Some spinning reels have a bearing in the line roller. Some do not. I haven’t noticed a big difference between my reels which have them and those that don’t. I fish with Daiwa and Shimano spinning reels. I’ve never considered what the advantage is for bass fishing until recently. Bearings or no bearings? Do you prefer one or the other? Why?

   I consider many other things about a reel before I even consider the line roller, if at all. I've only ever had two reels that had a roller problem; one was a Pflueger 6725 President, (I think I got the number correct) and the other was an old Penn. I think the Penn would have been easy to fix if I would have sent it in, but someone else wanted it so I sold it to them.

   I've only heard from one other person having a similar problem with a President, and there are thousands of President reels out there. Pretty low odds of you having a problem, I'd say. 

   I, too, have Shimano and Daiwa reels, and I've never had any problems with the line rollers. And that's with 3 to 10 lb. mono, 2 to 12 lb. Nanofil, and 6 to 15 lb. braid. No wrap, no stutter and no stall.

   So there's nothing that says you might not have a problem someday, but it looks like the odds are against it.

   Smile, be happy and keep on fishin'.   ?   jj

All three of my spinners have bushings instead of bearings. I've not had a problem with any of them.

If you have a bearing you should clean it during your down winter time.  When it gets full of junk the line twist increases.  Bushings work well and should also get some love.  The bearings are more Sensitive to buildup imo.

11 minutes ago, Angry John said:

Bushings work well and should also get some love. 

Exactly - when I do full tear-down/clean/lube/reassemble during the winter - the roller bushings get cleaned and a scant drop of oil...yes, I disassemble the bail too.

 

Done that forever...even my old Pflueger 640 and Cardinal 562, both of which I've retired now, got that treatment.

I had wind knot issues with my BG2000's until I added bearings.

5 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Exactly - when I do full tear-down/clean/lube/reassemble during the winter - the roller bushings get cleaned and a scant drop of oil.

I'm in love with a very light coat of the daiwa space age grease. It even does well in the 30s.  Colder than that I'm inside.

I would bet that over 50% of the reels that have line rollers with bushing or bearing are locked up. They've been corroided since the first year they were used and they've never been cleaned and oiled.

On 12/17/2019 at 1:04 AM, Rook said:

I would bet that over 50% of the reels that have line rollers with bushing or bearing are locked up. They've been corroided since the first year they were used and they've never been cleaned and oiled.

I get a many a used spinning reel that way at yard sales .....addd line thats too much for said reel makes it a 2$ reel a new reel with a 3$ part and some tlc after using it