Question Regarding Intrepid Elite Variations

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Stingray
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Re: Question Regarding Intrepid Elite Variations

Post by Stingray »

Chas wrote: Version 6: Generally as above but with flattened winding handle as photo and what appears to be a chrome finish to bright-work.
The paddle type knob seen in your pic was (with slight variations) standard to the new Intrepids - if the handle is original then this supports it being a very late Elite but if it is not the original handle (which we can't know) then it could be a red herring.

:fish:

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Re: Question Regarding Intrepid Elite Variations

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Chas wrote:OK, If the glossy finished one I'm holding in my hand at present isn't "lower actual quality" (but it looks pretty rough to me), it would certainly have made me want to buy a Mitchell 300 or ABU. My reasoning would be if they took that little care of the outside, why would I think they would take more care of the internal mechanism?
Your reasoning is a very reasonable buyer's tackle shop counter analysis and may indeed have been a deal breaker for some but actually tells us nowt about the internals.

PS. Price, of course, was the main reason people back then didn't buy Mitchells and Abus - if we could go back in time I would suggest something like a Japanese made Columbian reel as an excellent value alternative to the Elite.

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Chas
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Re: Question Regarding Intrepid Elite Variations

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Hi Paul

Firstly, lets get one thing straight I'm absolutely positively no authority on Intrepid Elites and don't want to be.

I bought one a couple of weeks ago for £4.95 just for old time's sake even if just to "put on the shelf" as I had one about fifty years ago when I was a kid. After a good clean and lube this first Intrepid Elite worked perfectly and ended up in about as good condition as my original one would have been after I'd had it a couple of weeks. However, mine was missing the plastic cap that went over the drive shaft opposite the handle and I didn't get a spare spool so I bought another for 99pence just for spares. The second one was different, not a problem but that was where my enquiring started.

Yes, yours is what I understand to be the first version and this ties up with a picture in some Intrepid Literature (I think posted on this forum) which I believe is dated 1961.

Tell me because I can't quite ascertain from your photo; is your bright-work in a chrome or satin aluminium finish? My previously posted thoughts on bright-work materials could also be a red herring and not related to production dates. Possibly, Intrepid were buying such items in from outside suppliers, that wouldn't be unusual, and although the bright chrome probably looked fine at the time, the same thing happened to E Type Jag door handles over relatively short periods of time. Maybe I'm wrong on this but my thoughts are based on not yet having seen satin aluminium bright-work that does look pitted or chrome bright-work that does not look pitted.

Cheers

Chas

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Re: Question Regarding Intrepid Elite Variations

Post by Chas »

Hi Stingray

"Your reasoning is a very reasonable buyer's tackle shop counter analysis and may indeed have been a deal breaker for some but actually tells us nowt about the internals."
OK, strictly speaking quality of external finish does tell us "nowt" about the internals but it tells chapter and verse about the ethos of the person / organisation who made the product and deemed it fit to be sold to the public. In addition to poor quality finish, my latest one has poor quality castings (poor edges and pits) and a poor quality paint job. That doesn't sound like good quality control to me.

I fished keenly up to the age of about fourteen with an Intrepid Elite then had a layoff for a while (probably discovered girls and music). I started again in around 1972 when I had a car and could travel further afield to fish. By that time I think the top Intrepids were about £5.00 but were considered as cheap boy's reels. Mitchell 300s were about £8.00 at that time and were the reels to have. You see people like Fred J Taylor using Intrepid Elites in 1960s angling books but after that, it's all Mitchell 300s, at least through the 1970s.

Cheers

Chas

Paul D

Re: Question Regarding Intrepid Elite Variations

Post by Paul D »

Chas,
Thanks for the added info, mine has chrome brightwork..... with no pitting!
About the only criticism I have is that the three position lever is a little notchy.
I only bought mine because SK posted his brace, fine reel in my opinion.
Regards Paul :Hat:

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Chas
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Re: Question Regarding Intrepid Elite Variations

Post by Chas »

Hi Paul

OK, chrome bright-work and in good condition. They obviously didn't all get pitted but yours could have had a very easy life (as I suspect that many of the survivors did that are still in good condition)

I can't get the anti reverse / check lever to work on my second version properly and that may be the same mechanism as your first version. That mechanism is slightly different on my other one but that works fine. KP Morritt probably changed the anti reverse mechanism to improve a slightly flawed original design.

I think Intrepid reels, particularly the Elite and Surfcast were nice and very highly regarded in the 1960s but the plastic gears were fragile. I'd stripped the gears on mine by the end and that was a big part of the decision to buy Mitchell 300s. I'm pleased with my new one but I'm only going to use it for lighter fishing. I don't yet know if the metal gears are readily interchangeable with the nylon ones.

Cheers

Chas

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Re: Question Regarding Intrepid Elite Variations

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Chas wrote:Hi Stingray
I fished keenly up to the age of about fourteen with an Intrepid Elite then had a layoff for a while (probably discovered girls and music). I started again in around 1972 when I had a car and could travel further afield to fish. By that time I think the top Intrepids were about £5.00 but were considered as cheap boy's reels. Mitchell 300s were about £8.00 at that time and were the reels to have. You see people like Fred J Taylor using Intrepid Elites in 1960s angling books but after that, it's all Mitchell 300s, at least through the 1970s.
This may be fun to read (1962 price list) -

Image

The only person I knew who had a Mitchell 300 was my mate's dad and his wife didn't speak to him for a week after he bought it.

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Re: Question Regarding Intrepid Elite Variations

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Chas wrote: I don't yet know if the metal gears are readily interchangeable with the nylon ones.
Chas

On the Surfcast the metal gear was thinner and Morritt had to glue in a little metal packing piece on to make it fit the housing snuggly enough (which proves that the plastic came first as it would not have happened the other way around) - not sure if this applies to the smaller gear of the Elite though as I've never checked - the metal should be thinner than the plastic but that may be less of an issue as it is smaller than the Surfcast.

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Re: Question Regarding Intrepid Elite Variations

Post by Chas »

Hi Stingray

The 1962 prices are interesting and I didn't realise that The Ambidex reels cost so much.

Without converting exactly, 78s/9d for the Elite would have been nearly £4.00 and the 139s/6d would have been nearly £7.00 so not a million miles from the £5 and £8 that I remembered from ten years later. Mind you to compensate for inflation, you wouldn't be far out calling the 1960s shillings, pounds to get todays equivalent price.

Perhaps that why my missus got the hump when I bought a new Tatler V, caught one shark on it, decided it was complete and utter rubbish then shelled out on a Penn International 50.

No dispute or doubt about the nylon gears coming first, beautiful and smooth until they break. In my mind, changing to the metal gear (like everyone else used) wasn't necessarily a design improvement but a rectification of a design defect.

Cheers

Chas

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Re: Question Regarding Intrepid Elite Variations

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Chas wrote:In my mind, changing to the metal gear (like everyone else used) wasn't necessarily a design improvement but a rectification of a design defect.
With hindsight I can only agree with you but they did rectify it which to me shows some consientiousness on their part plus a desire to improve (which is somewhat at odds with a slipping standards narrative). Now here's something that should have never got past the testing stage - one of my pair of Intrepid Supremes has, in addition to the normal nylon gear, a nylon anti-reverse pawl - the combination well spongy.

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