A few DIY parts for V2 Hobie Mirage drive

What about using dyneema to connect the chain to the drum, and avoid the SS cable all together?

I got the lowest stretch rope available at West Marine (claimed 0.7% stretch, which over the 6 inches needed is negligible), and I tried both knots and hog rings. I could not get it to work. It's conceivable that it might work, but I think you'd have to re-tighten it several times to get the tension needed, and with pure spectra/dyneema, even the slightest friction point is going to wear through pretty fast.

Tested out the cable today, pedaling around the harbor for about an hour. Worked great, and no sign of stretch or any other problem. A couple of pitchers, and a short video too.

Note the sexy legs. And, yes, I was attacked by wolverines...

https://youtube.com/shorts/cXkaOleZg8o?feature=share

Nice work!  Definitely curious about your long term with this - I think it will last longer than the factory cables. 

Nice work!  Definitely curious about your long term with this - I think it will last longer than the factory cables.

After carful measurement, I think that the ferrule will slide past that slot at the top of the drum when the ferrule is properly crimped. I've ordered a highly rated crimping tool, and I'm going to setup my main drive with these cables. I also suspect that they'll be at least as durable as the Hobie cables. I plan to put then to the test...

Ive always though those wolverines look like they are humping 

I got Covid about 2 weeks ago, and took a round of Paxlovid, which seemed borderline miraculous at first (other than the incredibly horrible taste in my mouth). But it's been up-and-down for the past several days... definitely, some rebound effect.

Anyways, I'd ordered stainless #35 chain, which is what is used on the Mirage drive. When I received it, I got the crazy idea of eliminating the cable, and this is what I came up with. I used a couple of connecting links to connect to the bolts, but for the "twist", I just pressed the broken chain links back together (not sure if that is entirely kosher...).

On the positive side of the ledger, no more broken cable to worry about, ever!

On the negative side of the ledger, it can easily slip off of the drum, but that will be trivial to prevent by simply inserting a screw/bolt between a couple of the links near the top. A potentially more serious issue is that if I use this to replace the front chain/cable, it looks like it'll rub on idler cable/bungee. I'm going to have to cogitate on that...

What about the cost? Based on current Amazon prices, the cable costs $4.125/foot and the connector links are $1.285 each. It requires about 15" of chain, so let's round up to 16". From memory, the bolt/nut pair is about $1.25 each. So, the total cost as shown is about 5.5 + 2.57 + 2.5 = $10.57. If you want to use connector links for the chain twist, that would require 4 more of them, which would add $5.14 to the cost.

I'll test it out eventually...

that looks absolutely amazing!   

Reversing the chain is a brilliant idea. Simple solution to cable elimination and you will not break that!

Dang dude, that looks legit!  Great idea!

That looks awesome. Match that with the metal sprockets and it should be bombproof.

Cheers,
Brad

Can you epoxy some kind of hard plastic shield around the drum edge to act as a stop or bumper just in case the cable begins to slip?

Can you epoxy some kind of hard plastic shield around the drum edge to act as a stop or bumper just in case the cable begins to slip?

A stainless fender washer will keep it in place. If it makes any noise when pedaling, I'll replace the stainless washer with nylon.

I'm going to replace the other cable today and hope to test it out tomorrow or Monday. It doesn't look like the idler cable/bungee will play nice with this, though...

Thanks for sharing NM.

Thanks for sharing NM.

You're welcome!

Here it is with both chains. I couldn't figure out how to get the idler cable to work, so that might be an issue. Anyways, hoping to test drive it in the SC harbor tomorrow. Been down with Covid for the last couple of weeks--finally getting back close enough to normal for a little on-the-water pedaling, but not yet back to normal-enough for hours of fishing...

A quick update on the cable-less Mirage drive chains...

I took it out for a test drive the other day, but it was making a bit of noise, and I decided that was because the "twist" was in the wrong place. So, I redid the chains and tested it again today. In an hour pedaling around the harbor, it seemed to work well.

I think I will replace the recycled links that I used to make the "twist" with actual quick-connector links, as that should truly make it really bomb-proof. That requires 6 connector links per chain, but they aren't too pricey...

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/38sRPHBfuHk