I currently have some old Calcuttas, one 200 silver and one Calcutta 250.
They have held up very well.
I was looking at trying to upgrade them.
Are there any newerish reels that do not have internal plastic parts?
Pretty much all newer baitcasters have a plastic idler gear. That way if you get your finger stuck in the level wind when a fish is running, the plastic gear will shred and you'll keep your finger.
AKfish is spot on. While it may be intuitive to think that plastic is "cheap"; as he points out they do it for a reason. And I would ask if you are actually seeing failures, or just trying to eliminate failure points? Because if you are currently seeing failures it may very well NOT be the gears themselves, but another issue where they become the point of failure. - john
First who sticks their finger in the level wind while a fish is running?
while they may use plastic in some areas for safety. they use plastic in many areas because its cost effective, cheap.
My reels have held up very well.. for twenty years...
i dont trust their plastic parts to last another 20 years...of hard usage.
And parts for those reels are no longer supported by manufacturer as we all know.
i have not had the privilege of tearing apart the newer Calcutta TE and Conquests does one seem to be more robust?
which one would you buy if you want to abuse it for the next twenty years?
Anything "newerish" will have a lot of plastic. At least the Calcutta have metal side plates and frame instead of resin. Many of the vintage reels up to about mid-century are all metal except, perhaps, for the plastic handle knobs.