A variety of sizes based on what I feel would be critical bearings on a spinning reel to mostly eliminate corrosion, increased rolling performance, and increased feel. I ordered them dry and I've applied a thin layer of bearing oil to reduce the dry coarseness feel, hence the red tint.
2 of the bearing sizes were slightly off the dimension I ordered, 0.5mm thinner, numbnut who took my order discovered that they didn't have stocks for the exact ones I wanted and decided to just dump in the closest one found. More about this in the next explosive post.
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| Out goes the hybrid ceramics and in goes full ceramics onto the main shaft support! |
This will be the first stage of test on areas where there's medium amounts of straight torque loading with little to no angular loading to the bearings as it is also supported by the anti-reverse (one-way bearing). Unlike the main gear shaft where the connection to the handle creates a massive amount of torque as well as angular loads due to rotational cranking force will require higher grade or specification of bearings with little play to take the abuse.
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| The bottom end of the X-Ship bearing also swapped into full ceramics. |
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| Both full ceramics in place. |
After my reel's been pimped, it's time to field test the full ceramics at Rawang's Exotic pond. The reel free spins a lot faster with less resistance and you can literally feel the full ceramic balls rolling as it was only lightly oiled compared to conventional bearings with seals to keep it's grease in for maximum protection.
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| Big pacu landed with quite a unique fighting signature compared to the regular cats there. |
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| Powerdunk was the lure of the day, note the busted split rings up front! |
A week later, I needed more tests on the bearings as it didn't register much abuse from Exotic's tests. I decided to head out to Banting's Siakap pond as the siakaps there are generally less fussy with lures and gives me more opportunity to have a better gauge of the bearings.
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| First hook up without much fuss using IMA's Sasuke steadily reeled in. |
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| Many more hook ups as the siakaps weren't picky at all with DUO's Ryuki tempting twitches. |
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| Next up on DUO's Perakko reeled fast with explosive strikes from this hungry siakap. |
There were just too many hook ups at Banting's siakap pond and I had to resort to using only just 1 tiny hook, debarbed and let the siakap throw them out easily.
All in all, a decent test with an improved reel feel and spinning performance with the full ceramics on the main shaft. I will continue to field test this reel with occasional servicing to check it's internal for any wear and tear.
Next test would be interesting as I will be testing the full ceramics on the main gear for a full on abuse of cranking vs some pond GTs. Stay tuned.
