AlohaDan wrote:
If there is rubbing it should not take long to see some wear.
Hi Dan,
To be quite honest, any rubbing would be insignificant. When you get your new fins, you will see that as the fin flexes, it draws the sproket guard forward. To the extent that there's friction, it's way overshawdowed by the small friction caused by the rotation of this piece on the drive shaft, universal to all applicatons. Even without any flexing, you can reposition the sporket guard forward. IMO, in the scheme of things (1 to 10 scale) this barely rates a one.
This is not to diminish Windrider's astute observations. His attention to detail is commendable and, no doubt, taken note of by the Hobie engineers.
The picture below illustrates the advancement of the Hobie drive. You can see the new drive is
much more streamlined. Even the old fins have undergone a significant evolution, particularly in their early days. My point here is these new fins are the first generation and will undoubtably undergo the same refinement process as the rest of the Hobie gear. Personally, I think Windrider is pretty pleased with his new fins now that he's tried them out. That's too bad -- I was hoping to pick up a second set from him on trade!
Let me point out, the "misalligned" gap is actually in the same place as the old fin. If you look at the picture closely, you will see the newer fin rides a little closer to the shaft, pushing the gap forward. Remember the new fins are retrofits for that old drive also. The sproket guard shift caused by the longer clew mount is something I can accept as a consequence of the enormous efficiency and power advantage the new fins deliver.
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PS Those dark spots on the new fins are water.