Hedge hog air bearings. Anybody tried them?

[aprestonSEK]

I am wanting to replace the stock bearings in my premier. I normally use Bocas as my upgrade but I am curious to see if HedgeHogs are better. What are your opinions?

[ah_long]

Yes

I do find them superior to Bocas in several ways

1. micro balls do start up faster
2. quieter
3. pre-lubed with alchemy oil that is very nice and light (do require more top up though)
4. one side stainless shield prevents dirt and stuff from entering while allowing user to clean and oil with ease on the other side

For flipping and pitching, soft plastics, Hedgehog wins. Less effort and easier spool start up.

For heavier stuff such as frogs, performance is more or less the same.

And if it matters to you, Hedgehog bearings are made in Japan. They claim on their website that they exceed abec 9 rating

Q. What is the rating of your (HEDGEHOG HOG’s) bearing in the ABEC (Annular Bearing Engineers' Committee) scale?

A. It is the question we get most often from overseas customers.
Because the bearings of HEDGEHOG STUDIO are Japanese-made products developed exclusively for reels, it is not applied to the ABEC scale which is an American Standard.
However, the performance is the "non-standard" quality and precision which exceeds ABEC9 rating.

[lpquick]

Yes

I do find them superior to Bocas in several ways

1. micro balls do start up faster
2. quieter
3. pre-lubed with alchemy oil that is very nice and light (do require more top up though)
4. one side stainless shield prevents dirt and stuff from entering while allowing user to clean and oil with ease on the other side

For flipping and pitching, soft plastics, Hedgehog wins. Less effort and easier spool start up.

For heavier stuff such as frogs, performance is more or less the same.

And if it matters to you, Hedgehog bearings are made in Japan. They claim on their website that they exceed abec 9 rating

Q. What is the rating of your (HEDGEHOG HOG’s) bearing in the ABEC (Annular Bearing Engineers' Committee) scale?

A. It is the question we get most often from overseas customers.
Because the bearings of HEDGEHOG STUDIO are Japanese-made products developed exclusively for reels, it is not applied to the ABEC scale which is an American Standard.
However, the performance is the “non-standard" quality and precision which exceeds ABEC9 rating.

I agree 100% with ah_long, say 1/4 oz. on up you will be hard pressed to notice a difference. Using light weight presentations the Hedgehog air bearings shine.

[USA-RET]

Ditto. All my upgrades will be with Hedgehogs, except for the flipping and frog stuff. Light weight baits just fly with them. I have a set in a Chron50MG and it's phenomenal. I also find even with 1/4 ounce and a bit heavier, pitching is much improved for me. A simple swing of the rod tip and the bait launches. Quite nice indeed.

[aprestonSEK]

Yes

I do find them superior to Bocas in several ways

1. micro balls do start up faster
2. quieter
3. pre-lubed with alchemy oil that is very nice and light (do require more top up though)
4. one side stainless shield prevents dirt and stuff from entering while allowing user to clean and oil with ease on the other side

For flipping and pitching, soft plastics, Hedgehog wins. Less effort and easier spool start up.

For heavier stuff such as frogs, performance is more or less the same.

And if it matters to you, Hedgehog bearings are made in Japan. They claim on their website that they exceed abec 9 rating

Q. What is the rating of your (HEDGEHOG HOG’s) bearing in the ABEC (Annular Bearing Engineers' Committee) scale?

A. It is the question we get most often from overseas customers.
Because the bearings of HEDGEHOG STUDIO are Japanese-made products developed exclusively for reels, it is not applied to the ABEC scale which is an American Standard.
However, the performance is the "non-standard" quality and precision which exceeds ABEC9 rating.

Thanks for the helpful info! I am ordering a set.

[knht]

I was out testing boca os abec7 bearings with the hedgehog air bearing with alphas r edition which has the boca in it. Both boca n hedgehog were fully flushed with a single drop of zpi f0 oil.

I threw a 14g spoon with the set up for 30 casts to get the optimum setting. Then swap up the boca with the air bearing. Continue casting with exact same set up and setting remained unchanged. After approx 15 casts I fiddled with the settings to try get maximum distance.

My verdict in summary, I have just placed order for 8 pairs of air bearing and a pair of zhi bearing to swap out the current boca os7 bearing in all my reels.

[frogman1963]

Are you guys using the Air BFS (Bait Finesse Version) with the detachable housing? Or the standard Air version? I see the BFS version is good for up to about 1/2 oz and the Air standard good to 1 oz. Is there a big difference between the two for light baits? Is the Air standard version more durable? Are these bearings a micro ceramic bearing? Thanks Guys

[USA-RET]

I'm using the standard "Air's". Cannot speak to the BFS version. I have the old Chronarch MG50 set up as my "light" bait rig with the Omen 6'10" ML (AU market) rod. Throwing baits like these:

Baits_1_TT.jpg (97.52 KiB) Viewed 8985 times

Some baits are lighter than 1/8 ounce and some are heavier. Zero problems and should I opt for heavier baits, the standard "Air's" can do that also.

The BFS bearing look interesting and may be worth a look if you are building a BC reel specifically for L/UL applications. Although, I wonder how much they can improve upon the standard "Air's".

For me, I'll stay with the standard version and anything more would be "overkill".

[Hogsticker2]

I'm gonna have to try a pair of the standard AIRs in my T3 MX. Wonder if the ZRs are any good. Only 16 bucks, about the same price as a set of 5's.

[tywithay]

I'm gonna have to try a pair of the standard AIRs in my T3 MX. Wonder if the ZRs are any good. Only 16 bucks, about the same price as a set of 5's.

I tried Zr's in my T3 1016. I didn't see a huge performance increase over the stock crbb, though there was some. They're super quiet though, like almost silent. I'll be moving the Zr's into my Tatula when it arrives and put Airs into the T3.

[BARRAMANIAC]

They're quiet because they are metal bearings and not Ceramics. I have a set of the anti rust bearings( the shielded version of the zr's ) and they are on par with abec 7 ceramics from Boca plus they are quiet which makes them a win.

[knht]

I have a set of the anti rust bearings( the shielded version of the zr's ) and they are on par with abec 7 ceramics from Boca plus they are quiet which makes them a win.

That would be the ZHI bearings

[BARRAMANIAC]

I have a set of the anti rust bearings( the shielded version of the zr's ) and they are on par with abec 7 ceramics from Boca plus they are quiet which makes them a win.

That would be the ZHI bearings

That's the ones. Also have a set of bfs bearings that I am yet to use waiting on a rod being built to test out the reel I have them in.

[knht]

I notice the Alchemy Oil on Hedgehog site comes with two pricing, value pack is selling for US$9.99 while the other one is US$21.99. Both comes in 10ml bottle. Any different between them or was it just the packaging?

[tywithay]

I notice the Alchemy Oil on Hedgehog site comes with two pricing, value pack is selling for US$9.99 while the other one is US$21.99. Both comes in 10ml bottle. Any different between them or was it just the packaging?

Just the package. The expensive one uses a fancier glass bottle