being so much faster?

 

I thought this would be a problem as well.  My results have been the opposite of rippin-lips.  I use less brakes on my tuned reels.  The widest gap is between my factory Sol and tuned Sol with ABEC 9 bearings.  Bought both used so maybe the factory Sol just needs a good cleaning, but I can tell you the tuned one handles light lures with much less fuss even with brakes set lighter.  Any reel should handle medium weight and up lures regardless of whether tuned or not.  Tuned should require less effort for the same results.

 

Don't have a factory TD-Z 105H to compare it to, but my tuned and upgraded 105H (with ABEC7s) has its brakes set at about half of what my factory Daiwas are set at.

 

I should mention that I throw hard almost all the time.  Should also mention that I got my first baitcaster in '09, and that this past season was the first time that I spent a fair amount of time practicing with my baitcast reels.  Have used them almost exclusively since purchasing the first one, but haven't been able to spend much time on the water.

 

I run spool tension very low.  Tried increasing it to the commonly prescribed amount and decreasing brakes, but found no discernable increase in casting distance.  Therefore I went back to more brakes and less spool tension on the assumption that more practice will see me lowering the brakes as time goes on thus increasing my casting distance.

 

As you might gather, I am in the camp for upgrading bearings.  May not get much more distance, but in my limited experience they are well worth the money.....being able to cast the same distance with less effort, and with less backlashing.  YMMV.

[John G]

My only experience with ceramic bearings was the performance gain wasn't worth the noise. My Curado 50E sounds like a locomotive with ceramics. To be honest, until I get some new factory Shimano bearings for it, I don't know if I had any gains or not because I don't remember how it casted when it was new. When I get the cash, I will be replacing the ceramics with Core 50 bearings.

[new2BC4bass]

My only experience with ceramic bearings was the performance gain wasn't worth the noise. My Curado 50E sounds like a locomotive with ceramics. To be honest, until I get some new factory Shimano bearings for it, I don't know if I had any gains or not because I don't remember how it casted when it was new. When I get the cash, I will be replacing the ceramics with Core 50 bearings.

How noisy were the stock bearings?  My Curado 51E was cleaned by DVT.  No upgrades.  It makes more noise on the cast than my 105H with ceramic bearings.

[Montanaro]

bearing upgrades improve flipping distance and you need less effort

[OkobojiEagle]

No imput from the guys using TSI 321 on their stock bearings?

 

 

oe

[rippin-lips]

My steez with boca orange seals has the brakes on 4 now but all stock was on 2. I also did a spool swap at the same time so that could play a part too. Pitching is effortless and so is casting but the distance is the same. Just easier to get the same result. I might of gained 10-15ft if I cast with the same power as before.

[new2BC4bass]

My reels with upgraded bearings are a 105H, Fuego and Sol.  Can't afford a Steez.  I have read that they can be tricky reels straight from the factory.  I was not disputing your results, only mentioning what mine have been.  Based on my experience with about 17 Daiwas I seriously doubt I could use a factory Steez with 4 brakes on much less 2.

 

BTW, I did a spool swap on my upgraded Sol before using.  It now has a Presso spool in it.

[WRB]

Fishing reels do not benefit from ABEC rating higher than 5, 7's and 9's are very close tolerance for 10,000 rpm applications, they don't spin more freely than a 5.

Tom

[rippin-lips]

My reels with upgraded bearings are a 105H, Fuego and Sol. Can't afford a Steez. I have read that they can be tricky reels straight from the factory. I was not disputing your results, only mentioning what mine have been. Based on my experience with about 17 Daiwas I seriously doubt I could use a factory Steez with 4 brakes on much less 2.

BTW, I did a spool swap on my upgraded Sol before using. It now has a Presso spool in it.

Not saying you were just adding to the thread. I've seen 2 in the last month on eBay for dirt cheap. The 100 isn't as finicky as the 103. 1016 spool plus bearings and now it's just a joy to fish.

[Jolly Green]

Forum member Ghoti wrote this article, an all-around good read but I found the section on bearings particularly interesting.

 

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/supertune-baitcaster.html

[jtesch]

great article. I've upgraded bearings in a couple dozen or so reels, using Boca orange seals, Boca lightnings {abec 5}, ZPI and a couple other brands and I can tell you the following things

 

1.    After market bearings are an improvement

2.    Boca Lightnings are about as good as any and are reasonably priced

3.    Rippin-lips is dead on with the fact that it's about less effort needed to cast.

4.    If you PITCH a lot, I strongly advise a bearing change. It can make a HUGE difference {I have a few Revo MGX's and with Boca bearings in them I gained  10-15 feet of distance that I could comfortably pitch without pushing the issue. the draw back is the faster spool speeds now can give me backlashes on lob casts when the lure slows down and the spool doesn't}

5.   I feel that the better the reel, the more benefit you will get from quality bearings. I've tried it on a couple of cheaper reels and found no gain. I think the quality of the spool and other parts is the culprit here.

6.   I'm dying to try the Hedgehog studio bearings. They have different bearings for different techniques. Great idea or Marketing Ploy?