It can't have been too much more then a year ago that Penn released the predecessor of the legendary 525 mag. The new version being imaginatively entitled the 525 mag 2.
Well, the first of the mag 2's that i have sold came in for a service yesterday so i had my first chance to have a look at the quality of the internals.
I'll start off by stressing that I have never even cast one of these reel's. This post is purely looking at them from a manufacturing basis.
Having stripped and serviced an inordinate amount of reels I'm always way to excited to be having a tinker with something new, looking at it's construction, what's done different and how the parts work.
I'll start off with something that most people would over look but it's something that anyone who has serviced a lot of reels will know is important. The screws. This was something in the front of my mind as i spent a bloody age servicing a pair of Daiwa 20 SHV's yesterday. The servicing itself isn't really any more challenging then any other reel but the issue with the whole of the sealine range are the crappy, excessively long, excessively numbered, soft, brass screws. They are just not up to the job. But I'm happy to report that we have nice, short stainless screws on the Mag 2's. They are flat head which is a bit of a pain but it's still better then Daiwa ones.
The reels came apart really nicely without any need for 'persuasion' and had a sensible amount of lubrication in each (you would be amazed at how many reels i see with far to much grease and oil in them) For those that are familiar with the old 525's Penn have stuck with the tiny screw that sits underneath the gold side plate surround and have still left enough room so that the surround can be removed without having to remove the clutch handle. The clutch mechanism is the same as before with a clutch handle attached to a clutch cam which turns as you operate the handle. This cam then moves a plate up and down, which in turn moves the pinion gear up and down taking the reel in and out of gear (see 4th picture down) Another point worth making is that the clutch cam is Brass as opposed the sealine range which is plastic (again, something that is fresh in my mind as i spend ages pinpointing and fixing a problem with the plastic clutch cam out of an SL20 last week)
Next it's worth a look at gearing / drag system. As with most other reel's they are integral, as in the drag washers sit inside the main gear. The main gear itself is (I'm guessing) what pure fishing call durabrass which is a brass based alloy that's harder and wears better then just brass, But still not has hard as stainless. Interestingly though, the pinion gear is stainless. This seems a bit daft to me as both will wear a different rates. It remains to be seen what, if any, effect this will have. The pair that i have just stripped are showing no sign's of wear at all after a year of use. The speed of retrieve is 6.0:1 which seems to strike a nice balance between the power of lower gearing and the time taken to retrieve a bait from a hundred yards plus. I'm not sure what the holes in the gear are in aid of but it could possibly be a weight saving measure.
Here is a picture of the inside of the handle side showing the most part of the internals all together. It seems to me that this is the best system for taking a reel in and out of gear. Much more simple and less prone to failure then Abu's system. It's worth me pointing out that the pinion yolk (the bit the pinion gear sits and rotates in) is also metal. The plastic ones in the abu's are another weak point of those. Especially in the 6500 high speeds.
Here is a look at the difference between the drags of the new mag 2 (top) and an abu 6500 (bottom) You'll notice the bigger gearing which gives the ability for bigger drag washers. The bigger the drag washers, the more friction and the more friction the more drag pressure. This is absolutely going to assist in hauling that big ray up off of the bottom or lifting that winter Bass up 30 ft.
This part of the reel really interested me. This is a shot of the inside of the left hand side plate. The side that houses the magnetic controls and the ratchet. I'll start off by saying that it's a shame that they stuck with the stupidly complicated ratchet clickers but seen as it rarely goes wrong that's not too much of an issue. What was interesting though was a magnetic control system that i have never seen before and a very clever on at that. To explain why I will explain to those that don't already know that there are usually 2 ways that magnetic cast controls are configured. Slidey and knoby. Slideys are controlled by sliding a button back and forth and knoby's by twisting a knob on the side plate. Both do exactly the same thing to the magnets though, in that the move the magnets closer to, or further from the spool giving a greater of lesser magnetic effect, speeding up or slowing down the spool. This system is different. The picture above shows what it looks like with the magnets fully off. There is a piece of plastic that contains the magnets under the metal. When you twist button on the left hand side plate it slides the little bit of steel across and exposes the magnets, exposing them, which gradually has a bigger effect on the speed of the spool. I don't know the science of why it works, but it does. I'd go as far as saying that this reel has a much greater range of magnetic effect then any other i have ever played with, meaning, with the end float set at the same tension, it will run like a machine with the magnets fully off but slower then tar with them fully on.
After all of this praise, the only issue that i can find with them is the cage, and even then, they are still an improvement over the original. It's the same plastic but in a much thicker gauge so it shouldn't break a easily. My concern would be where the footplate is riveted to the cage. It was too hard to photo with my phone but i would say that the 3mm thick plastic where the footplate is attached is a touch too thin, leaving potential for separation. But after a bit of research i cant find any instances of this so maybe that's me just being picky.
On the whole i really am very impressed with them. I have heard nothing but praise from there users, I've had no warranty returns and they are very well built. I'm so impressed that i think I'll sell my toriums and get myself a pair of these.
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