Looking to get an idea on interest for Original International Drag Replacement.

[TheReelShop]

Me and my partner thought of potentially creating drag plates/kit with Carbon drags specifically for the First Gen International Reels as they are discontinued. This will take some time although we wanted to obtain some insight as to the interest this would have if we were to produce them. One of the reasons for the inquiry is due to the amount of investment that is required for us to provide these kits. If this is a go, it would be mainly for the 20-130 sized reels, although we could also do the 6 and 12 but those are less common. We are also considering the drags to have a slightly larger surface area.  

Again this is for factory replacement of the asbestos floating drags for the carbon drags.


Thanks in advance and my apologies if this belongs elsewhere.

[SoCalAngler]

This is coming from a Southern California fisherman, so your mileage may vary and really should be looked at.

Here on the left coast there are several reel tuners/customizing people that have decades of delivering exactly what your looking to do. Is that a bad thing? Maybe not but you should to look where your marketing is going. Many left coasters will not look at the new guy on the block, when a few have a decade or more doing what your looking to do.

IMO the drag/plate upgrade away from the asbestos has been done for many years here. How many reels like that are still left that people will spend those dollars on? Heck I don't know. What I do know is I sold a 30 that was two speeded with the drag conversion for a buddy of mine and all I got for it was $270. And this took at least a year to sell.

Maybe it is a left coast thing but look for market demand before you produce obsolete products. I personally think someone would be better served to tweek products produced now and not something 30 years old.

Just saying

[Robert Janssen]

Well, generally I applaud any such effort, but..

"creating drag plates/kit with Carbon drags specifically for the First Gen International Reels as they are discontinued ... This will take some time ... due to the amount of investment that is required..."

Making an approximately 1/8" thick donut is all that is required. No plates, no great amount of time, or noteworthy investment.

Where is the hard part? Just do it. Make a dozen or so and put an ad up here on the forum. See what happens and go from there.

.

Edit & afterthought:
Oh wait,did you want to make the SS discs as well, to replace ones that might be scored or damaged, is that it?

.

[TheReelShop]

This is coming from a Southern California fisherman, so your mileage may vary and really should be looked at.

Here on the left coast there are several reel tuners/customizing people that have decades of delivering exactly what your looking to do. Is that a bad thing? Maybe not but you should to look where your marketing is going. Many left coasters will not look at the new guy on the block, when a few have a decade or more doing what your looking to do.

IMO the drag/plate upgrade away from the asbestos has been done for many years here. How many reels like that are still left that people will spend those dollars on? Heck I don't know. What I do know is I sold a 30 that was two speeded with the drag conversion for a buddy of mine and all I got for it was $270. And this took at least a year to sell.

Maybe it is a left coast thing but look for market demand before you produce obsolete products. I personally think someone would be better served to tweek products produced now and not something 30 years old.

Just saying

I can understand and see where the general public would not look at the new kid on the block. But I mean how else do you start right, no one is going to spoon feed us the the opportunities. We go after them and some/most will not work out and some will. Its trial and error and we are open to that. In this case it really just to try and meet a small need here this is by far not intended to be some big off the shelf product. It's more like a small project if it even gets that far.

Regarding the drag plate upgrade, Penn sold the HT-100 conversion for the Internationals but they have discontinued it and most stores are out. Unless those that have decades of service have the equipment to cut out SS discs to accommodate the thickness of these donuts and then install these carbon sheets then I would have to stand down. If that is the case then thats actually great! Someone would have to look via sources such as eBay, Offer up, Facebook market place, etc for this upgrade that PENN used to sell. I can attest to your situation of having a hard time to sell an old 30 that was converted 2 speed. I've had those come through my hands and have been difficult to get rid of.

From some light research, about 30-40% of the Old Internationals are currently up for grabs through market places, and locally I'll see boats that will have these reels as well functioning and being in use. But these are observations and imply nothing more than just that. I presume a lot of the members here collect reels and some use them no matter the age of the reel which is one of the main reasons I wanted to inquire on what the interest would be prior to even spending on building these.

Thanks for the feedback as its one that requires consideration.

Well, generally I applaud any such effort, but..

"creating drag plates/kit with Carbon drags specifically for the First Gen International Reels as they are discontinued ... This will take some time ... due to the amount of investment that is required..."

Making an approximately 1/8" thick donut is all that is required. No plates, no great amount of time, or noteworthy investment.

Where is the hard part? Just do it. Make a dozen or so and put an ad up here on the forum. See what happens and go from there.

.

Edit & afterthought:
Oh wait,did you want to make the SS discs as well, to replace ones that might be scored or damaged, is that it?

.

Thank You,

You are right, it is just making a 1/8" donut. Although, we would not need waste so much carbon fiber material to fill that much space especially that carbon fiber is not cheap. Also, 1/8" presuming we use "X" thickness sheet. It can vary. Nothing crazy to figure out but it does require addressing. We would be substituting the donut for a SS plate to then apply the carbon discs. We would also see if the carbon discs would suffice "floating" or if we would glue them down (this is how they were sold and how the new reels come from factory), or screw them down. These are just ideas.

We could supply new SS drag plates as well. One for the spool, and one that bolts to the ratcheting drive plate

[oc1]

It sounds like a fun project.  It won't make any money, but a fun projects don't need to be profitable.
-steve