I bought my Ryoga used - it had clearly been used extensively in the salt, because the copper shields on all the MagSeal bearings had oxidized black.  I replaced them all in kind.  To Daiwa's credit, all the bearings I replaced spun freely.  While I was in there, swapped the fine-teeth alloy gears with brass and stainless Hyperdrive gears from '21 Basura.  I also began with a good $200 buy, so I had room for the upgrades.  

 

I upgraded the spool bearings to silicon nitride full ceramic, which have given me great salt service across all my Daiwas and a couple of surf Ambassadeurs.  

It's delicious in my salt-marsh bunny-shrimp niche

Daiwa, Shimano, Isuzu, and Doyo models all use NMB bearings from the factory.  NMB really are excellent bearings, but there is a catch, they are shipped to manufacturers with a light grease applied.  According to NMB specification sheets, they are filled to 30% of the internal volume with grease.  That grease makes them quiet, but also hinders performance when used for baitcast spool bearings.  I run them exclusively on all of my reels and they really fly.  I have better results with them than I have Hedgehog Air/Air BFS, Boca, and various Roro offerings.  With mine, I remove the shields and give a through cleaning.  When I lube them, I spin them until they quiet down and blow out excess with compressed air.  

 

This is how NMB ships their bearings, notice the grease.  These are brand new bearings just as I received them, shields removed. 

 

Here they are after cleaning. 

 

I feel in many instances, where people see the benefit of an aftermarket bearing is simply because their previous experience is with factory installed greased bearings.  They're used to that lack of performance, so receiving a clean bearing can feel like an upgrade. NMBs are cheap because they're the world's biggest bearing manufacturer by volume, supplying over half of the mission critical bearings the world over.  These same bearings are used in high speed precision tools, dental tools, and sensitive instruments like aircraft instrumentation panels.  Buying domestically, they run about $5-$8 each depending on where you get them.  Importing from Japan in bulk, they run less than $2 each.

 

adding a note @redmeansdistortion

Every Daiwa I own came with their shielded microbearings for spool bearings (on left)

7 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

adding a note @redmeansdistortion

Every Daiwa I own came with their shielded microbearings for spool bearings (on left)

Those are their CRBBs, also made by NMB.  At this moment they are priced at 400 JPY at the Bearing Store, while the DDL/DDR series of bearings is at 220 JPY.  They're still stainless, but with an added coating that helps them better withstand corrosion.

7 hours ago, redmeansdistortion said:

Daiwa, Shimano, Isuzu, and Doyo models all use NMB bearings from the factory.  NMB really are excellent bearings, but there is a catch, they are shipped to manufacturers with a light grease applied.  According to NMB specification sheets, they are filled to 30% of the internal volume with grease.  That grease makes them quiet, but also hinders performance when used for baitcast spool bearings.  I run them exclusively on all of my reels and they really fly.  I have better results with them than I have Hedgehog Air/Air BFS, Boca, and various Roro offerings.  With mine, I remove the shields and give a through cleaning.  When I lube them, I spin them until they quiet down and blow out excess with compressed air.  

 

This is how NMB ships their bearings, notice the grease.  These are brand new bearings just as I received them, shields removed. 

 

Here they are after cleaning. 

 

I feel in many instances, where people see the benefit of an aftermarket bearing is simply because their previous experience is with factory installed greased bearings.  They're used to that lack of performance, so receiving a clean bearing can feel like an upgrade. NMBs are cheap because they're the world's biggest bearing manufacturer by volume, supplying over half of the mission critical bearings the world over.  These same bearings are used in high speed precision tools, dental tools, and sensitive instruments like aircraft instrumentation panels.  Buying domestically, they run about $5-$8 each depending on where you get them.  Importing from Japan in bulk, they run less than $2 each.

 

im pretty sure i asked you before.  Where do you order these bearings from in Japan?

3 hours ago, MiceNReets said:

im pretty sure i asked you before.  Where do you order these bearings from in Japan?

https://zikuuke.shop35.makeshop.jp/

You could just go fishing.  

 

I would.

 

On 11/11/2025 at 9:27 PM, PhishLI said:

If you're fishing these reels in the salt, and if you did in fact remove the clutch cam plate which retains the pinion bearing in order to remove it, clean it, then oil it, then you'd be well served to repeat the process but grease it instead this time. That bearing is susceptible to water, especially if you use braid, and proper grease will be better in this position for keeping water from seeping in between the shield and race. Remove the cir-clip retainer to pop off the bearing's shield to grease it. Do the same to the other frame bearings found on the crankshaft.

 

Also, remove the clutch cam spring and grease its anchoring hole found in the frame. It's a through hole, so suspended fines and salt can migrate in through it. Over time friction between the steel spring and aluminum frame combined with grit/salt will wallow out that through hole causing the spring to no longer seat properly. This is good practice even if you don't fish the salt and will avoid a PIA fix.

 

Before you reinstall handle-side side plate, grease its lip where it mates to the frame to create a grease gasket. Leave the weep hole(s) open though. This will keep water out of the gearbox in-use and when you rinse it.

Update:

the bearings are toast. I must’ve washed them in too high pressure after using in the sky and the salt got driven in there and then they sat for 3 weeks. I removed them cleaned them and relived and they still sound raspy and rough. I’m gonna have to get new ones. Looking at either boca orange sealed ceramic or hedgehog air HD. Which would you recommend, the hedgehogs are unsealed but slower fly a bit high quality l, or should I go with the rubber sealed ones?

Shielded bearings are simply a salt concentration mechanism in spool bearing position in salt reels.  

They're fine to use for salt drive bearings.  

I'd say you're over-thinking the wash thing.  

I'll also never understand the "clean and re-lube" shielded bearing choice.  

They'll never be quite clean, and they'll never be re-lubed to original condition.  

(I do get people who remove grease to replace with oil in spool bearings).  

Fish drive bearings until they're toast or show salt sign, and replace with new CRBB, here Daiwa magseal in mainshaft drive bearing.  I've also used orange-seal in this position with no worries.  

Spool bearings in 8-year salt Super Duty.  The magnets have been replaced.  The NMB drive bearings are all original.