an investment in fishing reel - Page 2

alantani · May-30-2008, 02:10 AM

you know, anthony, the guy that owns these avets is just a regular joe, he works a regular job, he has a regular family and he likes fishing. he isn't out to break an igfa, or ifga, or igaf or whatever the hell kind of record it is. he just wants to spend a day out on the water and away from the old lady. nothing more than that. to that end, he went out and bought a couple of reels at the recommendation of a few friends, fished them for a season or two, and then send them to me. and so here we are.

my gripe is that fishing reel companies are missing the point. the american fisherman is not stoopid. a bad product will be revealed for what it is. the problem is that there is no good products to go to. when american cars manufacturers in the 70's were pushing garbage on us, the japanese brought in those beer cans on wheels that would frickin' run forever. let's face it. american cars in the 70's and 80's were a national disgrace. and right now, there is not a single "entry level" reel that has half the reliability of that 1973 toyota corolla that i drove all through college.

think about it. what reel under $150, hell, under $500!, offers 100,000 miles of reliable service straight out of the box? yet, the addition of a decent set of carbon fiber drag washers, a small tub of cal's grease and small bottle of corrosion x would give you a reel that would last years. remember that pos chinese reel that i took on my long range trip two years ago? it killed more fish in a day and a half (before it blew up) than a couple of guys caught on the whole trip. if a dry screw hole locks up, a dry bearing seizes, or a dry drag washer skips, you should be outraged. we have the technology to prevent this!!!!!!!!!!! these types of failures should not sheepishly be accepted as the standard for the industry. you should be demanding 5 years of absolute reliability. maybe then you will see greased carbon fiber drags in an entry level reel.

LAChamp · Jun-02-2008, 09:12 AM

Alan, I understand the regular Joe deal, but I guess my thought is that if anyone buys what is considered a high end reel or for that matter anything high end in salt water fishing, to keep it running in top shape, it will need regular mantinance. Look at what we do with our boats, motor and eveything else on it. It's a constant battle after each trip to keep everything in working order. It's the same for our reels, rods, baits, etc. It will get very expense for Joe if he doesn't learn to mantain all of his equitment in this harsh salt water sport.
Just my thoughts.

alantani · Jun-02-2008, 11:42 AM

true, but it is my opinion that this is a design issue. avet acknowleges this to a degree. otherwise they would not have decided to glue their drag washer to the spool. what about those thousands of avets still out there that do not have glued drag washers? do you still tow the party line? what about the bearings? they are $5 a pop. the data that gato gordo presented was the best argument i have ever heard IN FAVOR of greasing the drag washers. the fact that his conclusions were exactly opposite of mine were, well, they were consistent.......

so how long are you guys going to put up with this?

LAChamp · Jun-03-2008, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alantani

true, but it is my opinion that this is a design issue. avet acknowleges this to a degree. otherwise they would not have decided to glue their drag washer to the spool. what about those thousands of avets still out there that do not have glued drag washers? do you still tow the party line? what about the bearings? they are $5 a pop. the data that gato gordo presented was the best argument i have ever heard IN FAVOR of greasing the drag washers. the fact that his conclusions were exactly opposite of mine were, well, they were consistent.......

so how long are you guys going to put up with this?

I hear what your saying. I guess it's put up with it, maintain it or move on the another brand, and for an all alum. reel, the choices are few and or out of reach for a lot of people. In your opinion, do you see any consistant iusses with Accurates that could be improved? Voids in grease in bearings and such?
As much as the owners fish, I'd love to see them do a side by side test (wet/dry drags) on corrosion over say a full season with no maintance done. Also test those reels drag numbers throught out to see what changes if any. The drag numbers on dry vs. wet really are not that much to worry about in my opinion. Going off of the test they just ran with results posted here.

alantani · Jun-04-2008, 01:10 AM

accurate at least uses cal's grease on their carbon fiber drag washers. bearings are still an issue. there are still voids in the bearings that are not filled with grease. the results are predictable. david nilsen is the president of the company. when i went to visit last year, he asked me if i thought there were any issues. i gave him an earful about the bearings. it was 20 minutes later that i found out that he was the president of the company. oops!

one thing about lever drags. if you fish the reel at strike, you can always push the lever to full...........

aguachico · Jun-04-2008, 07:43 AM

Alan; good info and comments. Your advice has helped me maintain my 6 small avets. Have yet to break down the 30N. I've moved most of my bearings over to the (blue) servicable bearings and am happy with the performance.

I gave my Avets an unwanted surf bath on the yak about 3 weeks ago. Only one reel had any noticable sand intrusion. 30 minute detailing is all it takes to make my Avet tru again.

I will take your advice and switch to Cal's drag grease, is it any different from shimano's drag grease? I've been ok with the performance of Shimano's, but that grease gummed up once so I removed it.

My biggest beef with Avet are the side plate and disc brake bearings. They can be a pain in the ass to remove. I've destroyed a few bearings in the process. Fortunately Eliza/Lucy and Sarkis are the best people I've ever dealt with as a consumer. They have always been undertanding and accomodating. The other beef with Avet is the clicker clip. There's nothing that kills me worse than having that part go in the middle of a trip. I carry spares in baja and multi-day trips.

Anyway; keep up the good work and tanks again for keeping us informed.

alantani · Jun-04-2008, 09:40 AM

art, the best reel is the one that you can service yourself. what you're already doing sounds fine. i'm not expecting these to be perfect. well, ok, yes i am expecting these to be perfect. but i know that stuff happens and you have to be prepared to deal with it. for that i do not begrudge any manufacturer.

tell you what i would really like to do some time. i would like to be the boss of a lower end company, say okuma for instance, and redesign their reels for reliability and ease of service. we could transform the industry overnight, instead of one reel at a time. then we could watch everyone else scurry, like cockroaches when you flip on the light.

aguachico · Jun-04-2008, 10:06 AM

That would be cool. Too bad PENN didn't hire you to keep their product line solid and advanced. Being a Philly buy it hurt to have to write them off.

BTW: I just got a call from Eliza making sure I got the parts that were dealyed a few days. What a sweet heart!

BTWW: Cal's grease? better than Shimano's grease?

alantani · Jun-05-2008, 01:20 AM

honestly, i think they work the same. been using cal's and it's great stuff, used the shimano grease for years. it was fine, just twice the price. pardon me if i'm done with this bullshit. i'm not sending anymore money overseas than i absolutely have to. so cal's it is.