TackleTour

First Tests and a Look Inside the 13 Fishing Concept Z - Zero Ball Bearing Baitcaster



Introduction: The Concept Z is finally here, the ball bearing-less reel that was the talk of the show this past ICAST where 13 Fishing unveiled prototypes. The Concept Z is the first high-performance casting reel to be manufactured without any ball bearings and instead makes use of an advanced polymer technology to create their Concept Zero Bearings (CZB) to build a reel that is designed to fish quite unlike any other. The new Concept Z reels are just starting to ship and we got our hands on one for a quick round of tests and a first look under the frame.

Complete Article: http://tackletour.com/preview13fishingconceptzreel.html

Might have to hop aboard the Z-train

QUAKEnSHAKE wrote:Might have to hop aboard the Z-train

I preordered a 7.3:1 reel from TW, and it's due to be shipped in five days.
I'm jonesing, big time!!!

Cal, did Matt talk about gear maintenance at all?

Interesting, for some reason I thought the CZ bearings had an inner and outer race. It looks like the bearing is just one solid piece in the pictures.

Disappointing to find out only 1 left hand gear ratio being offered. In addition, no low gear ratio's (5's) being offered for crankbaits. Could possibly hurt sales.

tacklejunkie2 wrote:Disappointing to find out only 1 left hand gear ratio being offered. In addition, no low gear ratio's (5's) being offered for crankbaits. Could possibly hurt sales.

I'm pretty sure they'll come out with more left handed gear ratios, once the initial rush to fill the right handed orders subsides. But they don't offer a left handed 5:1 gear option on any of their reels. Maybe they don't think left handed people know how to crank.

Mike son wrote:Interesting, for some reason I thought the CZ bearings had an inner and outer race. It looks like the bearing is just one solid piece in the pictures.

That is the definition of a bushing - a solid piece of material. A bushing is a type of bearing.

If you think your product is the next BIG thing in fishing reels, you shouldn't have to wait to see how the first reels sell. I doubt seriously if Shimano and Daiwa operate that way. Hell, even Abu sells cranking reels in the 5's. Oh well.

tacklejunkie2 wrote:If you think your product is the next BIG thing in fishing reels, you shouldn't have to wait to see how the first reels sell. I doubt seriously if Shimano and Daiwa operate that way. Hell, even Abu sells cranking reels in the 5's. Oh well.

I prefer to think of this as my Tesla. There were probably production bottlenecks from having so much initial demand. And choosing the most popular gear ratios to produce first made the most sense in terms of getting the reels into the most hands the fastest.
I'm just happy the original delivery date, which was moved from December to February, is now in early January.

mark poulson wrote:

tacklejunkie2 wrote:If you think your product is the next BIG thing in fishing reels, you shouldn't have to wait to see how the first reels sell. I doubt seriously if Shimano and Daiwa operate that way. Hell, even Abu sells cranking reels in the 5's. Oh well.

I prefer to think of this as my Tesla. There were probably production bottlenecks from having so much initial demand. And choosing the most popular gear ratios to produce first made the most sense in terms of getting the reels into the most hands the fastest.
I'm just happy the original delivery date, which was moved from December to February, is now in early January.

In this is exactly why a higher priced model would have made more sense! The reason (imo) why they did not do this is that the reel's technology simply can not compete with a high end reel (MGL, Steez, etc.). In all of their promo videos they never mention anything the likes of "it casts further than flagship reel XYZ". Their claim of 'casts 20% further" is probably based on their entry reels, which again makes it less impressive.

I am going to wait for the youtuber "The Reel Test" to do his test. I think he is trust worthy

I'm hoping to see an 8.1 Lefty show in the line up. Kicking around the idea of an A3 for this spring.

Kurt

What does it say about me that I even like the name of the color, with apologies to Jeffrey Lebowski.

I'm surprised no one has brought up the point that there is now another, potentially collectible ORANGE reel on the market that MHOOD needs to add to his arsenal pronto!

Cal wrote:I'm surprised no one has brought up the point that there is now another, potentially collectible ORANGE reel on the market that MHOOD needs to add to his arsenal pronto!

I'll drink to that!

I am more excited to see the review on this than any other reel, looks like a game changer.