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[bassadict69]

Almost all of my reels are the greenish colored Bass Pro Extreme's. Can you do much with those as far as smoother & better casting. I would imagine the bearings in them are the cheapest of the cheap!

[Pro Reel]

Actually, they are not cheap bearings at all. They are basically the same abec 3 stainless steel bearing that all brands use in  most reels. It's identical to the SS bearing that Shimano uses in citicas and curados. If you want them to spin a lot better. I can clean them and lube them with Rocket fuel oil. That combined with a super tune will help them work better than new. I know a lot of anglers look down on BPS reels. If you are a very good caster, and you want some extreme performance and super free casting, I can do the pro tune which consists of extra fine polishing of spool shafts etc, plus uses the Xtreme Reel + liquid dry lube in the spool bearings. The only thing better than that is to replace them with boca orange seal ceramics. I can also improve the drag on an extreme by replacing the nylon washers with carbon fiber. that will give them the same drag system as a Revo. One other thing I like to do with the bps extreme is to switch out the stock spool tension shims and replace them with high performace shims. As with any reel, if the bearings are getting worn out, I never replace them with stock, unless it's a very high end reel with premium bearings. I always recommend going with boca abec 5 SS or abec 5 lightning hybrids. They cost about $8.00 each, or we can go straight up to the premium abec 7 orange seals for $14.00 each. I think that the biggest benefit of the orange seals is that you can remove the seals for use in a fishing reel and you then have an almost friction free bearing, very similar to Shimanos ARB open bearings but with the lower resistance of ceramic balls. These decisions need to be made based on the intended use and the casting skills of the owner. A pro tune or using open orange seals can be very frustrating for a beginner. You need to be able to control the spool with your thumb or you will have more backlash's than normal. The benefits for an experienced user are several. From long distance casting to super easy pitching or just using a lot less effort for normal casts.

[bassadict69]

Thanks for the info! I will give it some thought & decide which way to go...

[Dan1962]

ME Personally I wound not  think  Doing any kind of super  tuning to  Plastic frame reels would be really worth the effect .

[z22]

Why is that Dan?

[Pro Reel]

ME Personally I wound not  think  Doing any kind of super  tuning to  Plastic frame reels would be really worth the effect .

That would depend on the reel. The first generation Citicas, curados etc. were graphite framed reels. I know qiute a few guys that have those tuned and are very happy with them. Now I agree, I wouldn't see the point in supertuning a 30 walmart reel. But, Getting back to the original question of this post, a BPS Extreme is an aluminum framed reel.

[24/7bassin]

I was wondering why tuning a plastic framed reel would be pointless?  I am really new to the better bait casting reels (my favorite reels are cheaper Pinnacles).  However, I have bought a higher end Pflueger and a BPS Extreme and love how smooth they are, and want my cheaper Pinnacles better than what they when casting and reeling. 

[Pro Reel]

Bottom line. If you have a baitcasting reel that you like to use, and you would like for it to cast a bit further with less effort or be able to cast slightly lighter baits than it currently can, then a super tune will help. There are some plastic framed reels on the market that are decent enough quality to work just fine, but that is usually an indicater of a lower quality reel. Low quality reels usually have several things that hinder it's performance, such as plastic bushings instead of bearings etc etc. Super tuning a low end reel that doesn't have bearings, will have very little effect and would probably not be worth it.  Graphite framed reels are stiffer than plastic framed reels and have proven to be able to last a long time. Aluminum frame reels, especially 1 peice aluminum frames are the best. they will have the least amount of flex and that holds everything in alignment better.

[beast96z]

I have super tuned a Extreme and did the polishing on the gear and spool shaft. It is actually a very worth while upgrade, even with stock/cleaned bearings. That is still one of my smoothest casting reels.

[Dan1962]

Yes if the Newer Extremes are Alum Frame then  yes there worth Tuning The one i had Years ago with a Plastic (Graphite ) Frame  Graphite is just a Fancy name for Hard Plastic  yes its better then the white color plastic frames   The reason i said I   Think its Not worth supertuning a Plastic frame is Like Pro Reel said it flexs  & has plastic bushings  Supertuning a Good Quality Alum Frame Reel will Definitely Give you the Ultimate Performance Gain that's For SURE .

[24/7bassin]

I have no idea about how a bait caster really works, so I am going to keep asking stupid questions and hope I don't piss anybody off for being so redundant...

Do some reels have bushing instead of bearings?  On the package of my Pinnacles they say 5 bearings or 7 bearings.  If they have bushings and bearings, can you replace the plastic stuff with better materials? 

I am sorry for being so dumb with this!  Just think though, if you all teach me I can answer the next guys questions and you all won't have to be bothered by them

[Joshawa]

Don't worry about asking questions you think are stupid, especially when there is such a wealth of knowledge here to educate you. You would be stupid not to ask questions about things you want to understand.

[Pro Reel]

Ask any questions you want to ask, you might get some stupid answers, but the questions are just fine. LOL. Yes, lots of lower end and even some medium level reels use plastic bushings instead of bearings. Some reels use brass bushings instead of bearings. Some reels use very low quality bearings. Most reels use some combination of these. Most of these can be replaced with top quality bearings. The question of to do that or not is totaly up to the owner. Some might think that it would be a waste of money to do that with some reels. They might be right, or they might be wrong. With the large variety of good quality reels on the market, in the afordable price ranges, I would not recomend investing a large amount of money in upgrades to some low end  reels. I would look at the total cost and compare that to the cost of a new reel of higher quality. One reason for that would be that bearings are not the only thing that makes a reel work good.You could easily spend a bunch of money on upgrades to a cheap reel and still have a cheap reel with expensive bearings in it. If your reel says that it has 5 or 7 bearings then it probably does. One of them is the anti reverse clutch. It probably has 2 or 3 on the spool maybe it has some in the handle and maybe 1 or 2 asociated with the crankshaft or also on the worm gear. The design of the reel and overall quality of all the components can be more important than bearing counts.

[24/7bassin]

I am going to turn into a genius if I keep asking these questions!  

Thanks for all the help everybody, you really an learn something everyday!  I work at a psych. center so most of what I learn really does make me dumber though

[khargis]

According to my boss "There are no stupid questions - only stupid people who ask questions". He only says it to me though - I still haven't figured out what he means.

Very neat thread by the way, really enjoyed reading and learning about the guts! I have no idea how to change internal parts, so Pro Reel, when I'm ready to, I'll send'em your way.