# Akios Shuttle hopped up



## Tommy

Did a little tweaking on my Shuttle Saturday then spent some time on Sunday casting it. This is one of the Prototypes from Akios, the only difference being in the mag control. This reel has about 3.75 revolutions of the knob providing a little more travel than the stock unit.

Stripped the .35 and loaded with .31
Balanced the spool, spot on first attempt.
Removed the plastice clicker cog. Akios has a great design here. Just remove with no need to change the speed bushing.
Cleaned the bearings and left dry
Removed one magnet and set the polarity of the remaining 3 +-+. 

It was HOT (94 at 6:00pm, 104 heat index), and humid with a light (5mph) breeze. The little reel impressed me. I threw 4 casts with each flying just a bit farther than the one before with the 150g sinker.

1 - 714
2 - 728
3 - 735
4 - 751

In the conditions, I would have been happy with those numbers using one of my primary 150 reels.



Tommy


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## lil red jeep

Terrific numbers. Wish I could reach out that far! I still think for the mone, Akios has hit one out of the ballpark. Not the greatest reels in the world but mighty fine for the $.


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## tjbjornsen

What are the advantages of leaving the bearings dry?


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## Tommy

tjbjornsen said:


> What are the advantages of leaving the bearings dry?


Faster and you remove the tuning variable that oil brings. I'd only recommend it with ceramic or ceramic hybrids.


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## Yeah nah

Mark is dropping of my shuttle this weekend . Tempted to put a pair of hybrids in it right from the start.


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## luckyOC

really fighting temptation here...


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## lrs

I have an Akios Shuttle, purchased it from Tommy!!!
I am what you might call an Akios fan.
I'm still a beginner with long distance casting so I have not seen, or much less used any other distance reel, other than my Akios 65CTM. Tommy did a little work on mine, and beginner or not, I know quality and smootheness when I see it.
I currently have it on the CP 6-10 13FT rod.
I have not yet made any measured casts, but I have hit it pretty hard a number of times. With mag set on highest power I have not yet experienced a blowup. 

Once I messed up, and left the mag set at lowest power. I hit hard, and that sinker took off like a rocket. After what I would guess was about 70 yards, the line suddenly and instantly just blew up faster than a stock after I buy it. That was the mother of all bird nests, and I've seen some bird nests. I can't figure out why it went so far, then blew up, doesn't make sense to me. All I could do was get out the scissors.

I also tried a cast with the mag setting on the 4th click. It blew up instantly, but I think that was due to my own clumsiness.
Anyhow, I've really enjoyed this reel and this rod reel combination.
Although I have been fishing since the age of about 1, I've never experienced a reel that has the inherent "feel" this has. The quality is just there.


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## Tommy

Leslie,

What happened to you when you cast with the mags off is perfectly normal. When a reel has little (or no) braking and a cast is hit properly the birdnest is not instantaneous. As the sinker takes flight, the first thing that it must do is accelerate the spool up to speed. As the sinker flys away the spool comes up to speed and everything is A-OK for about 100-200 feet. Then the sinker starts to SLOW down quickly as the spool keeps trucking along, spitting out line........... FLUFF-ZING-POW 

The perfect casting reel would start with no braking, applying it as needed to control fluff as the sinker climbs toward the apex, slowing down. It would then quickly roll off the mags as the sinker starts back toward mother earth accelerating as the natural braking of the reel (reducing effective spool diameter) takes over.

Simple huh???



Tommy 



lrs said:


> I have an Akios Shuttle, purchased it from Tommy!!!
> I am what you might call an Akios fan.
> I'm still a beginner with long distance casting so I have not seen, or much less used any other distance reel, other than my Akios 65CTM. Tommy did a little work on mine, and beginner or not, I know quality and smootheness when I see it.
> I currently have it on the CP 6-10 13FT rod.
> I have not yet made any measured casts, but I have hit it pretty hard a number of times. With mag set on highest power I have not yet experienced a blowup.
> 
> Once I messed up, and left the mag set at lowest power. I hit hard, and that sinker took off like a rocket. After what I would guess was about 70 yards, the line suddenly and instantly just blew up faster than a stock after I buy it. That was the mother of all bird nests, and I've seen some bird nests. I can't figure out why it went so far, then blew up, doesn't make sense to me. All I could do was get out the scissors.
> 
> I also tried a cast with the mag setting on the 4th click. It blew up instantly, but I think that was due to my own clumsiness.
> Anyhow, I've really enjoyed this reel and this rod reel combination.
> Although I have been fishing since the age of about 1, I've never experienced a reel that has the inherent "feel" this has. The quality is just there.


