I've been playing with ceramic hybrid bearings and I just got hold of some XTreme Reel+. I wanted to see what made the biggest difference to bearing performance in a small baitcaster so I used my Pflueger Trion LP as a 'test bed'.
A bit of playing around with lubricants and bearing combinations and here's some more results measured in 'freespool time'...
original stainless bearings lubed with TG's Rocket Fuel - 20 seconds
original stainless bearings lubed with ReelX - 22 seconds
original stainless bearings lubed with Xtreme Reel+ - 30 seconds
ceramic hybrid bearings (Boca Ceramic Lightning) out of the box - 35 seconds
ceramic hybrid bearings (Boca Ceramic Lightning) lubed with ReelX - 35 seconds
ceramic hybrid bearings (Boca Ceramic Lightning) lubed with Xtreme Reel+ - 40 seconds
The verdict. Xtreme Reel+ is great but in a small baitcaster that has a relatively light spool like this, ceramic bearings seem to make a much bigger difference. I'll be using a combination of ceramics and Xtreme Reel+ but if you only were going to do one thing to improve a small baitcaster, I'd swap the bearings.
Cheers, BigT
i would be curious to know if it actually made a difference in casting distance. i'll bet that it does! alan