Charkbait, who is a dealer for the Tiburon Smart Shift reels, announced that Tiburon is discontinuing them. I wonder if spare parts will be available?
According to Tiburon parts will be in stock for sometime
I hope the price drops for me now. They are awesome reels in you don't want to deal with the manual shifting. Yeah, I know...its eitge a love or hate relationship with the sst reels.
I posted this information under "Fishing Tackle - Open To All Members" but thought it might be helpful to post an abbreviated version here too:
...Hooked Online And Sinker, which is a retailer in Australia that still has the full range of Tiburon reels in stock, except for the SST 50 Topless. They have an actual store in Jacobs Well, and an e-store on ebay. The last posts on their web page and facebook page are about a year old or more, but their ebay store is current. This is where I bought a SST 7530 and SST 8:
http://www.hookedonline.com.au/index.htm
https://www.facebook.com/hookedonline.com.au
http://stores.ebay.com.au/Hooked-Online-and-Sinker/Overhead-Reel-/_i.html?_fsub=2564944015&_sid=183561145&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322
My 7530 and 8 say "Product of Tiburon USA" on them, so I think they are the reels made by Okuma for Tiburon. I emailed the head man, Paul Nieuwenhuys, about the 50 Wide and he says they are marked "Made in USA".
...Paul will change the ebay listing to include the USA so that you can buy the reel through ebay, so you are covered by the buyer protection plan.
...Paul has been super with communication and customer service. Shipping is expensive, about US$110, but that covered both reels in the same package. My reels were mailed express with full insurance, tracking, and must be signed for at the post office in order to receive them. The parcel took a little over a week to arrive, and everything was in perfect condition.
Hope this is helpful to you.