omoto vs 10

[Tidetime]

Oh well,  it's back together and running smooth again.  I probably fished it with a little more drag than it was really rated for, if I can get another few years out of the new bearing, I'll be happy.  Thanks Alan, for this site.

[Tidetime]

On a side note about the Omoto company in general.  Before I came on here to look for the bearing dimensions, I emailed the company to ask what size bearing I needed. A rep responded and sent me 3 for free (after I ordered from boca but still).  He explained that I had an older version and the newer one had a larger bearing that improved the reel.  He then offered me a choice of reels at a pretty large discount with free shipping.  I ended up getting their Predios 2sp reel for the price I thought I'd give it a shot. 

[Tiddlerbasher]

I have had dealings with the Omoto company. They have been very helpful in sending me some parts for free 

[boon]

Just to add to this thread-

I recently bought a VS10, I guess just to see if they were any good.

Differences to the one rebuilt here:

-It has the larger right-side pinion bearing that takes up basically the entire space in that area of the reel. It is also thicker and protrudes slightly from the bearing cup.
-It has an ARB on the driveshaft
-The Bellevilles were arranged )()( - I tried )))) which definitely increased the drag but the ramp-rate was basically unusable. It would potentially work if I added a shim/washer to take up the space created by stacking the washers this way.
-Freespool was about 20 seconds, untouched, unless I wind in so much preload on the drag that I can't even get the lever up to Strike
-Even with the drag set to nowhere near the point it loses freespool it has an obscene amount of drag at Full. I haven't scaled it yet because I'm worried my braid or rod will suffer before I get near the limit. It is a lot more than my SL30SH with Carbontex.
-The drag ramps very, very quickly between Strike and Full.
-I haven't noticed any handle binding except at impractically high drag. Perhaps the larger pinion bearing has helped in this area.

Edit: I got right on 10# of drag at Full with perfect freespool and minimal binding. Which sounds good as I intend to fish this reel with 30lb braid.
I got to around 15# at Full with no change to freespool noted but the handle was starting to feel a little bit papery.
Potentially once I pull the reel down again and grease the bearings this will go up but I was interested to see what it would do in an out-of-the-box configuration.

I'm somewhat tempted to buy another one. At the price I can source them they seem like exceptionally good value.

[Tiddlerbasher]

What price are you getting them for?

[boon]

At present, right around 99USD.

[Tiddlerbasher]

I feel temptation coming on

[bestout]

At present, right around 99USD.

o.0 wait what?

[boon]

Hmm, my little VS-10 just suffered random sudden failure of the pinion bearing.

The reel is well greased, only run at light drag, went to fish it the other day and it had gone all pepper-grinder on me.
Pulled it down and the pinion bearing was clearly rusted, weird, I used it a week ago and it was fine.

[boon]

So I've ordered an angular contact bearing for this, time to see what kinda of drag it can produce...

[Tiddlerbasher]

I've tried angular contact bearings on an Andros reel. It does reduce perceived binding at higher drags. BUT if you reduce your drag by 10 or 20% it has the same effect at ZERO cost. The quoted drags are probably exaggerated anyway. You can buy a fishing reel for what angular contact bearings will cost!

[Tiddlerbasher]

Also, if the bearing was rusted that is a sign of neglect. All bearings will fail if neglected. Oil the spool bearings - grease the rest - then your good to go

[boon]

The A/C bearing was $12 so I'm not fretting about that It's more for the experiment.

The rust was a mystery to me. No sign of water intrusion, the reel was greased, I just hadn't removed the shields from that bearing and packed it but when I stripped it to inspect it definitely had some grease in it. It also failed very suddenly. Maybe it just got a real good dousing on the trip home but I gave it a good wash down with fresh water (as usual). Odd. No major, gives me a chance to tinker with it

[Putte]

Humm.... This one is sold in Sweden under the name BFT Black Thunder V10, BFT stands for Big Fish Tackle, and i´ve used both the 10 and the 12 size, i think they are built like tanks. Not the smoothest reel on the planet, but they get the job done !

[boon]

So I've had my VS10 for almost 2 years now and caught a bunch of fish on it. I have some observations now

-The drag is very good. I have periodically serviced the reel and applied a thin coat of grease and it is still very smooth and has lots of stopping power
-The gearing still feels totally fine
-The bearings are rubbish, I go through pinion bearings every few months. Not through using lots of drag; I never even get up to levels where the handle starts to feel remotely rough, the reel just runs fine for a while and then one day I go to use it and the pinion bearing has gone all nasty. Even well-greased ones... maybe the reel does side-load the bearing to an extent that it degrades quite quickly, but this is not felt?
-Last but not least, and I'm not 100% sure whether this is the anodizing or the metal underneath, but anywhere I've damaged the finish has corroded quite a lot, quite bad pitting and bubbling even around very minor scratches - as compared to my Shimano Calcutta 400, which has heaps of little dings but still looks good.