DUO Ikakko magic

Can't complain with the another 1 cast 1 fish madness.

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Island Maldivian Madness!

Troisième partie. Great madness comes in 3s!

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More Maldivian Madness!

Part deux of my previous entry on Maldivian Christmas Special, the madness continues. 

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RP Custom bearing tuning for some speed!

A friend sent me 3 of his bait casting reels for a quick pimp up with hybrid ceramic bearings and tune up for that extra bit of speed. The bait casters were already dressed to the nines with a variety of pimpy exterior option parts. All they need now are some speedy hybrid ceramic bearings.

Enter RP Custom hybrid ceramic bearings, new kid on the block when it comes to bearings. Casters rejoice! They are designed mostly for speed and quality rating of ABEC7 specifically for bait caster spools. There are 4 different pairs to cover most popular bait casters out there. The bearings' loaded with light oil and unshielded for maximum speed. The rubber shields are separately packed in the event that you opt for protection and durability by packing grease in instead, the choice is yours. We will be ditching the shields for these bait casters are they are looking for some speed.

Separately packed rubber shields, simple graphical instructions, Japanese mumbo jumbo & nifty stickers for bragging rights.

Most of Shimano's recent bait casters design uses a pair of similarly sized bearings for their spool, which makes a lot more sense when it comes to production.

First one to get speedy RP Custom hybrid ceramic bearings, the Shimano Scorpion DC. One on the DC brake side and another on the mechanical brake side, both bearings are similar in dimension and works for most Shimano baitcasters.

Daiwa on the other hand uses 3 different sized pairings across their popular bait casters, probably due to their innovative design variation of the magforce braking system as well as the variety of bait caster categories for a variety of exclusive applications.

Daiwa Millionaire SW pimped up feels more like a Zillionaire, small bearing on the magforce side and the bigger one's on the spool support gearbox side held in place with a pin. A custom pin remover is needed here to remove the pin so not to damage the shaft.

As for the Shimano Calcutta Conquest, one on the mechanical brake side and the other's tucked under the spool support cage where the SVS brake adjustments can be access.

Nice touch on the stickers for bragging rights on what's inside.

Shimano bait casters are the easiest to swap out the spool bearings due to it's standardized designs while the Daiwas as well as some Abu Garcia bait casters requires a custom bearing pin remover in order to replace one of the spool support bearings.

All in all, 3 bait casters ready for some speedy action and these RP Custom bearings give much more bang for your buck compared to some of the older bigger brands out there and they seem to be pretty good upgrades to get that extra bit of speed. Word is from some folks is that they feel that it casts 'better' than stock bearings. I'll check in with some seasoned casters to get some thorough feedback if available.

Dead clicker on a 3rd party Stella spool

On a recent offshore popping trip, a friend got himself an oversized & interchangeable spool system in order to have the desired line poundage/length ready for a variety of application with just one reel body. The spool system was brand new 3rd party variant which looks to be properly machined and fairly ok precision designed for the Shimano Stella SW series.

The clicker gave way just a few days of popping with a handful of angry GT hook ups. Fortunately, the drag system wasn't affected as the reel produced GTs after GTs during the remainder of the trip.

Typically, for an original spool sizes SW6000 and above, the clicker is housed at the bottom most stack of the spool housing with a simple plastic and metal sheeting as cover for the clicker arm/spring to sit on as there isn't a need for any form of load put on these parts. Just a simple rattler concept that rarely fails.

A typical spool bottom stack for drag clicker, housed in the outer ring with printed words 'hyper disk drag' while the inner ring with 4 screws hold the clicker teeth and the lower drag stack.

On the 3rd party spool system, a quick exterior inspection upon dismantling of the main components doesn't reveal much. A modular system consist of the main body that houses the drag stack, interchangeable line spool for different spool sizes, and a top plate screw to hold the system together.

Main components, clockwise from top left, main body with drag stack, line spool, custom top plate screw removal tool, & top plate screw which holds the system together.

If you notice how this 3rd party bottom stack is designed differently without the clicker housing in sight. Just another cover with 2 holes that calls for another custom removal tool. Upon removal of the screwed on cover, which doubles up as a clicker teeth, wear and tear signs was clearly visible on the clicker teeth as the anodized coating was grounded off the teeth.

Clicker teeth anodized coating grounded off from normal usage wear and tear.

The culprit was immediately found as the first layer of drag disks removed, pieces fell out voluntarily. A broken clicker spring wire. A familiar design similar to the Daiwa drag clickers, but the spring wire seems to be too thin for the job. Even the smallish Daiwa Emeraldas 2506 clicker spring was thicker and sturdier than this skinny wire (just an observation so far, not a conclusion).

The culprit, broken clicker spring, weakness usually found around bends made to shape the spring to desired shape.

This was definitely something that cannot be repaired, only option is to replace the broken part. My friend got a one to one swap on the lower spool body instead. Not sure if this was a one off case or a design flaw, another offshore trip soon would reveal the true nature of this incident.

The Maldivian Madness!

A follow up on my previous entry on Maldivian Christmas Special, here are some of the live action. 

Enjoy!