Long story short: Comparing with Abu Garcia Pro Max II (shortened as Abu) which is in the same price range, Piscifun Thunder baitcasting reel (shortened as Piscifun) is made with better material.
As a fisherman with engineering PhD, a couple of smooth castings cannot satisfy me completely. I need to understand the reel inside and out: how it is designed mechanically, what material is used, whether the reel is going to be durable... When I get this Piscifun reel, I compared it with my Abu which I bought three years ago. Both are ranged in $60~$70 interval, the market section targeting the amateur fishermen using baitcaster. Like a research report, all photos attached are numbered.
Both reels are about 8Ozs, while the Piscifun is a quarter ounce heavier (Fig 1). Lighter is better, but this tiny bit additional weight does both bother me. The metal frame is well worth the additional weight.
As a fisherman with engineering PhD, a couple of smooth castings cannot satisfy me completely. I need to understand the reel inside and out: how it is designed mechanically, what material is used, whether the reel is going to be durable... When I get this Piscifun reel, I compared it with my Abu which I bought three years ago. Both are ranged in $60~$70 interval, the market section targeting the amateur fishermen using baitcaster. Like a research report, all photos attached are numbered.
Both reels are about 8Ozs, while the Piscifun is a quarter ounce heavier (Fig 1). Lighter is better, but this tiny bit additional weight does both bother me. The metal frame is well worth the additional weight.
Piscifun's spool is wider (Fig2), the width is very close to Daiwa Tatula and Shimano Curado. One theory about the spool width is that wider spool helps longer casting: pulling line from spool near outer surface takes less effort. Actually, the new Abu Garcia Pro max III, just announced in ICast 2015, also features a wider spool. Seems this is the trend for reel design. To my surprise, the weight of the Piscifun spool is a gram less than Abu's, even with a larger size. Lighter spool helps casting control of lighter lures, since less kinetic energy is stolen by spool during casting, at the moment you release your thumb.
Other than the metallic frame, you can find a lot more metal on Piscifun (Fig 4): worm gear sheath, worm gear paw nut, star drag, thumb screw and end plug on knobs.
Other than the metallic frame, you can find a lot more metal on Piscifun (Fig 4): worm gear sheath, worm gear paw nut, star drag, thumb screw and end plug on knobs.
A larger spool increases the overall width of the reel (Fig 5). When mounted on a rod, I can definitely feel Piscifun is bulkier than Abu. The feeling of Piscifun in palm is similar to Daiwa Tatula: fingers need to reach further to grab the rod, but still manageable.
Cranking takes less effort on Piscifun: gear ratio is lower than Abu, and the handle is longer (Fig 3), giving you more toque on the handle shaft.
On the handle shaft, a proper design should use three bearings: an instant-anti-reverse bearing (IAR) and two ball bearings (BB) on each side of IAR. IAR allows the handle rotating in only one direction, but it is weak: the plastic parts in IAR cannot tolerate too much load in radial direction. And this is the reason we need two other BB to support IAR. In the mechanical schematic diagram of both Abu and Piscifun, I can see the 3 bearing; however in real product, Abu skipped one BB which pissed me off (if not designed in due to cost, it's OK I can understand. But fooling customer using schematic is dishonest. IAR of my Abu failed and was replaced after 2 years use, and I believe it's related with the missing bearing). All the 3 bearings can be found in Piscifun (Fig6 & Fig 10)
Other than Shimano reels, the thumb bar designs of many mainstream brands like Daiwa and Abu are pretty much the same: the thumb bar is rubbing against the frame whenever pressed down or coming back. In Abu's Max reels, the friction between thumb bar and the frame is mitigated using grease, a lot of grease, even on new reels (you can check the new Abu reels in Walmart). Each time after use, I need to apply grease on to my Abu, between the thumb bar and the frame to extend the life span of the reel. On Piscifun, there are plastic pads made of slicker material between the thumb bar and frame, and this is the common practice of reels over $100 (Fig 7). The result is longer life span, easier maintenance and smoother button action than Abu.
The drag in Abu is paperbased material, works OK and I have no complaints. In Piscifun, the drag is using multidisk cross carbon fiber, a lot better construction and material (Fig 8). I really need to land some big fish to tell how much better Piscifun's drag is. Another observation is the drive gear (the big gear in Fig 8, rotating around handle shaft): When turning the handle of Abu, I can hear gear grinding sound, only occurs around a certain angle of the handle. This is cause by the offset error between the center of the gear and the rotation axis. On Piscifun, the grinding sound is much less, which means the concentricity accuracy is better.
Abu's spool tension knob is better than Piscifun (Fig 9): it has the clicking sound for more accurate and "quantitative feeling" of the adjustment. Piscifun's spool tension is similar to Shimano Curado and Daiwa Lexa/Tatula, no clicking, but it is OK. BTW, in so many Youtube videos, even some professional anglers call it "centripetal something". This is just spool tension, applying pressure on spool axis to generate a constant braking torque, has nothing to do with centripetal force. A centripetal brake is the one used in Abu Revo S or Shimano Curado.
Bearings, bearings, bearings... engineers' favorite topic. I cannot comment on the "two Japanese high speed NMB bearings", since NMB has plants all over the world, and I cannot see any marking on spool bearing saying they are NMB. However I can confidently say that Piscifun used the number of bearings they promised in the right places (Fig 10): two on worm gear; two on spool axis, two on pinion gear (a great feature I like, see the difference in the attached video; other companies give such design fancier names, e.g. "Shimano Super Free Spool"); three bearings on handle shaft. Abu's design has one less bearing comparing with Piscifun, Abu's product cheated by using one less bearing comparing with their own design; Abu puts two BB in handle knobs, which make the gear box (where bearings are most desired) have much less bearings than Piscifun.
Another nice feature on Piscifun, especially for geeks like me, is the little cover on the handle-side. Without the need to pull the reel apart completely, I can lubricate the drive gear and pinion gear through this little cover (Fig 11 left).
Nothing is perfect, and I do have three comments on the reel which may have the room for improvement, just my personal opinions
1. Logo: When I open the box, it says "Haibo Overlord", not Piscifun Thunder. Although the reel is exactly the same as described other than logo, it surprised me a little bit.
2. Magnetic brake: to cast properly I need to use about 90% of the brake. This may be caused by the way I cast or the techniques I use, so maybe you do not need such amount of braking. When casting against the wind, the mag brake will be maxed out and still not enough. A stronger brake (i.e. more magnetic bits in side plate) will be beneficial.
3. Reel seat: Unlike metal frame reels from mainstream brands, such as Abu, Shimano or Daiwa, the Piscifun's seat is a separate piece of metal, riveted onto the reel frame (Fig 11, right). Between the two is a piece of plastic sheet, like a washer to provide compression stress in the rivet (Fig 7 right). The reel seat is good and firm so far, but it may be questionable for long term durability, when the plastic washer dries out and flakes apart. If the frame is one piece, I will feel much more confident in the rigidity and durability.
没有评论:
发表评论