TackleTour

How are the Ray's Studio BFS bearings compared to HH Air BFS?

I've been using HH Air and Air BFS for years, now I've bought a couple of Ray's Studio tuning spools and want to upgrade the bearings.

They are decent. Definitely got more noise to them though.

Meh. I have a set for a Black Max and they are great value but not as nice as the HH Air. They don't fit tightly to the spool shaft and can allow the spool to rattle around a bit. They are fine for a budget BFS bearing for a budget build but if your reel is nice then get good bearings. Also keep in mind that if your reel came with a spacer over the stock spool bearing mounted to the spool that you will need to reuse that spacer for the HH Air bearings. The HH Air bearings are the same size as the stock daiwa bearings. The Ray's spools don't make use of this spacer and have a larger aluminum housing for the bearing allowing it to fit into the handle side bearing holder without the use of the spacer.

HH Air BFS bearings have the same type aluminium spacers as the Ray's bearings.

I ordered some bearings with the last Ray's spool I ordered, I expect to receive the package late this week. I'm asking in case the bearings are bad, then I would order HH right away. It seems as I can wait and test the Ray's bearings before I decide to order HH or not.

abbor wrote:HH Air BFS bearings have the same type aluminium spacers as the Ray's bearings.

I ordered some bearings with the last Ray's spool I ordered, I expect to receive the package late this week. I'm asking in case the bearings are bad, then I would order HH right away. It seems as I can wait and test the Ray's bearings before I decide to order HH or not.

The HH aluminum housing for the micro bearing still requires the stock bearing spacer. The Ray's will fit into the bearing holder without the stock spacer. I have HH Air bearings in my Alphas SV. I had to resuse the bearing spacer that came with the reel fitted to the stock bearings. It is just a sleeve that fits over the bearing.

Only aluminium housing, no metal spacer in Alphas Air with HH Air BFS. I don't remember how it was with Steez SV, I sold the Air bearings I had for Steez together with a SS SV because Air was better than Air BFS for what I use the Steez for.

abbor wrote:Only aluminium housing, no metal spacer in Alphas Air with HH Air BFS. I don't remember how it was with Steez SV, I sold the Air bearings I had for Steez together with a SS SV because Air was better than Air BFS for what I use the Steez for.

Are you sure? This pic of an Alphas Air spool shows the spacer fitted over the stock bearing. When I put HH Air bearings in my Alphas SV I had to resuse this peice. My Ray's spool for Alphas drops right in without needing it. If you put HH Air bearings on the Ray's spool I would think you would need this peice for HH Air bearings to fit.

Yes, I'm sure. I'm talking Air BFS, not Air.

abbor wrote:Yes, I'm sure. I'm talking Air BFS, not Air.

I also have the Air BFS. I guess the Alphas Air must not use the spacer like other Alphas. It either has a larger stock bearing than other Alphas to eliminate the spacer or the bearing holder in the frame has a smaller ID.

Either way not having the spacer is nice. I would have gone through and put HH Air BFS on all my Ray's spools to replace the noisy DIY BFS ones but I didn't want to deal with tracking down all those spacers.