XS "Extreme Slickness" Technology

A Perfect 11

Every fly fisherman is looking for a slicker line. And for good reason – slicker line means longer casts, more control and less wear and tear from abrasion and the accumulation of grime. So the how we came up with the XS Technology® is far more interesting than the why.

XS (Extreme Slickness) Technology all began when RIO’s Labcoats began reformulating conventional chemical compounds and material combinations. Although RIO’s formulas continually exceed all others, our scientists are fly fisherpeople, and by definition they want an even slicker fly line, it’s just part of the deal. So first, they tackled the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) coating and through intense scrutiny down to the polymeric mix level, (say that 10 times fast) they defined some fundamental limitations. Out went the old PVC / silicone formula combinations and by methodically adding a little more of this, and a little less of that, the Labcoats cooked up a completely new and improved recipe. Next, using the “excuse” of R&D, they took the lines out and tested them in the harshest (and the best) conditions they could find. They took the experience and some notes, went back to the lab to twiddle a couple of knobs and perfect a couple of proportions. Then (surprise) it was back out for more fishing. Finally, sunburned and fished out, the RIO Labcoats had what they felt to be the perfect polymeric partnership, the most polished fly lines ever developed.How do we know? We measured them.

Instron is an American company that makes ultra-precise measuring instruments for all sorts of industrial applications. These instruments can poke things, prod, freeze, bake, drown, twist, pull, electrify stuff, and take measurements, and we have our very own. They can measure how hard materials are, how they flex, bend, shear, but most importantly for you and us – we’ve developed an infallible and micro-accurate way for it to test friction and tensile strength. This is one of the methods RIO uses to test the slickness of fly lines—the most precise, duplicatable, and consistent measurements being made in the industry. So, naturally we were more than a little curious to evaluate our new XS Technology fly lines on our Instron. Well, quite simply, the line maxed out our machine. That’s right, the line was so smooth, had so little friction, that it actually registered off the scale - if Instron’s rating was 1-10 this line topped out well past ‘10’.With our new XS Technology, RIO has developed a fly line that is slicker, more stable, and far less apt to attract dirt, and paired with our AgentX Technology, it engineers a line that is far less dense. These new fly lines with XS Technology cast further and more accurately, float higher, last longer, and offer more consistent performance cast after cast, strike after strike, fish after fish. Try one and feel the difference.As for the good folks at Instron, The Labcoats have asked them to build us another machine.

One that goes to '11'.

How does RIO do it?

What do nonlinear dynamic deformations, numerical algorithms, non-uniform elastica, and the legendary Serret-Frenet reference frame have to do with fooling fish?

Lots, according to RIO. All the concepts, all the revolutionary tapers, all the passion in the world won’t magically turn out the world's best fly lines – you need the technology to make it happen. (Of course, real life fishing experience is required – you ever try to cast with a slide rule?) Luckily for anyone who knows everything about a caddis fly and nothing about a copolymer, RIO has done the research.

Look no further than our more recent industry-changing technologies—AgentX™ and Super Floatation Technologies™. We've all wanted a higher floating line for a long time but, even as remarkable as our fly lines are, they can’t float without a little technological intervention. Traditionally, getting a line to float has required mixing a bunch of tiny glass balls (cleverly called microspheres) into the soupy coating compound prior to the curing phase. The higher you want your line to float, the more glass balls you must add. But this creates a problem in that the microspheres can create a rougher, microscopically abrasive coating that has less plastisol which results in a structurally weaker fly line that cracks.

So, after years of experimenting with exotic compounds and plenty of waist-deep R&D, our super-smart lab people in the dust-free rooms discovered an element six times more buoyant than those made by our competitors. Six times. But the right element was just the start. It took an “exponential leap” (that’s how the labcoats talk) in rethinking the manufacturing process to put it all together. That is how RIO developed "Fusion Technology" (used in all AgentX and SFT lines). By simultaneously processing this super-buoyant undercoating with a super-smooth outer coating (remember far fewer micropheres) the results are the smoothest, most durable, and highest floating fly lines imaginable.

And we didn’t stop there. If one coating of AgentX is so buoyant, then two coats must be, well, really buoyant. Introducing Super Floatation Technology, a manufacturing technique that allows us to fuse two coatings of AgentX seamlessly. No regular microspheres are used at all in SFT. This specialized process is applied to the front four feet of the fly line, producing a tip with a specific gravity of around 0.65. Compare that to the standard s.g. of 0.88 or so and you get an idea of just how significant this is. You can go look up specific gravity now, but, trust us – 0.65 is incredibly good.

Better yet, go try it for yourself and see how productive fishing with a tip that stays afloat can be.

That's revolutionary.

That’s what technology and passion can do.