Bit of shaft play with Alan Hawk (2013 Stella)

[Eug]

http://www.alanhawk.com/reviews/13SW.html

Bit long, but there are some pearlers thrown in.

A hair. A bloody hair!! I was wishing it was a piece of fibre or something, but under the magnifying glass I could see that it's indeed a hair with the bulb and all. Well, hair grosses me out whether it's in my food or my reel. While removing this thing I tried to convince myself that it could be the pubic hair of a cute Japanese girl to make the job easier, but the logic part in my brain kept saying that it's not very likely that Shimanos are assembled by a bunch of frolicking naked ladies, so that mental image wouldn't work.

[max pwr]

Not sure which is more incredible, that someone goes to the extreme effort of such an indepth review of a reel or the fact that I actually read it all

I've had a trouser lump for a stella for a while but now I'm not so sure I'd happily fork out that kind of money for a reel.

Disappointing.

[tomartomau]

It seems (and I only had a brief read) that the reel is more evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The standard has in the past been set pretty high and design and economies of scale are probably at their peak in the price range. Like other manufacturers the 'trickle down affect' appears in reels under that premium range and is probably a better buy to get some of the technology at a lower entry point. I notice that some stores are reducing the previous model of the Stella by a few hundred dollars.

I also find it unusual that Shimano in their flagship range choose to go for a mixture of Japanese and Malaysian components when you are paying such a high price with engineering superiority I would expect the bearings to be of the highest quality... minimizing friction at every 'turn' you would not want a $3 bearing to fail on a $1200 reel. Even if the Malaysian bearings were not substandard the marketing would suggest that perception is probably 70% of the sales and application (use) the other 30%.