Hobie Mirage Dive Lube Mod

Postby shane » 11 Mar 2015, 16:18
I've had a bit of a history of breaking drive parts so was looking at a way to improve it's performance. I'd been trying to source new upgrade Glide Technology parts but eventually got sick of waiting for them to be available. So I've looked around for alternatives to try and improve their longevity and performance. The main issue is lubricating the drives as you need to virtually pull the drive part to properly grease the main shafts, drums and sprockets. Then when you put it back together again most of the grease gets pushed out in the process.

One solution I've seen implemented is to install grease nipples into the drive to allow grease to be injected directly into the moving parts. Grant Ashwell from SWR and others have done this with good reports. I was going to do similar until I came across an evolution of the concept that basically involves drilling very small holes and using a grease needle to inject the grease. I didn't have a grease gun or needle so I bought a small grease injector off ebay, (the type that's mainly used for lubing bicycles). Something as simple as a syringe could probably also do the job. After drilling holes in the appropriate locations and filling the injector with grease I simply needed to pump grease (Inox MX8) until it pushed the old grease out the ends.





I took it for its first run a couple of trips ago. The first few pumps of the pedals were extraordinary . It was almost effortless compared to the drive greased the old way. After an hour or so of pedaling the grease had worked out a bit but it was still a lot smoother than previous. The best thing about this mod is that I can inject more grease into the drive for buttery smooth pedaling at any time without pulling it apart (even mid-trip).

So I'd highly recommend anyone pedaling a Hobie to look into doing this sort of mod. It may not work well with newer drive warranties but I can't see it being a structural issue and it should extend the service life of the drive and associated parts.