Mirage Drive Maintenance

[Yak Fish]

What do the other Hobie owners do to maintain/inspect their mirage drives? Has anyone had any issues with theirs? It looks like a pretty solid design, but it's oftentimes too late when you learn of a problem. I don't want to learn the hard way.

[surfdog]

ive heard some bad things about the older model drives, like the fin masts backing out and other problems but the newer models are much better. i havnt had any problems yet. after use in the salt i rinse it off and lube the drive chain with WD 40 and check for worn parts. i always carry a small dry bag with some tools just in case.

[ictalurus]

I've had mine since 2003, I think. I rinse it off after every saltwater trip and hit it with WD40 or Break Free every other trip, or so. If it feels crunchy or seems more resistant, I'll take the entire thing apart, lube the axles with trailer axle grease, and put it back together. I've replaced the idler cable once and both sprockets. My sprockets are stainless steel, and the weld broke on one of them one day. The drive still worked pretty well even with broken sprocket. I think the plastic ones are more robust, plus the idler cable tension is less critical. The only place you can see any corrosion on my drive is the bolts that hold the pedals on. They were initially sealed up with a plastic plug so I couldn't lube them. The plugs fell out after a while, and I saw how rusty they had gotten. They're still hanging on, though.

I have replaced a couple masts, one I bent hitting a submerged log, and the other just spontaneously sheared off. I had run aground in sandy areas without bending the mast a few times, and the repeated hits probably just added up.

Do a search on the Hobie forum for a user named "roadrunner". He did a cool series of posts about maintenance for the different models.

[Yak Fish]

I've had mine since 2003, I think. I rinse it off after every saltwater trip and hit it with WD40 or Break Free every other trip, or so. If it feels crunchy or seems more resistant, I'll take the entire thing apart, lube the axles with trailer axle grease, and put it back together. I've replaced the idler cable once and both sprockets. My sprockets are stainless steel, and the weld broke on one of them one day. The drive still worked pretty well even with broken sprocket. I think the plastic ones are more robust, plus the idler cable tension is less critical. The only place you can see any corrosion on my drive is the bolts that hold the pedals on. They were initially sealed up with a plastic plug so I couldn't lube them. The plugs fell out after a while, and I saw how rusty they had gotten. They're still hanging on, though.

I have replaced a couple masts, one I bent hitting a submerged log, and the other just spontaneously sheared off. I had run aground in sandy areas without bending the mast a few times, and the repeated hits probably just added up.

Do a search on the Hobie forum for a user named "roadrunner". He did a cool series of posts about maintenance for the different models.

Thanks. I forgot all about those forums. I'm finding a lot of really good info over there.