Ball bearings... Curado vs others

[LEWITH]

The Curado has only 5+ 1 ball bearings and other reels in its same price line have 10+. Why is Shimano putting in so many less bearings than its competitors when looking at the Curado line?

[reason162]

quality > quantity. Go fish one of those Chinese reels with 15 bearings for 60 bucks and report back. 

[Kevinator1]

It's all about bearing placement. Shimano puts their bearings in the critical places to make the reel work to it's highest potential. A lot of reels have 2 or 4 bearings in the handle knobs which doesn't do anything for casting or retrieving. So the Shimano 6 bearing reel is just as good (probably better) than others 10 bearing reels. (ooppss, may have opened a can of worms with the probably better comment...lol)

[MassYak85]

The lower bearing reels are usually opting to not put them in places like the handle. Some of these 10 bearing reels have 4 handle knob bearings, which do absolutely nothing as far as casting performance. Another thing is quality. You can add a ball bearing to every piece of the reel that spins but if they are crap bearings it isn't going to matter as far as how well the reel performs.

[Angry John]

The company puts bearings where you can tell the most difference ie what is cost effective.  I put bearings in my reels that will take them and i can tell the difference but most people dont care or want to do the extra maintenance.  I will speak to daiwa reels because those are what i fish most.  I add two or four bearings to the handle depending on what it has already.  I also add one to the level wind.  I like the improvement and feel its worth it to me.  The original posters are correct that the original build quality is more important, and if the time and effort made by the company to keep every thing strait and aligned then i have no issue upgrading latter.   

[bigfruits]

23 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Some of these 10 bearing reels have 4 handle knob bearings, which do absolutely nothing as far as casting performance. 

 

i didnt know knob bearings counted for # of bearings in a reel but ive never really looked at bearing counts anyway.

 

The Curado 70 only has one bearing per knob if that helps it look any better as far as bearing count inside reel. i replace the knob with a larger met 13 knob and add a bearing and washer.

[Nscheele]

The Abu garcia revo winch I just got is the first of my lineup to have a bearing at each end of the level wind. It's advertised as a 9 bearing reel, which is correct. On the same hand, both of my Johnny Morris carbonlites are advertised as 10 bearing reels, but only have one at the drive end of the level wind. Now, mind you, I haven't fished the winch yet, but I think it's reasonable to assume that the more money spent on a fewer bearing count reel with bearings in places that matter is totally worth it. The other two abu reels I have, pro max and orra sx, only have one on the level wind. Time fishing will tell if the revo performs different from the others. My guess is that it will be insignificant to the weekend warrior as most of us are. 

[craww]

There are quite a few high bearing count reels that don't have as many bearings as advertised when torn completely down from knobs to sideplates.

[kickerfish1]

I haven't paid attention to the number of bearings in reels for decades. Once you get a price point like Curado and above bearing count is pretty irrellevant IMO. The others have said it best ...quality and placement is far more crucial.