If you’ve scoured the internet looking at the Pros and Cons of the Hobie Mirage 360 drive I am sure you’ve come across both positive and negative comments surrounding it, but are negative comments accurate or a failing on the owner’s behalf as the recommended adjustments and checks have not been carried out?  In all honesty, I can’t really comment on others experience when using the Hobie Mirage 360 Drive and how they’ve maintained it.  What I can do though, is talk about my experience and the checks that I do to keep my drive working at its best.

First up to remove any confusion the Mirage drive 360 drive system is only found on the Hobie Pro Angler 360 range, which is Hobie flag ship fishing platform. The main advantage of a 360 over 180 drive is the ability to rotate the drive and in turn the kayak in a full 360 degrees which can allow the angler to hold their kayak in the perfect casting position with a only couple of pedal strokes.  As you can imagine to pull this off the bottom section of your drive needs to be able to rotate a full 360 degrees but the top section needs to remain stationary so the angler is able to pedal.  To achieve this, very simply there is a series of belts and gears within the kayak hull itself which allows the angler to simply turn the handle and move the drive.  In this article I’ll focus on the drive maintenance itself and in the next article I’ll focus on the kayak adjustments.  Now although all the above may seem a little overwhelming the point I really want to get across is there is a lot of moving parts that occasionally need to be checked and adjusted to keep them running at their best. It’s like looking after the gears on your push bike, as the cable the stretch small adjustments need to be made to ensure the gears run smoothly.  It’s the same for the Mirage drive 360.

Before we get full swing into the adjustments, I will mention that my drive and kayak get a full wash down after every use whether it be in the freshwater or saltwater, this helps keep the dirt, mud and sand out of drive and I believe this is the first key step in keeping your kayak running at its best.

360 Mirage drive adjustments

The Global adjustment is really the only adjustment that needs to be made on the drive itself and is quite easy to do, it consists of using an Allen key adjust the screw at the very bottom of the pedal housing, usually identified by a sticker with an arrow going left and right, this adjustment helps keep the correct cable tension on your drive. In short if the pedal system is too loose it will allow the cables to move and potentially leads to binding of the cable and loading of the bearings, which can eventually lead to breaking of the cable, on the other hand if it’s too tight the pedals will take a fair amount of force to pedal which is also not ideal for the kayaker or the drive itself.  To get this just about right I  back off the Allen key off half a turn then in half turn increments tighten it up,  each time stopping and holding the drive system in one hand and spinning the bottom section of the pedals with a reasonable amount of force, what I am looking for is the bottom section to spin and stop somewhere between 270 – 360 degrees,  if it go past this I’ll turn the screw another half turn before trying to spinning the pedals again, basically rinse and repeat until I get it right. On the other hand, if it’s too tight I’ll back it off half a turn and once again rinse and repeat until the pedals stop in that 270-260 range.  Now, this does sound a lot like adjusting it by feel and for the most part it is, but after a while you’ll get a feel for it and the adjustment will only take a couple of minutes to do.  The next thing that can be done it some slight lubrication of the idler cable because after some time the outer case of the cable can becomes a little dry and starts squeaking when pedalling about the place, I tend to use the Hobie multi lube and just dab some on the cable and smear it over the length of the idler cable, you won’t need much of the lubricant to get rid of the squeak.   As for the rest of the lower section of the drive there is no adjustment or lubrication required, this is because the Mirage 360 drive is self-lubricating by design, which means the water is able to pass through bearings when the drive is being used and also make for a maintenance free drive system. One thing to watch out for is the little circlips that hold you fin pin in place, they can get easily damaged so it’s worth having a look each time you go over the peddle, nothing worse than loosing a fin whilst on the water.

Global adjustment screw

In my opinion the best preventative maintenance that can be done for the Mirage 360 drive is washing them down thoroughly after every use, that and regularly checking and adjusting the global adjuster.  I’ve used 3 different 360 drives now and with each of them had a trouble-free experience.  I hope this article helps if your contemplating getting into the Hobie PA 360  and if your into watching You tube here some very helpful links on how to care for you 360 drive.

Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E0TBPnmCfk

https://www.youtube.com/embed/bPVzpbFSXlI?autohide=1&autoplay=1&color=white&fs=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&

Screaming Dragz

OCA