For fly rods I like single foot wire guides for 5 weight and lower, snakes for seven weight and higher. I have only used light wire on two and three weights. What would be the disadvantages of using light wire single foot on a five weight, or light wire snakes on an eight weight?

Greg

Greg, I have used light weight single foot guides on rods up to 6wt without any problems. I have also used standard weight single foots on a couple of 7 and 8 weight rods without any issues too. The only issue I could see with with single foot guides on 7 weight and higher, maybe a max of a 9wt weight would be if you were fishing where ice on the guides could cause you to knock one loose when removing the ice or a knot connection could get hung up on a large fish while making a run and knock the guide loose. The 8wt that I have single foots on has tackled carp, pike, and stripped bass without any problems with guide failure. Carp can put one heck of bend in an 8wt. I have never used light weight double foot guides on anything so I cannot offer any experience on them. Several of the heavy 9wt and higher rods all have standard double foot guides on them.

Greg,
I've used light wire single foot recoils for the upper guides up to and including 8 weights.
I drop to double foots for the guides after the top three or four guides.
The rod tip can only exert so much tension on the guide.
The only place I can see using std wire guides for the tip is for salt water use where tippet size is normally larger and you don't know what might hit.

Eugene Moore

That's right, the tip is pointed right down the line when you're fighting a fish. No disadvantage to using light wire guides there. Thanks for pointing that out.

I've kind of followed Sage's lead on thin wire guides and used them on 6 wt and lighter freshwater rods and not at all on saltwater rods.

Spencer's conclusion sounds reasonable. Sage sells rods, not components.