Hobie Mirage drive

[billvon 2,995]

Has anyone else gotten a chance to use the Hobie Mirage drive? It’s a pedal powered propulsion system for a kayak. It’s hard to explain how it works in text (you have to see it in action) but it works _very_ well. I got a chance to try one out on a few boats this weekend while I was up in Oregon for the eclipse. It even has a reverse gear.

Hobie now has a small trimaran sailboat (the Tandem Island) that weighs 240 lbs; it has one of these drives in it as well. At first I thought it was sort of pointless (how fast are you going to move a boat that weighs 500+ lbs with everyone on board by pedaling it?) but I can see how it would work now. At my 1 minute speed (i.e. the max I can put out for 1 minute) I was leaving a pretty significant wake in a tandem kayak by myself.

[ryoder 1,590]

Now this is fuggin' weird!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD6OQhCeXqs

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[gowlerk 2,198]

Quote

It’s hard to explain how it works in text (you have to see it in action) but it works _very_ well.

https://www.hobie.com/miragedrive/


Watch the video on this page. The mechanism looks a little complicated and possibly not that sturdy. But it does seem effective.

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[BartsDaddy 7]

billvon

Has anyone else gotten a chance to use the Hobie Mirage drive? It’s a pedal powered propulsion system for a kayak. It’s hard to explain how it works in text (you have to see it in action) but it works _very_ well. I got a chance to try one out on a few boats this weekend while I was up in Oregon for the eclipse. It even has a reverse gear.

Hobie now has a small trimaran sailboat (the Tandem Island) that weighs 240 lbs; it has one of these drives in it as well. At first I thought it was sort of pointless (how fast are you going to move a boat that weighs 500+ lbs with everyone on board by pedaling it?) but I can see how it would work now. At my 1 minute speed (i.e. the max I can put out for 1 minute) I was leaving a pretty significant wake in a tandem kayak by myself.

It works great, until you get into the kelp. Then it may as well be an anchor.

Handguns are only used to fight your way to a good rifle

[billvon 2,995]

>The mechanism looks a little complicated and possibly not that sturdy.

The mechanism looks very complicated in person. But it's engineered quite well, and even the reversing mechanism (which looks impossible when you see what it does) feels pretty strong.

Still, if you got a tandem version of one of these things, you'd probably want to keep a spare drive. They snap in and out in about two seconds.