Hobie MD180 V2 Spine Assy

Replacement spine assembly for the Mirage Drive 180 V2

A full spine assembly replacement for the Mirage Drive 180 V2 system. Required if you damage the sprockets, spine or 180 cabling on your drive. 

Part No: 81499 

Guidance on spine replacements: 

To replace a spine, you will need to transfer over the fins and fin masts, drum shaft, pedal drums and pedals, idler pulley with shaft, chains and idler cable. Includes 180 shifters, but you will need to transfer the screw in FWD and REV tendons from your existing drive. It can often be easier to transfer over the complete shifter-tendon set from your existing drive onto the new spine. This is easily achieved by undoing a knot on the bungee retractor, and removing the shifters via the nut and bolt securing it to the spine. We recommend using new chain and cable nuts when setting up a new spine.

When setting up a new spine it is important to pay attention to chain and cable bias - the aim is to have an equal amount of threads showing past the nuts on chains and cables. This ensures balance across the sprockets so that you do not introduce uneven wear. The chains and cables need to be tensioned so you can gently squeeze in the cables, and they deflect by around 1/4in / 6mm. When tensioned correctly, the drive should not feel stiff to operate. You can check by holding the drive up by one pedal arm, then push the other pedal arm forwards to raise the fins. As you let go, the fins should easily fall and settle in the neutral central position. If they do not, you will need to slacken off the chains a 1/4 turn at a time and re-check until you achieve the correct tension. Check out this handy video from Hobie explaining this.