UPDATEHobie replaced the entire hiking stick under warranty as I thought they would.
It seems identical to the one I broke so time will tell whether the break was a one off or if the stainless cable tendon is problematic.
As no-one else has reported any cable breaks it may have been an anomaly?
Aside from the chance of the cable breaking I still don't like how the tiller knob has to be removed each time you fit the hiking stick. So I went ahead and made a couple of other hiking sticks using the tendons I had previously purchased.
Top -Hobie hiking stick,
Middle -aluminium tube stick with golf club grip
Lower -cut down carbon fibre fishing rod
Left -fishing rod with Riley tendon, secured with self tappers and heat shrink. (38mm chair tip slides over knob to lock tendon)
Middle -aluminium tube with Ronstan tendon secured with S/S pin and heat shrink (all as supplied in Ronstan kit)
Both of these are easy to replace in the field.
Right -Hobie stick with S/S cable tendon and brake (?) hose secured with rivet making field replacement difficult. As Hobie replaced the entire stick I'm guessing there is no spare part for the S/S cable?
I added some glue-lined heatshrink for strength to the tiller knob mod mentioned earlier in this post
My favorite stick on the TI is the fishing rod.
It is easy to fit/remove:
-slide tendon into tiller knob
-lower 38mm chair leg tip over tiller knob to lock it in place
This stick is so light it remains suspended, making it easy to grab or leave in place if the wind dies and you have to pedal from the back seat. You can steer without having to remove it
On the AI which gets a lot of use as a kayak I prefer the 'bolt on' Ronstan base tiller knob
Whilst it looks a bit bulky it's actually quite comfortable to hold