Quick question on Recoil titanium guides. Originally intended to use the SIC guides for a 'pack' rod to be used when travelling. However, the guides protude quite bit and we want to use the smallest protective tube possible. In a recent Cabela's catalog, their high end rod now use Recoil guides and they have a photo showing the guide bent forward flush against the blank.

Question: Can I indeed use the recoil guides and then when storing, simply push it in a small diameter rod tube so that the guide will simply bend forward and allow the rod to fit into a smaller tube? This will allow smaller packing tubes. Obviously the guide will be in this bent position repeatedly and for long periods of time.

Those of you who have tried the recoil guides, is this possible or will it damage the walls of the blank?

Thanks in advance for any comments,
Mo

the recoil guides will probably sit lower on the rod and give you a little more room. i don't think they were designed to be bent flat over and over again. eventually even titanium might fatigue. the fact that they bend is a nice feature but i would not push it.

The NiTi alloy will give you about 10Million cycles at a small bend before any fatigue starts.
Bending about 20deg (from initial position) you'll get about 1 Million cycles before fatigue starts.

As for damaging the blank, If you bend the guide far forward there would be some force on the blank in a small spot, I would not store it like this.
But if you bend it backwards all the force would be distributed over the length of the foot, and with a force that small I would not worry about it.

So I guess bottom line: If they are bending a small amount don't sweat it. If they are bending forward a large amount I would not store it for long periods like that.

Christian

Mo,

It doesn't sound like a good idea to me! I have done repairs on two rods where the Recoil single foot guide has failed because the customer had to show each of his friends how they worked and they eventually broke. In addition, the force caused by bending the guide may cause extra stress on the blank. Since you plan to store the rod in this fashion, the force over time may be enough to cause blank or thread damage. I like the Recoil snake guides but I believe they would suffer under such strain and eventually take a set in that shape. Realistically, how much room will you be saving by going down in tube size? .25" or so? Can you actually buy a tube in the size you are planning to use?

Dan Craft
Dan Craft Enterprises

Mo. You actually don't have a problem unless you are talking spinning. You can easily fit a pack rod into a 1" thin wall PVC tube. The grip needs to be no bigger than 1" and the other sections will sit in front of the grip in the tube, as long as your biggest stripping guide will also fit. A size 10 is not a problem. If you are talking a spinning rod, I built one for a backpacking friend and used the biggest guide I could, but placed it a bit farther away from the grip than I would have placed a bigger guide. You lose some performance with the smaller guides, but it still works fine. Total weight for rod, reel, and tube was 1 lb.

Thanks to all who replied. Very helpful. Yes, for spin rod. 1" tube would be awesome if at all possible.

Mo

I used the recoils on a pack fly rod last year. IMO they are not intended to be stored flat. In fact you need some force just to bend them down. I used them for several reason including the possibility of the guides beat up and tossed around in a smaller tube. I guess the best way to describe there concept is the break away mirrors on your vehicle. They are going to flex when hit.