I had to do some maintenance on my Cruxis tonight and I also did a search on the Green Bantam Curado that seems to get a lot of compliments. I was pulling up the parts diagrams on Shimano's website and looking at bearing placement. I found one more ball bearing in the Bantam Curado than my Cruxis.

So now I start wondering where the bearings are used on the high dollar  Shimano's so I pulled up a Calais with 10 ball bearings. I found 6 ball bearings and 1 roller bearing, where are the other 3?  

http://fish.shimano.com/publish/content/fish/sac/us/en/customer_service/Reel_Schematics/calais_schematics.-MainContent-0010-DownloadFile.tmp/99CL200.pdf.pdf

It seems like the most important bearing locations for long casts would be the spool axles and the worm drive...correct?

I think the Calais has 11 bearings total.  You counted 6 but did you count the 4 in the handle?  10 bearings and 1 roller bearing.

SV1000

It seems like the most important bearing locations for long casts would be the spool axles and the worm drive...correct?

In Shimano® reels, if the line carriage isn't engaged (moves left to right) when in free spool, the most important bearings for long casting are the spool support bearings (Shimano builds with quality ABEC3 SS, a good upgrade is ABEC5 SS). If the line carriage is engaged (moves left to right when casting), then worm gear support bearings help (but are not that much of an improvement).

A good thing to remember, "it isn't the number of bearings in a reel, but the quality of the bearings in the reel"

Tight Lines!!!!

I think the Calais has 11 bearings total. You counted 6 but did you count the 4 in the handle? 10 bearings and 1 roller bearing.

I agree, I think there are 2 in each handle knob.

JT Bagwell

reelmechanic,

I was thinking about a bearing upgrade on my Cruxis. Do the ceramic composite bearings need lube?

JT,

Are the handle bearings ball or roller bearings?

Ceramic bearings migh be a little over kill for a Cruxis.  But ABEC7's are pretty close and might be a nice $18 upgrade.

The Calais has 4 handle bearings, 2 under each knob; the reason why those bearings don 't appear in the schematics is pretty simple, the handle assembly is considered by Shimano as 1 part ( handle assembly ).

Thanks for clarification Raul.