I've been reading alot about all the ABEC ceramic ball bearings for reels and how much faster and better they are along with the rating system for these bearings. For instance(and feel free to correct me if Im wrong) Bearings in the ABEC system are all called 'precision bearings' and rated from 1 to 9, 9 being the highest precision. The numbers jump from 1 to 3 to 5 to 7 to 9. A 'standard' bearing is an ABEC 1, a super expensive bearing is an ABEC 9. Shimano's come stock with an ABEC 3 bearing in them.....whew!
That being said, my questions is, if you trick out a reel with the high end bearings, are the other parts of the reel designed hold up to the increased speed and high perfomance of these bearings? Parts like the spool housing and spool, spool spindle...ect.Will the other parts start to wear out sooner?
A few good links about these bearings and lubricants...
http://www.mikesreelrepair.com/product_info.php?products_id=6342
http://www.wmi.org/bassfish/bassboard/rods_reels/message.html?message_id=32252

Contact Lateforlake on the forum and ask him your questions. He recently cleaned a couple of my reels and installed some Boca orange seal bearings. I had some questions too and he was very helpful and informative.

Jason

I was hoping Shawn and the rest of the reel Guru's here would respond. I'm sure they are covered up with work right now. Maybe they will respond when they get time! I have used Shawn too and he is top notch....no doubt!

Thanks guys.

From what I can see, they have no problem handling the better bearings. These days they build some great & very strong reels. I have been running ABEC5 & 7 for years in some old Curados with no problems at all.

Of course that is my take on them.

I know that Connie at Lake Fork Tackle Repair is been doing it a lot long they I have & might give us some input or even Matt.

Hi Shawn,
Maybe i can help here, we'll see. First off, a lot of you may already know what i'm talking about, so just let me talk anyway. LOL. TheABEC stands for Annular Bearing Engineering Committee. This is the specification set for the folks who design and manufacture bearings.They must meet this spec. The number following is 1-3-5-7 if the tolerance of the bearing. The higher the number, the tighter the tolerance etc. Almost all bearings from manufacturers for many years up until recent years have installed the ABEC 3 bearings. And they are good bearings or reel makers would'nt have used them. Shimano came out with ABEC 5 bearings within the last few years.Other companies may have also, I don't know. The trick with bearings is the care and maintenance, no matter what the tolerance....IMHO> that is.
After market bearings most are ABEC7's and now maybe 9's. For many years, i wanted to know that I was purchasing a bearing with 7 rating and the vendor sent me a quality inspection slip for verification that made me feel more comfortable and made our customer feel more secure toknow what they were purchasing. Regardless of where you buy bearings, be sure to purchase dry. We check each and every bearing that comes intoour shop. Have done so from the git-go to be sure we sell a good bearing. Let's see, you asked if better. might be. My personal opinion and from our experience is that the decision up to you. Some anglers like and others don't.A aftermarket abec7 stainless is a good bearing and that is what we sell for the aftermarket.then there's the hybrid ceramics. That's another post. LOL.Hope I've helped. Late 4 lake is good guy to purchase your bearings from. thanks everybody.

fwiw, I've not noticed much difference in ABEC 5 stainless spool bearings over stock bearings (Quantum Tour Edition, Curado 101D).

It's great that the spool MIGHT spin faster and all, but sometimes it just requires more braking to keep from backlashing and thus you net no improvement.

Hybrid-ceramic bearings have a couple of advantages.

Firstly, the balls in these bearings are ceramic, but the races are stainless steel. The advantage of this is twofold.

1. Hybrid-ceramic ball bearings have less friction than all steel ball bearings.

2. Hybrid-ceramic ball bearings have a lower rotating mass than all steel ball bearings.

The upshot is a twofold effect in lowering the about of force needed to bring the entire spool assembly up to proper rotational speed. This translates into being able to cast lighter lure with an otherwise unchanged reel. It also means that a given lure will be able to be cast further with the same reel when equipped with hybrid-ceramics, than it would with all steel bearings.

It should be noted that there are differences in casting different lures of a less streamlined design (think spinnerbaits) than when casting more streamlined lures (think Senko). �Fluffy� lures will not gain the benefit of hybrid-ceramics that �slick� lures will due to aerodynamic considerations.

TFP

Shawn thanks for answering my question.... which was.....if you trick out a reel with the high end bearings, are the other parts of the reel designed hold up to the increased speed and high perfomance of these bearings? Parts like the spool housing and spool, spool spindle...ect.Will the other parts start to wear out sooner?

TFFOLDFartTx. I went back and read your post. Dang, i can't even read right and answer you correctly. Sorry. Old age settling in i think.
shawn is right on with answer. We have seen reels return for service that have had the aftermarket bearings and have not seen extra wear and tear on the reel parts. We do caution everybody that if you install aftermarket parts other than Shimano on their reels and reel still in warranty, you wil void your warranty. Other shops may have a different opinion , but for us,that is our take. Anglers do upgrades all the time.

conniek...LOL...I can relate to the old age...I don't state things very clear sometimes. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. You folks on here are a wealth of knowledge and I value all of your replies....tight lines!

Brilliant! I never considered that!

I mean what good is a super-slippery set of bearings if all you're gonna do is crank down on the cast control knob to keep from having another professional over-run.

There IS a noticable difference in whatever bearings come in a Chronarch Mg 50 and the orange seal bearings LateForLake put in mine...very noticable. I haven't had them long enough to comment on the longevity of the other parts of the reel yet but I believe what he said.

Jason

No problem

Connie your still young at heart. By they way when are you guys going to really retire so I can move up to lake fork. lol

I havent seen any extra wear on any of my reels.