ive only had one baitcaster, which i bought about five years ago.  took me a while to learn how to use.  i learned by trial and error pretty much.  now that i have read up on using them properly i feel a little more confused.  i guess it would be from just learning the reel and not knowing the proper terminology for the parts.  i think i understand the braking systems from the tutorial from reelmech. pretty well.  what exactly is the function of the bearings and what makes having more better?  are they somehow involved with the brakes?  i think i paid 80$ for mine as a combo from bps.  its a mega tournament real with a one piece metal frame and has four bearings and it works well for me.  i have a few spinning reels but i seem to like my bc better.  any explanations on the bearings are much appreciated.

here are two articles from bass pro regarding baitcasters...

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPage?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&&mode=article&objectID=29560&catID=&subcatID=0

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPage?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&&mode=article&objectID=31583&cat=&subcatID=0&objectType=article

hey, thanks alot for posting those.  those two pretty much answered all the questions i had left after the initial reading i had done.  i appreciate it very much

hey, thanks alot for posting those. those two pretty much answered all the questions i had left after the initial reading i had done. i appreciate it very much

no problem, good luck!  

Having more doesn 't = being better, it equals being smoother.

1 good quality bearing in the right spot is better than having 10 lousy bearings all over the reel.

The two most important functional bearings are the spool supporting bearings, you don 't have good ones there the casting capability of the reel plummets.