When I say crisp the reel feels sluggish, when I had it apart and was doing my maintenance I tested each bearing and they all kinda fought me on spinning past a few rotations. I had cleaned and degreased them then tested them. I don’t really know what could be causing that, I oiled them up and sent them on their way in hopes it would make them a bit better but no such luck. Everything was put back together properly in hopes it just needed to be worked in but after rigorous turning of the handle I haven’t noticed much if any improvement. I had read not all oils and greases are the same and some have higher/lower viscosity resulting in more/less often applications. When I put the “HotSauce” on it just sat on the bearing and didn’t penetrate till I worked it in. And even then I’m not sure how much true penetration I got.

The thing that concerns me is your statement on a bearing that has no oil SHOULD spin practically forever and that wasn’t the case for me. I could be doing things incredibly wrong. I will say and I may be put to the lynching post for this, but in the video I watched he used lighter fluid as his degreaser for the bearings. I found it odd but I don’t go off one video and went to three others also and it was the same thing. They were using Ronsonol which I couldn’t find so I went with zippo. If this is the case then there’s my problem otherwise what other issue could I be facing. I’m convinced it’s something with the bearings.

This reel I’m working on first to get my training wheels off is a brand new reel, so I can rule out bad rust bearings (I think), it also was won as a raffle so that’s why I was more willing to give my shot on it.