When you get good reel, you don't really need to upgrade bearings. When you get dirt cheap reel, upgrading bearings won't help you either. It's kind of middle of the road performance reels that if you super tune them, you can get more performance out of them without having to buy the expensive reel. The easiest way to get more performance out of your reel is to simply clean out the old factory grease from the bearings and put something like hot sauce oil in it.