tld 25 handle

[tazzman1666]

anybody know this guy on ebay fishincomfort looking at this

[Parapapam]

Tazz,

That sure is pretty. I got my handle upgrades from Alan Tani. His are $40 (free shipping). So they are $6 cheaper.

Alan's are very functional but not as sexy as the fishingcomfort ones... even though a metal handle is probably overkill for a TLD 25. I do not understand why anyone would not upgrade the handles to their TLD 25's. It totally changes the reel. Radical improvement!! I have given 4 handles out as gifts. My friends loved them.

But to specifically answer your question... I don't know this guy fishingcomfort, not that it means a lot...


Mike

[SNAKE EYES SPORTFISHING]

the most probable reason for not changing the handle is price, your putting a 40 dollar handle on a $140 reel. second how much drag you puttin on that reel. definalty not more than the handle can take. just my opinion, i have 5 tld 25s dont get me wrong, there great reels and would look sharp with that handle but not for an extra 40 bucks....

[WAHOONBOX]

WOULD YOU BUY THIS HANDLE IF IT DIDN'T HAVE THE PRETTY HOLES IN IT?

[SNAKE EYES SPORTFISHING]

imagine trying to keep 6 or 8 of those handles clean after a yft attack,
i'd have to buy one of those little scrub brushes for baby bottles so poor "34 silverton" and my other mate "lazy L" could really scrub those little holes out, all kiddin aside they do really look cool...

[Tunaman40]

I have purchased tackle from fishingcomfort, never had a problem.

[Parapapam]

the most probable reason for not changing the handle is price, your putting a 40 dollar handle on a $140 reel. second how much drag you puttin on that reel. definalty not more than the handle can take. just my opinion, i have 5 tld 25s dont get me wrong, there great reels and would look sharp with that handle but not for an extra 40 bucks....

My 2 cents for what it is worth... If Alan can build a handle for $40, Shimano should be able to mass produce them for less than half... so making a $140 dollar reel a $160 dollar (or less) reel doesn't change the target market price range.

On top of that, how much more can it cost to mass produce a bigger handle compared to mass producing the current smaller handle? Shimano still has to put a handle on the reel. So it would not cost them even $20 more....

The amount of drag is certainly part of the reason to upgrade even though 15 - 18 pounds is not much. But when you let out a hundred yards of line for stripers and you have to reel in a weeded up lure, the ridiculously small handle still causes my hands to cramp up. Lot of drag or no drag doesn't matter. A bigger handle makes the reel much more comfortable.... even without a fish on.

I guess to each his own... I like the reel with the stock handle. I love the reel with the handle upgrade.

Mike

[alantani]

my handles are $37 each, plus $3 for shipping. straight out of the box, these reels will deliver about #12 pounds at strike before losing freespool. to bring the reels to their full potential, you would need to crack them open and add a bellville washer to the left side of the spool and a shim washer to the drag pressure plate on the right side of the spool. at that point, you can also service the bearings. keep in mind that these four bearings are $12 each. protect your investment and go through these bearings now. it will save you money later.

once all of that is done, you can go through and change out the drag washers at your leisure. they are $19 each from either me or smoothdrag.com. like i said, the single speed tld 20/25 is one of the most expensive reels to service because so much needs to be done.

now, once the reels are serviced, you should be able to get up to 18#'s of drag at strike before losing freespool. you can now load these reels with straight 30#, straight 40#, straight 50# or straight 60# mono, then set the strike drag to 30% of your line weight and you're all set. i like straight 50# mono and a 15# drag setting. these reels are not worthy of spectra. here's the full post and some comments.

http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=36.0