Your answer to what it cost vs. new purchase reminded me of ukulele entertainer Ralph Shaw's tune "How to Build a Ukulele Case". See 3:57 in this video:

You did a great job and the orange fenders are a nice touch!  And it kept you out of more serious trouble while you did it!

Great video, which exactly fits the situation.

Coincidentally, I was just in the local metal store today, and they have a bunch of 2" square aluminum tubing in their scrap bin that is exactly what I'd need to build another one, and it's super-duper-cheap. So tempted to get it jsut to prove that I can actually build one on the cheap(ish)...

Quote from: NowhereMan

it's certainly possible to troll while paddling.

   Some of you pedal dudes crack me up!  To even insinuate that trolling is any kind of challenge while paddling is ridiculous.

To my chagrin, it's so often the case that the general public is surprised to hear that paddlers are able to easily troll their offerings, so to read this on a kayak fishing site is mind-blowing.

Carry on.

Most of us pedal dudes have paddled quite a bit too, although the converse is not always the case.

Just my opinion, of course, but I find it easier to troll when pedaling (no peddling involved), both in the sense of getting started without tangling the line, and in the sense of covering more ground with less effort. Sailing takes it to another level entirely--do I need to add a disclaimer that this is just my opinion too?

Today

I think I'll listen to you, in spite of your protestations...

Happy turkey/crab/whatever day!

I've never tried cooking one myself, but I ate quite a few during the decade that I lived in MA and MD. The closest that we do now is Chinese hotpot (my wife is Taiwanese).

In any case, I think it should definitely be do-able, and I'm interested to see what the experts here have to say...

Seems to be working perfectly with the V2 drive. I still need to do a bit more testing with the GT drive before I can declare victory...

https://youtube.com/shorts/sKxXDdPPQHk

A quick update...

I noticed that my "twisted chain" had one extra link on the part that goes over the chainring (as compared to the standard Hobie chain/cable), so I removed that. It is now possible to adjust it to eliminate the popping noise, although it still needs to be a little tighter than I'd prefer. Due to the shorter overall length, I've got to get longer eye bolts to test it more thoroughly--I've ordered them and will update once I've done the additional testing.

In addition, I have figured out exactly where the problem arises. When pedaling with force, all of the slack in the system accumulates in the front chain, on the side with the "up" fin in front (same side as the pedal that you are pushing on). It is fairly easy to mimic this: If you put the mirage drive flat on the floor with the fins out to the side, and put pressure on the pedal that's to the rear, you'll see where the slack in the chain appears.

The upshot is that the rear chain is never a problem, so it looks like it'll always be possible to use my indestructible no-cable chain to replace the rear-side Hobie cable-chain. So, even in the worst case, I'll only need to buy 1/2 as many expensive chains from Hobie.

Anyways, I should get a chance sometime next week to test it enough to give the final word on this mod...