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## tjbjornsen

"FLUFF-ZING-POW"

Can I use that for my new signature?
;-)

"Simple huh???"

Yeah... Right...
As easy as pie...

But that is absolutely the best explanation I have yet to read on the mechanics of blowups.
Another tip of the hat to Mr. Farmer.


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## lrs

Absolutely.
One way of looking at that cast, is that I did good, except for having the mag inadvertently set incorrect. If I'm understanding this, seems like if you could have the mag knob on the highest setting, ie with the least amount of mag braking, if you hit it right, you might could get away with this, IF you could then get to the dial quickly, and apply more mag braking. On the shuttle, that would mean turning the mag control counterclockwise.
Maybe this would even be ideal, but it would sure be tricky business.


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## Tommy

My mind-hand-eye coordination just isn't that fast... 

The effect is even more noticable on the lighter weights. The 100 and 125 g sinkers take off even faster but slow down even quicker. That is, except, during a strong tailwind. Then all bets are off.

Tommy 



lrs said:


> Absolutely.
> One way of looking at that cast, is that I did good, except for having the mag inadvertently set incorrect. If I'm understanding this, seems like if you could have the mag knob on the highest setting, ie with the least amount of mag braking, if you hit it right, you might could get away with this, IF you could then get to the dial quickly, and apply more mag braking. On the shuttle, that would mean turning the mag control counterclockwise.
> Maybe this would even be ideal, but it would sure be tricky business.


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## lrs

Not a whole lot of time to get your finger on the control knob, before disaster sets in. Having not tried it, it seemed like an idea. Probably not one of my better ones.


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## tjbjornsen

"Having not tried it, it seemed like an idea. Probably not one of my better ones."

I often think the same thing about deciding to finally try this conventional thing a couple of years ago.
If I keep following every shiny object that crosses my path I am going to have to get a second job to support the habit. 
As it is, my first job leaves precious little time for fishing.
But one cast with the Avet or 6500 and all is right with the world!
One Week til the truck gets loaded...
Let the countdown begin!!!


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## lrs

Well you are only on this world once. Each day that passes is one you don't get back. I say go for it.

Today was a good day.
I hit my personal best cast to date.
I was using the Akios Shuttle and the CP 6-10 / 13 ft rod.
My cast measured 612 feet, the first time I have broken 600 feet. 

After some experimentation, I started with the magnet setting on the 5th click. I advanced to 6 or 7, got a light fluff, so I left it alone after that.
My brother measured the distance with a laser range finder.


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## Tommy

Well done Leslie, very well done.



Tommy

ps. I clearly remember breaking the 600' barrier. Man was I excited. So much so that all of my gains went right out the window. It took me at least a month to ever get back there again as my technique went to crap and i found myself trying to muscle it again. Remember, in slow - out fast and keep that left extended.



lrs said:


> Well you are only on this world once. Each day that passes is one you don't get back. I say go for it.
> 
> Today was a good day.
> I hit my personal best cast to date.
> I was using the Akios Shuttle and the CP 6-10 / 13 ft rod.
> My cast measured 612 feet, the first time I have broken 600 feet.
> 
> After some experimentation, I started with the magnet setting on the 5th click. I advanced to 6 or 7, got a light fluff, so I left it alone after that.
> My brother measured the distance with a laser range finder.


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## lrs

Tommy previously wrote:
"The perfect casting reel would start with no braking, applying it as needed to control fluff as the sinker climbs toward the apex, slowing down. It would then quickly roll off the mags as the sinker starts back toward mother earth accelerating as the natural braking of the reel (reducing effective spool diameter) takes over.
Simple huh???"

I'm with you on the first sentence, as far understanding the physics. I'm not sure how feasible it would be to actually try to adjust the magnet knob, or if you could, how much magnetic braking would be needed. I'm guessing an entry level college physics book could devote a couple of chapters to this topic if you dug deep enough. 

But I am not following you on the 2nd sentence.

On the 1 cast I mention, I inadvertently left the mag setting at 12. The weight took off like a rocket, went some distance, then the line on the reel exploded. Too bad about that b/c if the line and the reel could have been managed properly, that cast would have produced some major distance.

I wonder if there is an aftermarket magnet control knob for the Akios. Something longer, and with a larger radius.


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## Tommy

Let me try to clarify.

IHMO the perfect reel would start with zero mags. After the spool gets up to speed and the sinker starts to slow down is where trouble would begin, maybe 1-2 seconds into the cast. The perfect reel (or quick fingered caster) would then apply just enough mag to control the mid cast fluff. Once the sinker passes the apex and starts its decent less braking is required for two reasons.

