Bearing upgrade

[BASS_SWINGER]

Was wondering if anyone had any input for bearings for  shimano calcutta Te

[rwp]

1 hour ago, BASS_SWINGER said:

Was wondering if anyone had any input for bearings for  shimano calcutta Te

What's wrong with the stock bearings? I've never seen a need to upgrade.

[swimbaitrookie]

I have owned a lot of other shimano and abu reels and changed out the bearings on most of them to Boca ceramics, lubed with yellow rocket fuel.  On most of the reels that made a noticeable difference in casting distance and control.  So if you need to replace bearings, I like Boca. 

But....

I've never owned a Calcutta TE but I would imagine the bearings in that class of reel are already on the higher end.  If you think the bearings have a problem I'd give them a thorough cleaning, air blown dry, and inspection for pits / rust.  If no problems are found, sparingly lube with some high quality oil and get back in the game.

[BASS_SWINGER]

54 minutes ago, rwp said:

What's wrong with the stock bearings? I've never seen a need to upgrade.

Nothing is wrong but if I can get more performance out of my reel then why wouldn’t I change them out be like bigger fake tits on a women they were good before but even better now

[SumoNinja]

15 minutes ago, BASS_SWINGER said:

Nothing is wrong but if I can get more performance out of my reel then why wouldn’t I change them out be like bigger fake tits on a women they were good before but even better now

Not always the case but I hear ya 

[BASS_SWINGER]

1 hour ago, SumoNinja said:

Not always the case but I hear ya 

I prefer naturals to be honest lmao

[Bassmann86]

I would check out Zpi sic bearing. Performance wise you get a little more distance. It’s hard to explain on how the zpi bearing make your reel feel on the cast. Butter smooth on the cast and quiet unlike boca bearing. The ZPI SIC or Hedgehog studio Air HD bearing are held at a far higher standard than boca bearing, their price reflects it as well

[rwp]

5 hours ago, BASS_SWINGER said:

Nothing is wrong but if I can get more performance out of my reel then why wouldn’t I change them out be like bigger fake tits on a women they were good before but even better now

Bearings are not the bottle neck in a reels performance, at least, assuming its a reel of decent quality with properly functioning bearings.

The spool already spins too fast, which is why we have adjustable spool tension, adjustable brakes and/or a thumb.

Bearings may or may not make a reel quieter, and may or may not make it (subjectively) smoother, but those are not performance increases.

[Bassmann86]

30 minutes ago, rwp said:

Bearings are not the bottle neck in a reels performance, at least, assuming its a reel of decent quality with properly functioning bearings.

The spool already spins too fast, which is why we have adjustable spool tension, adjustable brakes and/or a thumb.

Bearings may or may not make a reel quieter, and may or may not make it (subjectively) smoother, but those are not performance increases.

you have to remember most factory bearing in the reels are over packed with grease. Take the Steez A TW for instance. You flush out the stock bearing and re lube them  it makes a big difference in casting distance and casting performance on the lower weight range with just the stock bearing. Now drop in the zpi sic bearings you have to go up one or two clicks on the breaks with out touching the factory spool tension setting. 
 

The biggest benefit is it allows the spool to get up to speed quicker with less resistance because of the material the ball are made out of and allowing you to use less force on your end to achieve the same results. 

[BASS_SWINGER]

2 hours ago, Bassmann86 said:

I would check out Zpi sic bearing. Performance wise you get a little more distance. It’s hard to explain on how the zpi bearing make your reel feel on the cast. Butter smooth on the cast and quiet unlike boca bearing. The ZPI SIC or Hedgehog studio Air HD bearing are held at a far higher standard than boca bearing, their price reflects it as well

I was looking to get zpi I just can’t figure out the exact set or whatever 

[Bassmann86]

Stay away from the open stainless ones. The ones you want are the ZPI SIC 1034x1034 https://carolinafishingtackle.com/products/zpi-sic-ball-bearing-1034-1034-ceramic-ball-bearings?_pos=5&_sid=e9aadfbd9&_ss=r

[Biggs]

21 minutes ago, Bassmann86 said:

you have to remember most factory bearing in the reels are over packed with grease. Take the Steez A TW for instance. You flush out the stock bearing and re lube them  it makes a big difference in casting distance and casting performance on the lower weight range with just the stock bearing. Now drop in the zpi sic bearings you have to go up one or two clicks on the breaks with out touching the factory spool tension setting. 
 

The biggest benefit is it allows the spool to get up to speed quicker with less resistance because of the material the ball are made out of and allowing you to use less force on your end to achieve the same results. 

This ^^
flushing the stock bearings with acetone or simple green, let dry and re-lubing will get you some increased performance.
The Hedgehog Studio bearings are good too. 

[paulito]

1 hour ago, rwp said:

Bearings are not the bottle neck in a reels performance, at least, assuming its a reel of decent quality with properly functioning bearings.

The spool already spins too fast, which is why we have adjustable spool tension, adjustable brakes and/or a thumb.

Bearings may or may not make a reel quieter, and may or may not make it (subjectively) smoother, but those are not performance increases.

