finally, a newell handle upgrade

[alantani]

check this out. the offset tapered grip made by my machine shop buddy has been adapted to the newell handle. i received the handles from newell (after waiting a month) and forwarded them to pete last week. this is what he came up with. i do not have prototypes in hand yet, but the photo's look great. it will be nice to finally get a decent handle on the newell.

[East Coast Tackle]

Looks like he copied Area Rule's handles. I hope he doesn't sell them.

[alantani]

actually, it's very similar to avet's handle. it has a 9 degree offset. i actually called avet to ask them about this, and they say that area rule has a patent on anything from 10 degrees up to 20 degrees. by going with a 9 degree offset, avet claims that they were able to avoid patent issues. and i believe this is the same thing that pete did with his handle.

on a side note, i understand that the area rule patent will expire in 2 years. at that time, i would expect many more reel manufacturers to go with an offset handle. it is much more comfortable. the difference is amazing. why is this so important? because the handle is your interface with the reel. i had a bunch made for my reels, and now have them on my tld two speeds, my 4/0 senators and the classic series progears. until recently, they could be adapted to any reel except newell. that just changed!

[Prop Blast]

Could not agree more. I just got a T-Bar Lite in for my "heavy" Penn 113H spooled with 50lb Ande. The difference is tremendous -- can't wait to get it out on the water.

Tom

[alantani]

8 months later and i finally got the prototype stainless steel arms delivered.