1 - the sinker picks up speed as it drops back to earth.
2 - the effective diameter of the spool decreases as the line flies off. As this happens (especially noticeable on a 5500 size reel throwing .31 mono) the spool will actually start to accelerate as the sinker is once again pulling line off. Think of the spool like a gear, the smaller the effective diameter becomes, the faster it has to turn to spit out the needed line. This is natural braking.

The reel (or caster) would then roll the mags off completely so as to not slow the spool down during the final part of the cast. 

Most casters, myself included, start with the mags set to give enough control to prevent a blowup during the early to mid part of the cast then "roll off" once you get past the danger zone. I try to keep 2-3 strands lifting during the roll off, letting me know that overbraking is not happening. This works, but does ultimately hurt distance since you don't really need the braking during that first 1-2 seconds. 

I hope this makes sense.

Tommy




lrs said:


> Tommy previously wrote:
> "The perfect casting reel would start with no braking, applying it as needed to control fluff as the sinker climbs toward the apex, slowing down. It would then quickly roll off the mags as the sinker starts back toward mother earth accelerating as the natural braking of the reel (reducing effective spool diameter) takes over.
> Simple huh???"
> 
> I'm with you on the first sentence, as far understanding the physics. I'm not sure how feasible it would be to actually try to adjust the magnet knob, or if you could, how much magnetic braking would be needed. I'm guessing an entry level college physics book could devote a couple of chapters to this topic if you dug deep enough.
> 
> But I am not following you on the 2nd sentence.
> 
> On the 1 cast I mention, I inadvertently left the mag setting at 12. The weight took off like a rocket, went some distance, then the line on the reel exploded. Too bad about that b/c if the line and the reel could have been managed properly, that cast would have produced some major distance.
> 
> I wonder if there is an aftermarket magnet control knob for the Akios. Something longer, and with a larger radius.


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## lrs

I did some trials yesterday just to try to get a feel for this.
Using the Shuttle, I started with mag setting at 4th click, worked up to #7. At 7, it was making a couple of loops, a second after the initial hit. I was able to slowly walk it up to 12, no problem. I can't see the sinker at a distance, so I applied a touch of thumb when it appeared to be slowing, just so I wouldn't have a big wad of line to try to unravel.
I tried it on 8, but about a second after the hit, caused about 5 or so loops, so I turned it back a click or 2. I did not go past 8.
On one cast, I turned the knob back down to 1st click, just to get an idea of the breaking effect. It really put some brakes on, was kind of cool.
I noticed on your Shuttle you actually removed 1 magnet.
Is that hard to do?
Do you feel that gives you some versatility, or makes the reel a bit more manageable, without needing to adjust the knob to a higher number, or some other reason perhaps?
With 3 magnets, do you feel that is sufficient? 
Does it matter how you line up the polarity?


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## Tommy

Leslie,

Not hard really. i just removed the mag carriage and popped the magnet out from the back with a chopstick. For fishing, I'd leave it in. For field work where the wind is to your back 90% of the time it gives a little more speed but still enough to control. IMHO it was just a bit overmagged for field work.

Tommy


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## lrs

I noticed a couple of things on your set up.
1 - You left the bearings dry, then followed up with stating you only recommend this with ceramic or ceramic hybrid bearings. Does the Shuttle come with ceramic bearings?
2 - You elected to remove 1 magnet. What would be the reason for doing this -vs- using all 4 magnets, but simply backing up the mag brakes to a higher setting, say maybe starting the cast on the 5th click or so?


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## Tommy

lrs said:


> I noticed a couple of things on your set up.
> 1 - You left the bearings dry, then followed up with stating you only recommend this with ceramic or ceramic hybrid bearings. Does the Shuttle come with ceramic bearings?
> 
> _*The stock shuttle does not come with ceramic bearings. The one I was sent was a prototype that had seen a few users before me. The bearings appeared to be ceramic hybids, though I am not positive*_
> 
> 2 - You elected to remove 1 magnet. What would be the reason for doing this -vs- using all 4 magnets, but simply backing up the mag brakes to a higher setting, say maybe starting the cast on the 5th click or so?
> 
> _*IMHO the Shuttle was over magged for field work. What this means to me was that I could start with the mags way off and roll off completey very quickly without fluff. The distance was suffering, especially late in the cast due to overbraking. By removing one mag, it allowed me to start with an intitial setting closer to full on and to obtain less braking in the full off position. This gives more control range and ultimately a longer cast*._


Tommy


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## Hudak

lrs said:


> Too bad about that b/c if the line and the reel could have been managed properly, that cast would have produced some major distance.


LOL.... That is not that last time you will say nor hear that very statement. Many, MANY supernatural casts have been thwarted by the pesky zing-pow.


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