I’m gonna have to scratch my head when you say changing the bearings of making reel quieter and smoother are no performance increases.... I’m going to walk you through a basics physics analysis of what is going on when upgrading bearings. 
 

YES, going from stainless steel to ceramic bearings does make is quieter and smoother, but why? What is the source of the noise? The noise is energy from the spool transferring to the bearing balls and inefficiently getting lost as sound energy. This “noise” is a good indicator of frictional forces that are preventing the bearing balls from glide/rolling on the track. Though some may find it hard to observe this increase in performance when upgrading from stainless steel to ceramic, when you look at your reel and a spool bearing goes bad, you can feel it right away! How smooth a reel is dependent on the bearings that stabilize the spool. Shimano reels with infinity drive and x-ship have a bearing on the spool that fit into the groove against the pinion gear bearing. If this bearing is ceramic, whether someone feels it or not, the performance of the bearing has definitely increased. This is because vibrations due to bearings are from rust/deformations of the track/bearing balls. Or right out of the box, it is caused by friction of the stainless ball bearings against the track and fluid forces of the grease that hinder the forward movement of the bearing balls. 

Also, lubes these days boast “super speed” which basically means the lube has a lower viscosity which reduces the fluid/frictional forces by only lubricating a thin layer onto the moving parts. This also means the bearings have to be lubed more often. However, some ceramic bearings are so smooth that they can be run dry. However, once you lose the lube in stainless ball bearings, the balls start to degrade rapidly, causing uneven surfaces on the balls and more vibration, which ultimately hinders casting distance, effort needed to cast, and reliability of each cast. 

In other words, there is definitely an increase of performance. 
 

1 hour ago, Biggs said:

This ^^
flushing the stock bearings with acetone or simple green, let dry and re-lubing will get you some increased performance.
The Hedgehog Studio bearings are good too. 

be careful when flushing ceramic bearings with acetone or 90%+ alcohol. The bearing mount is hedgehog and zpi are made of plastic and the above-mentioned solutions can weaken/melt some plastics. 
 

Final remarks: ceramic is better than stainless steel. However, ceramic is much more brittle than steel. I have had ceramic bearings go bad. To the OP, listen to @Bassmann86 and go with the ZPI SiC bearings. They are the most reliable and have the best performance. 
 

As for what bearing sizes you need, hedgehog website has bearing swaps sizes for most Shimano and Daiwa reels.  If it does not have the info you are looking for, you are going to need to purchase a caliper and measure inner diameter(the hole where the spool shaft goes in), outer diameter (the size of the entire bearing, and the thickness(lay bearing down on it’s flat aide and measure how tall it is).

[rwp]

10 hours ago, paulito said:

I’m gonna have to scratch my head when you say changing the bearings of making reel quieter and smoother are no performance increases.... I’m going to walk you through a basics physics analysis of what is going on when upgrading bearings. 
 

YES, going from stainless steel to ceramic bearings does make is quieter and smoother, but why? What is the source of the noise? The noise is energy from the spool transferring to the bearing balls and inefficiently getting lost as sound energy. This “noise” is a good indicator of frictional forces that are preventing the bearing balls from glide/rolling on the track. Though some may find it hard to observe this increase in performance when upgrading from stainless steel to ceramic, when you look at your reel and a spool bearing goes bad, you can feel it right away! How smooth a reel is dependent on the bearings that stabilize the spool. Shimano reels with infinity drive and x-ship have a bearing on the spool that fit into the groove against the pinion gear bearing. If this bearing is ceramic, whether someone feels it or not, the performance of the bearing has definitely increased. This is because vibrations due to bearings are from rust/deformations of the track/bearing balls. Or right out of the box, it is caused by friction of the stainless ball bearings against the track and fluid forces of the grease that hinder the forward movement of the bearing balls. 

Also, lubes these days boast “super speed” which basically means the lube has a lower viscosity which reduces the fluid/frictional forces by only lubricating a thin layer onto the moving parts. This also means the bearings have to be lubed more often. However, some ceramic bearings are so smooth that they can be run dry. However, once you lose the lube in stainless ball bearings, the balls start to degrade rapidly, causing uneven surfaces on the balls and more vibration, which ultimately hinders casting distance, effort needed to cast, and reliability of each cast. 

In other words, there is definitely an increase of performance.

I don't disagree with anything you have said, but none of that equates to a performance increase when casting heavy baits. On a BFS reel everything you said can and will make a noticeable difference because getting the spool up to speed matters.

When lobbing a heavy bait getting the spool up to speed isn't an issue, and like I said before, maximum spool speed is always too fast.

Unless you are running your reel with zero brakes, zero spool tension, and zero thumb, changing the bearings will not make a bit of real world difference to the reels performance, even if the bearings are technically performing better.

[buzzed bait]

I really like the hedgehog air HD for the big bait reels. I’ve got regular hedgehog air bearings in my conventional reels and have used their BFS air bearings before as well. They’re wildly smooth and have held up to a pretty fair amount of use from me over the years.