rippin-lips

I was pleasantly surprised with those when I handled a few in the store. Nice build quality and pretty dang light.

SV103 spool will benefit from a stiffer spring. The downside is the spool doesn’t fit properly in a T3 unless you remove the metal shim under the bearing on the palm plate. It has zero wiggle room because the spool shaft is slightly longer. Even with the cast cap removed, the spool has no side to side play unless you take it out. Never owned a ballistic but I did have the orange and black jdm T3 sv 8:1. Those were my findings when trying to run that spool. So I sold it off quickly.

You can’t, but you can try a different knot. I use braid to leader, roughly 8ft long (30/12 and 30/15) and I’ve not experienced any trouble on my steez tws. I use the modified Albright. You only wrap 1 direction so it is very small and I trim the tag ends flush with the knot. See if that helps you any.

That’s a huge spinning reel for bass fishing.

Tell us why 11lbs isn’t enough...

For me $699 is a ridiculous. Not a lot of people willing to pay that for a reel. I own a Steez sv tw and it’s not even worth its retail price tag imo. Luckily, I’m not one to ever pay retail and for what I paid... it is worth it to me. I know a few people who already have both reels. Reports are good on the steez but I don’t see it being a mind blower. I’m more excited about the Alphas. I like the little details on it. Ported driveshaft and the use of a handle bolt, were nice touches.

It’s a recommendation on how to set the reel up. Just like the new curado dc has printed in the paperwork. It’s personal preference to dial them in how you like them to fish. I prefer to have a slight tick/knock in side to side play when using a small amount of force to wiggle the spool. Once you push down the thumb bar it has just the slightest amount more wiggle in the spool. On my reels I generally run the brake dial from 3-5 depending on the baits weight and how much wind there is that day.

To be able to cast it into a wall without any backlash you have to set the spool tension overly tight. So much that distance suffers a lot. I owned the reel and sold it a couple weeks later. I liked it better for launching baits.

My 2 custom painted TD-Z reels. True classics never die.

In no particular order... Dobyns Fury Okuma Guide Select Daiwa Kage Spiralite Rods Daiwa DX

Go find a pic of my steez. It has both HH and Zpi gold parts on it. You want champagne gold from HH. It’s still a darker shade than what’s on the reel stock though. Same with Zpi parts.

2 small precision flat screwdrivers,90 degree tweezers, and a small pair of pliers. I have a small 4” pair that don’t have any grooves in them. I put some heat shrink on one side to avoid scratching the spool shaft. It’s a pain in the rear to do it the first couple times but after that it’s cake.

I’d say roughly about 8hrs total. 1-2hrs in taking it apart and prepping all the parts. 1hr worth of cleaning all the parts for when it was finished. 5hrs in the whole paint process. Then another 1hr to put it all back together after it sat for a week.

All finished up and back together.

If you’re referring to any of their newer offerings, then you really don’t have any. A new Alphas variant will come out around the time of the classic. It looks nice and has me interested. Tons of older reels will accept a 34mm sv spool though. The sv technology is is just the braking of the spool. The SV103 and SV105 are both discontinued but were nice reels. There is a Steez SV103 that’s also pretty nice but they still pull too much $ imo for what it is. The 1st gen Steez reels are cheap these days and you can put an sv spool in one of those. Same with the Td-z which is the reel that lead to the Steez.

If the Stella has a removable knob, you can replace it with any aftermarket offering or something from another Shimano.

A friend of mine had a few of the protype xx models. Definitely cool rods and a nice pickup. Emtf flipping shaft (perfect pitch) unnamed 4.5-72 spinning unnamed 8.5-711

The Wera Kraftform 7pc set (345271) was a great investment. It comes with all the right sizes and I bought 2 separate matching Wera hex drivers for Hedgehog parts like frame screws, ect. I think I have $40 in all of them. Use the 10-15% ebay coupons.

It would make more sense to just buy the inductor from a zillion sv tw. The Tackle Trap carries them. Unless you have access to a lathe, or know a friend with one, that won’t charge you much.

A properly cleaned and lubed stock bearing is about all anyone would ever need. No reason to replace them unless one fails, or you’re a person who likes to tinker. Improved casting distance isn’t really anything you’re going to notice. Remember that 10% of 120ft is only 12ft. Not exactly a worthwhile upgrade if you break it down. This is also coming from a guy with over $400 wrapped up in bearings. Easier startup will allow you to cast the same distance with less effort since less effort (not casting as hard) will allow you to use less braking. The user being the variable in this situation. Sometimes you can achieve decent distance when casting lighter lures, due to being able to turn the brakes down a couple clicks.

Zpi Sic $32 per set. All you will ever need. Yt Fusion hd+ are equally as good but not as easy to pick up.

The zillion 1016 sv inductor is short. I think mine were like $17 from Japan. I had 2 sv 103 spools that I removed .40 thousands from on a lathe. Removal of material was based on the inductor height from the zillion 1016 spool. Definitely made a big change when paired with the spring mod.

You do have to be careful on spools. I had the 1012sv in my mono block and it was great. Furthest casting reel I had using a weightless senko. SV103 spool stinks so you aren’t missing anything there. Far too much braking on it. You can always swap out to a shorter inductor so it can be used. Zillion 1016sv has the short inductor and has impressed me in any reel I’ve tried it in so far. The Zpi M spool has a shorter inductor vs the PG also.

I love the ringa. Such a nice looking reel. I really like how it’s raw and has that feel of being just a machined piece. There’s a line of people who want it.

I’m pretty familiar with painting things. It’ll be done with primer/base/clear just like a car. Obviously a little different than a fender or door, but it’ll be fine. Good prep work is the main key. Crappy prep equals crappy end results.