I seem to remember paying about £120 for an original Japanese made Stradic GTM in the mid-nineties. Setting the date to (a slightly flattering) 1998 and plugging £120 into the Bank of England inflation calculator suggests that would equate to £224.69 in 2021. A modern Stradic GTM RC is likely to cost you somewhere between £100 and £120. It's almost inevitable that a GTM RC won't be the same quality as an original GTM, it's effectively quite a bit cheaper.
I have some "better" modern Shimano rear drag reels in the form of the Stradic Ci4+ RAs and Twinpower Ci4 RAs. I also have a couple of original Stradic GTMs that are still in very good condition. Whilst the build quality and durability of the old reels may well prove to be better than the modern reels, I much prefer to use the modern ones. Whilst the originals are built like battleships, they weigh about as much as one too. However, I have a distinct preference for the far larger diameter spools found on the modern reels. The fact that the use of the more modern body/rotor materials can offset the extra weight of bigger spools, and result in reels that are still significantly lighter, is a big plus point.
All that said it's worth adding that I view such reels through the eyes of a float angler. I won't be repeatedly cranking in big feeders/leads on such reels. A larger diameter spool allows me to cast lighter floats far further and results in far less line memory/coiling. A larger spool results in less of a reach to the lip of the spool. The oversized spools might also allow the use of a significantly smaller lighter model whilst still having a greater spool diameter. Lighter weight reels are certainly far more appropriate for very light (weight) float rods.
Chris I’ve no doubt that the modern stradics are preferable to you and many for float fishing.
I did nearly 20 years float fishing the river swale before doing much less of it when I moved down south and I agree entirely that the lighter reel with bigger circumference spool is better for both pay off and finger line control. The line lay is imo better on a longer nosed spool with the slower oscillation but let’s be honest that’s neither here nor there when trotting and probably more important for casting distance.
My post was 100% based around pulling these things apart and having a poke and a prod about. Carrying out services and minor repair jobs and there are significant quality differences in both design and durability. I’m excluding the Ci4 models from that statement because I’ll never make factual assumptions on something I haven’t worked on. I’ll give my honest opinion on those should the time ever come!
Now I’m not one of these idiots that just says “get the old ones because they are made better” as these idiots generally wouldn’t know the first thing about the guts of their reels let alone how they work or how to look after them.
In the same respect you get idiots that say “get the new ones as the old ones are crap and dated technology”
I base my opinion on a truly non bios perspective and on what’s physically laid out infront of me.
Classic example is main gearing engaged by the handle. I’m yet to open up a shimano reel that doesn’t use die cast gears made from whatever alloy it is. They work fine but the tolerances of those parts are never going to match something that’s been precisely machined like they did in the Swedish Abus and the original Japanese SS reels.
We all know shimanos bail arms have generally got thinner but so have the retractable bail springs and there is now more movement than ever in the internal trip pin. A lot of modern shimanos have swapped a bearing on the underside of the main gear for a bush (still call it a bearing) and one I opened up last week has a plastic gear operating the oscillation worm drive. I’m sure these we’re always brass in the past.
So in a nutshell I’m not criticizing anything to do regarding the performance of these reels as once I repair them, they feel amazing to use but there are quality differences is all I was pointing out.
I don’t know this for sure but I’d assume shimano would use self tapping screws on materials like the Ci4 body’s?? They did on the Xt bodies I know that.
Where as on the white alloy body’s the screws are all fine threaded with a weak loctite on the tread. You’ll never wreck that thread no matter how many times you service it yet a self tapped thread into a graphite type body …. Only so many times and one over tighten and it’s done!
I see things in detail that others probably don’t really care about and that’s fine.
One last thing though.. your reels will probably last you a life time Chris with no trouble whatsoever. Float anglers are by far the most careful when it comes to looking after there stuff. Rarely do I ever have a repair to do on a float anglers reel.
I put that down to the fact that everything a float anglers uses is far more delicate than other forms of angling from rods to lines to the floats themselves and the anglers take extra care of it as you know it doesn’t take much to break something.
