History of 2 speed spinning reels?

[Barishi]

How did 2 speed spinning reels come about and develop over the years?

[boon]

There's only a couple and they're considered more or less a gimmick.

[Midway Tommy]

I've got three different models, Dam, Sup-Matic & Benora. After messing around with all of them I can't see any reason why I would use a two or three speed spinning reel for anything other than a talk about Queen to display on a shelf. 

BTW, Zangi made the 3V, also sold as the ABU 999, which is a 3 speed spinning reel.   

[Barishi]

I've got three different models, Dam, Sup-Matic & Benora. After messing around with all of them I can't see any reason why I would use a two or three speed spinning reel for anything other than a talk about Queen to display on a shelf. 

BTW, Zangi made the 3V, also sold as the ABU 999, which is a 3 speed spinning reel.   

I'm pretty sure most vintage spinning reels already had pretty low gear ratios to begin with. I'm left scratching my head as to why anyone would want to go lower than, say, 3:1.

If you've fished these, was the super low gear helpful at all?

Also, how many Abu 999s were made? Can't imagine many people found much use switching between 3 gears.

[Midway Tommy]

I've never fished any of them, 2 or 3 speed. That would require to much thinking & awareness for me.

I don't think there were a large amount of 3Vs or 999s made, especially given that they'll bring $500-$1000 when they do come up for sale.

[day0ne]

I have a more modern one, a Roddy. It's several years old. Its gear ratios are 5.4 and 3.6 to one. It fishes quite nice but then I don't fish spinners very often, since they don't winch very well, due to their basic design. They don't fit my style of fishing.

[Robert Janssen]

Also, how many Abu 999s were made? Can't imagine many people found much use switching between 3 gears.

It did surprisingly well, being sold for at least a few years between 1958 and 1962-ish.

The ABU 999s are a little harder to find, but not at all impossible. I have one, but i don't use it very often. The mechanism is quite refined and easy to use though.

The three-speed feature was marketed primarily as a luxury, or a feature of convenience, rather than one directed towards gaining power on hard-fighting game fish.

The ABU catalogs of the time instead suggest that this was desireable when choosing ideal retrieve speeds of various lures in different types of water, ie deep retrieve in a lake vs a fast, shallow retrieve in a river.

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[DougK]

I had an Abu 10 000 conventional, which was a 2-speed that I thought might be somewhat useful. It would downshift automatically under load. Unfortunately it was stolen before I ever got to fish with it..

Just bought a Sup-Matic and it's odd.

https://alantani.com/index.php/topic,37856.0.html

The low gear is so very low, the high gear is faster than I'd want to fish with really. Nonetheless hope to fish with it once spring comes, will attempt pike and carp with it..

[Midway Tommy]

I had an Abu 10 000 conventional, which was a 2-speed that I thought might be somewhat useful. It would downshift automatically under load. Unfortunately it was stolen before I ever got to fish with it..

Just bought a Sup-Matic and it's odd.

https://alantani.com/index.php/topic,37856.0.html

The low gear is so very low, the high gear is faster than I'd want to fish with really. Nonetheless hope to fish with it once spring comes, will attempt pike and carp with it..

Those Sup-Matics are really smooth & quiet reels. I've got 8 or 9 of them. The two speed is kind of a PITA to manipulate sometimes so I just use the 606s & 606Gs if I use them.