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Topic: DIY Stainless Steel Mirage Drive Pedal Shafts  (Read 43364 times)

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Great Bass 2

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Well I kind of blew off this thread http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=45160.msg504715#msg504715 but when Etienne told me he broke a pedal shaft in less than 1 year and Keith said he also broke one, I did some research. What I found was that this is a problem with the hollow pedal shaft V2 Mirage drive. The V1 Mirage drive had a solid aluminum pedal shaft and had almost no failures. You can still buy the V1 pedal shafts but you will be in $60 for a pair and they are aluminum. I go way offshore and it would be a nightmare to have the wind die and have a Mirage drive failure. I bought some stainless steel tubing from online metals for about $10 and $40 in drill bits and now have stainless steel pedal shafts which I have complete confidence in. I was talking to Chuck at at the ISE and he said "no big deal, just drill some holes"  :smt005 :smt005, actually with a hand held drill it was a bitch and took me 5 hours to complete the project.  :smt013 :smt013 For the other saltwater big game hunters, this is something you want to do. It is not corrosion, it is metal fatigue. Your pedal shafts will fail, it is only a matter of time.
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Salty.

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nice work Scott!  what are the v2 shafts made of?


Great Bass 2

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nice work Scott!  what are the v2 shafts made of?

They are aluminum. Thick too, but not thick enough. Ill post up some pictures. On the Hobie site, someone analyzed the metal and found it would only take 100# of pressure to make it begin to fail. If you peddle hard like Rob and Etienne, it isn't hard to break them. Doesn't seem to matter about the hull/drag, failures occur across all hull types. I peddle really hard too but haven't broke one but didn't want to risk a trip to the Soquel Hole and have a mechanical failure. The SS is good looking too.
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Salty.

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That's cool. if you could throw up a link with the specifications of the stainless that you got it would be much appreciated!


polepole

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If you do the math on the V1 vs. the V2, the solid V1 is only 25% stronger.  A mechanical engineer on NWKA did the math.  Going to stainless is getting you the biggest improvement if you chose the correct stainless.  Which exact stainless alloy did you get Scott?  There are some aluminum alloys that are stronger than some stainless steel alloys.

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Great Bass 2

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If you do the math on the V1 vs. the V2, the solid V1 is only 25% stronger.  A mechanical engineer on NWKA did the math.  Going to stainless is getting you the biggest improvement if you chose the correct stainless.  Which exact stainless alloy did you get Scott?  There are some aluminum alloys that are stronger than some stainless steel alloys.

-Allen

I used T-308 stainless steel. I also bought a pair of solid aircraft grade aluminum bars which is stronger than steel. When you buy aluminum it doesn't come anodized so corrosion will be a concern.  http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?pid=524&step=4&showunits=inches&id=22&top_cat=1
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charles

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I think that "only 25%" stronger refers to a test between solid and tube aluminum drive shafts when both are new. The drive pin hole will wear faster in hollow aluminum than in solid and thus over time the solid metal will be stronger than 25%. If I were to go the SS route I would look into solid not tube SS. I suspect that solid aircraft grade aluminum is stronger than hollow tube SS of the same dimensions. The main obstacle to solid SS is cutting threads in the stuff for pedals unless one has some pretty good machine equipment.
Charles


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Yeah, I would hold off doing what I did until I stress test the shafts.
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Nicely done there Scott. Something to think about having for sure, like you said, it is a matter of time.

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polepole

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I think that "only 25%" stronger refers to a test between solid and tube aluminum drive shafts when both are new. The drive pin hole will wear faster in hollow aluminum than in solid and thus over time the solid metal will be stronger than 25%. If I were to go the SS route I would look into solid not tube SS. I suspect that solid aircraft grade aluminum is stronger than hollow tube SS of the same dimensions. The main obstacle to solid SS is cutting threads in the stuff for pedals unless one has some pretty good machine equipment.

Yeah, it's the hole that is the weak link.  I think I saw where someone used a u-bolt in an emergency repair.  It's a concept worth exploring, in order to not have a hole.

-Allen


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Here is a how to do it.

http://www.vyak.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16203

I have not found any reports on the V1 pedal shaft breaking only V2. So the easiest thing is to buy a set of V1 shafts. Drilling the holes wasn't easy or fun.
« Last Edit: January 13, 2014, 11:22:36 AM by Great Bass 2 »
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Archie Marx

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This is probably the first thing I will do when I get my revo 13.  Back when I used to ride my bike, I used to crack a bottom bracket every 3 months or so :smt009.
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charles

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OK. I posted my first attempt to build my own drive shafts a few months back. I used tube wall aluminum which turned out to be inadequate so I decided to just buy a set of threaded for bike pedal solid shafts from Hobie. The reason I am revisiting this topic is that SS has been brought up and in my first experiments to make a threaded for bike pedal shaft I took some old bike crank arms, cut then down to a proper size, drilled a couple holes through the crank arms and shafts, and bolted arms to shafts. That part worked great and would also be a way to set up solid (3/3x3/4) SS with pedals without having to thread solid SS. This system does mean a change from stock Hobie plastic pedals to bike pedals. A definite upgrade in my opinion.

Hope the pic comes through.
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Thanks for the info Scott, will be looking into making a set for my self…. better safe then sorry.

PatR


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what about filling the tube with something to make them solid? not sure what that would be but i wonder if that would be a less expensive/labor intensive process
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