A man by the name of "Alan Hawke" has a site, http://www.alanhawk.com/reviews/lists.html where he evaluates various spinning reels. He claims he has disassembled all the reels mentioned above. His main interest/concern is quality & reliability when purchasing a spinning reel. Are there members of this forum that agree or disagree with his findings? Are there other individuals who have taken spinning reels apart & evaluated them?

Alan is "The Man."   Totally legit

 

He has his opinions and is welcome to it.  These are clearly his "favorites"!  He scores the Diawa SS so high because the reel was built like a tank. I agree but it is a design from the 1980's, I know because I still own two of them. They were very reliable because they were designed with a manual roller wheel to flip the bail and it had some good bearings compared to its contemporaries.

As I said, he rates it higher than I do. My wife and I fish a bunch of more modern reels. I would say the Pflueger Presidents, and Supreme reels we fish are much better reels. Those Daiwa SS reels are much older and are matched to two G Loomis rods we specifically use for river smallies and lightweight baits. They are decades older and have far less use than some of our Presidents. I much prefer the Pfluegers to the SS reels for comfort, quality and function.

 

I believe there are many more quality reels available that he has not used, tested or evaluated, so I would say his lists have very little value.  

I saw the Stradic listed as a "budget "reel and couldn't go any further. 

Interesting. Never heard of him but I do like these type of reviews. I think it's great when someone takes the time to tear it apart and really get into the fine details of the reel. It's one thing to fish it and say "it's smooth and casts well" and rate it 9/10. It's another to tear it apart, examine the quality of the components and be able to tell how well the reel will probably hold up over time. 

He seems like a salt guy. If you look at what he actually reviews it salt water models. 

intended to be saltwater reel reviews. nothing more nothing less. he does good work.

He's definitely legit, revered among saltwater

fishermen. He's a legend. Trustworthy. 

 

Agree with his findings or not....  

I agree with him on a few things from this list the main one being the Daiwa BG is an absurd amount of reel for the money. Nothing has ever come even close to its performance for a 100 bucks and this is coming from a Shimano fanboy!