Lever drag reel’s initial drag

[JRD]

Try this.  The drags in mine needed a little run in, cleaning then greased.  The grease inside the reel was inconsistent and I am betting one reel has a better greased drag then the other so your getting a higher initial drag from the dry disk. 

http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=19853.0

Mine is still going strong

[boon]

I'm sure it is a manufacture's problem. The other sounds right.

I'm still trying to find their 9+2 bearings.

There's 2 in the handle knob (2), 1 on each end of the driveshaft (4), 2 anti-reverse bearings on the driveshaft (4+2), one in the drag cam cos it's a twin drag and the spool shaft is driven (5+2), the pinion (6+2), the spool bearings (8+2) and the left side plate bearing (9+2)

Just if we're being pedantic

Always makes me laugh when you see some reels, usually spinners out of Asia, promoting their 17 bearings or whatever, and there will be 4 ball bearings in the handle and the bail arm will have bearings on each side and all sorts of silly locations.

[Joao Tavares]

I bought one of those on line last X-mas and had to return it because the preset knob was stuck. Wouldn't turn either way by hand and I didn't want to risk using any tool to turn a plastic knob.
The seller confirmed the reel was bad.

It is sad that this maker has such a poor quality control because the reel seems to be well engineered and everything about it seems nice. If you get a good reel you're fine. If you get a bad one, you have to return it.

I ended up getting a Shimano Torium 16HGA instead.

João

[calcal]

Try this.  The drags in mine needed a little run in, cleaning then greased.  The grease inside the reel was inconsistent and I am betting one reel has a better greased drag then the other so your getting a higher initial drag from the dry disk. 

http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=19853.0

Mine is still going strong

My order of Daiwa 555 finally arrived from Japan and I put it on both drag washers. As you suggested, it was better after put the drag greased, however, main problem was two 008 washer. After I removed one it got much better. Thank you everybody for help newbie!

[calcal]

I bought one of those on line last X-mas and had to return it because the preset knob was stuck. Wouldn't turn either way by hand and I didn't want to risk using any tool to turn a plastic knob.
The seller confirmed the reel was bad.

It is sad that this maker has such a poor quality control because the reel seems to be well engineered and everything about it seems nice. If you get a good reel you're fine. If you get a bad one, you have to return it.

I ended up getting a Shimano Torium 16HGA instead.

João

Samething happened to me when I purchased Poseidon 500R (two speed model), I tried to return it next day, however, the tackle store in Thailand doesn't allow refund so I ended up exchange same model with different color (which I do not like the color).