Mirage Drive Breakage Issues

Hi all,

I used to have a kick-up drive with turbo fins and never had anything break on it. It has since been stolen, and I replaced it with a v2 and a GT (to ensure at least one works all the time). Both are upgraded to turbo fins. Between the two, I've broken more than 10 turbo masts, snapped 3 chains, broke an idler pulley, and snapped off 3 pedals. I kayak in a large body of salt water, often covering >15 miles in a day and sometimes hitting a little over 5 mph in a Mirage Compass--which is the likely cause of all the breakage.

A couple of questions:
Which drive is the least likely to snap a mast/pedal? Have drives gotten stronger with time?
Given the distance I cover and speed, could I expect fewer breakages with a more streamlined kayak like the Revo 13?
Do I just need to slow down? It's tough when the fish are biting, and I want to get there quickly...

I'm really tempted to upgrade to a Revo 13 with a more updated drive but wanted to make sure that would likely resolve the breakage issues before dropping that kind of money.

Quite a few years ago some owners of Mirage Drive kayaks complained about repeatedly breaking pedal arms. The problems were significant enough that a member of the Northwest Kayak Anglers Forum produced some solid aluminum pedal arms and sold them to members of the forum. Although I had never broken a pedal arm, I bought a pair of the solid aluminum arms, and have used them ever since on my Revolution with turbo fins. I haven't broken any of the replacement arms, either. I suggest that you join the NWKA forum and repeat your questions there. The guy who produced the solid pedal arms may still have some available, or somebody who bought them may offer to sell you theirs. Or you may be able to locate the producer of the arms by doing a search on the NWKA forum.

I haven't heard any recent reports of people breaking pedal arms, and assume the reason is because Hobie improved the strength of the pedal arms on current versions of the Mirage Drive. You could do a search on this forum, the Northern California Kakak Anglers Forum, the Northwest Kayak Anglers Forum, and other kayak anglers forums around the country, but I suspect that you aren't going to find many reports of people breaking the pedal arms or pedal shafts on current versions of the Mirage Drive. So another option is to buy a current version of the Mirage Drive. Which would be a good investment for you, considering the expense and hassle of the repeated breakages which you have been experiencing with your old drives.

It surprises me that you are breaking so many pedal arms and pedal shafts, and I wonder if your high breakage rate is the result of your pedaling technique. Are you pushing hard on both pedals at once when pedaling, or to say it another way, are you failing to release pressure on each pedal during the backward portion of the pedal cycle? If you are slamming your fins into the bottom of your kayak with each stroke, or occasionally, then adjusting the length of your stroke so your fins don't whack the bottom of your kayak might reduce your breakage rate.

Another pedaling technique issue is the speed and frequency of your pedal strokes. By observing the kayak speed shown by the GPS features of my fish finder, I have discovered that long slow pedal strokes produce higher kayak speeds, and feel like less work. When I'm not thinking I tend to hammer my pedals with short quick strokes, and I have to remind myself that long slow strokes are more efficient and produce higher speed.

Are you breaking turbo masts by hitting the bottom, or merely by pedaling hard? If you're breaking them by hitting the bottom, that is operator error, and you should consider pulling out your drive and paddling when you come to shallow water. I've never heard of anybody breaking turbo masts just by pedaling hard.

Another issue to consider is hull speed. Each displacement hull kayak has a maximum hull speed which is determined by the length of the hull and other aspects of the design of the hull. Do an internet search for hull speed. In a pedal or paddle kayak you can cruise along pretty easily at say 80 percent of the hull speed, but squeezing out the last 20 percent of the hull speed takes a lot more effort. And eventually no matter how hard you try, the kayak won't go any faster. So consider backing off your speed just a bit from your maximum speed. It'll be a lot less work, and you'll get where you're going almost as fast.

Thanks for the thorough answer, pmmpete!

I never hit bottom. I typically kayak in 100+ foot deep water. All mast breakages were during open water from pedaling. A lot of the time, I'm trolling for Coho salmon at around 4 mph with an 11" flasher board and 4lb downrigger ball deployed. When a fish takes, I accelerate to set the hook. I've had at least 3 masts break during the acceleration and probably another 5 break while trying to get a bite by slowing down and then quickly speeding up. The rest of the time, it's pretty random--trying to get to a spot quickly, fighting a strong current, a little too much coffee...

I definitely do get a gurgling sound when cruising (not trolling), which I suspect means that it's close to the boat's max speed. From your reply, it sounds like my suspicion that newer drives are probably a bit stronger is correct. I actually used to cover a lot more distance with the kick-up pedals and never had any issues. So, all this does seem to support the idea that I would be better off with a more streamlined kayak and updated drive.

I will also try to be better about the pedaling techniques that you suggested. I'm still reluctant to commit to slowing down, though

I have a 13' Revolution, and it is a pretty fast kayak. But because it sounds like you tend to do high milage and high speed days, perhaps you should look for a 16' Revolution. 2020 was the last year that Hobie made the 16' Revolution, so if you can't find a 16' Revolution languishing in some dealer's inventory, you'd need to buy a used one.

A disadvantage of the 13' and 16' Revolution is that they don't come with gear tracks, and they have narrow gunwales which are harder to outfit for kayak fishing than kayaks such as the Outback. For a description of how I outfitted my Revolution for downrigger trolling, see my post at https://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/i ... #msg138905.

Must be slapping barely sunken items or your own hull? I would wear a video camera to monitor your pedal style in heat of the moment.

It just sounds crazy that you would even bend let alone break those mighty masts just from water resistance. If so, you can loosen the fin tension on some drives via set screw. This has been touted here as giving higher top speed when measured, altho seems to me would only assist acceleration.

I only bent a mast from hitting bottom or an underwater mooring line. I learned not to pedal like a caveman after noticing it would distort the front of my drive well (inflatable).

Thanks for information. I have some money.

_________________
Make Money Online

As someone who works in a Hobie dealership, and has done for over a decade, I can safely tell you that the current GT KU Drive is by far the toughest and best performing Miragedrive. Haven't seen a single thing break on one of these yet. We wrote an article comparing it to the MD180 drive on our website to help customers make a good decision on drive selection. You can find that here: https://slhobie.com.au/miragedrive-gt-ku-vs-md180-ku/

_________________
Kayak Fishing Specialist: SLH
https://slhobie.com.au