Intrepid Elite

[Mark]

My first ever fixed spool reel that I purchased when I was a kid was the Intrepid Elite. I don’t know whatever happened to the reel but I saw this one on Ebay a few years ago and had to buy it.

I'm not sure what year Morritts manufactured them from and to, any info would be appreciated.

[Snape]

They were aimed at the same market as the Mitchell 300 I guess, but nowhere near as good. I picked one up on ebay several years ago but I'm not too keen on it.

[SeanM]

I bought one off Ebay recently for 99p! It didn't work too well and you can see why:



Here are the guts once given a good clean:



You can see why they have a reputation for giving up the ghost under pressure. The small "shoe" on the bottom left follows the groove in the main gear to give the spool oscillation.

Here's the reel ready for closing up.



Make sure that the groove in the main gear is well packed with grease to avoid any notchiness when the shoe crosses the "junction". To postion the shoe in the groove pull or push on the spindle until it drops into place. The anti reverse mechanism is difficult to take apart so I just flushed it with parafin to clear out any grit and old grease.

Next I stripped out the bail arm assembly:



I'd actually replaced the main spring mechanism when I took this picture. The main challenge with this is to get the line roller working properly. To do this you need to bend the bail arm so that there is no tension in it when reassembled and the roller goes squarely into the main spring arm. Each end of the wire should just drop into place without needing any pushing. I used molybdenum grease under the roller. You can also just see 2 tab washers in the lower part of the picture one of these was in place to stop the nut on the end of the bail arm coming undone and I found the other in the the gap between the flier and the reel body! The tab on the washer, if in place will need to be bent open to remove the nut and bent back up one the bail arm is reassembled.

Here's everything back in place and working nicely:



This was a real nostalgia trip for me as I used to own the later version of this reel in the 70s. This earlier version (1962?) has the rather unusual 3 position anti reverse mechanism. It gives anti reverse with click, reverse without click and a centre pin-like reverse with click which might come in useful for a bit of carp or barbel fishing.

The bail arm can be released manually on this reel by pressing in the spring loaded latch. As GOS says, some interesting innovations. I can't understand why the many variations though as all the parts are die cast and the tooling costs to make new dies would have been considerable.

[Mark]

Thank you Sean that was really interesting. My reel also has the 3 position anti reverse mechanism.

[Michael]

I know that this is an old post but.....

As stated there are many variations of the Elite, I`ve just found that this can also includes the three position anti reverse mechanism. I`ve just picked up two Elites, one early model, the second a tad later, both in perfect condition and each has different settings. At some stage I`ll check those with others in the collection to see if I can find another variations.

[Mark]

I know that this is an old post but.....

As stated there are many variations of the Elite, I`ve just found that this can also includes the three position anti reverse mechanism. I`ve just picked up two Elites, one early model, the second a tad later, both in perfect condition and each has different settings. At some stage I`ll check those with others in the collection to see if I can find another variations.

Thanks Merlot and don't worry about opening an old post. :thumb:

[Beresford]

My first reel was an Intrepid Black Prince you had to crank it fast enough to ensure the bail arm hit the stem to flick it closed and in the process removed a little more paint rendering the reel closer to being a Silver Prince. I wonder if there is a BP anywhere that has no paint wear?

My second reel was an Elite and it literally melted playing a hard fighting Irish pike in a Gale on loch Conn. The reel fused together. I never liked it but I seem to remember although it was about £5 and double the price of the Prince it was still a budget reel. My prince was £2.65 from Gallions in Cambridge, down by the Round Church and bought on March 8 1975. I have just checked an online calendar and I was right, March 8 was the first Saturday in the month! This stuff must have been so important to me to have remembered it. Even when these Intrepids were new I thought they were 'not very good'.

[Michael]

I`ve got to admit I like the Elites. Firstly from the fact that I started using one in the early sixties as a child, but mainly because it had a few rather good features, ahead of other reels.
a) Camatic action, which distributed the line over the full width of the spool and prevented line bedding in.
b) Tru play check or anti reverse three stage mechanism.
c) The first proper bail arm roller.
d) The bail arm release lever, that allowed the bail arm to be collapsed in transport.
Anyway the problems started when Intrepid started with poor production, including inferior parts in the reel, plastic gearings, and cast metal parts. Quality control, what’s that?
But here’s the thing, in all the years I`ve used them, some 48 odd years, the only major problem I`ve had, was dropping one or two on concrete and watching them shatter. I`ve had oodles of carp, up to a tad over 30, the odd pike and have never stripped the gears or melted them (though I`ve heard it many times), maybe as I played off the clutch and never allowed to back wound.
It was a very good, nay bloody good innovative design, let down by poor production. Anyway I`ve a soft spot for them, that is the early models, not the later models, which I agree were very dodgy…..
And did not Mr Walker have an input in the originaldesign?

[Weyfarer]

The other very useful innovation was the circle of chenille inlaid around the spool's circumference so preventing line straying behind the spool. I also liked the fold-away handle mechanism.

Mark asked: "I'm not sure what year Morritts manufactured them from and to, any info would be appreciated."

It would seem somewhen between 1960 & 68

http://www.intrepidreel.com/home.html

Here's one of mine in action:

[Mark]

What a lovely picture Weyfarer, it does look nice attached to that cane rod and thanks for the info on the manufacturing years.