Why the angle on the Akas?

I'm not sure what the situation is with the TI, but I've always wondered why the AI is built so that the akas drop when they are folded backward or forward, so that the amas drag in the water. If the amas lifted, instead of dropping, you would be able to fold them and pedal without them dragging in the water. This would be handy when the wind dropped, or when travelling down creeks or narrow waterways and you could hopefully achieve speeds approaching those which the boat is capable of in Adventure mode.
The reason they drop, is that the aka receivers on the crossbars are angled up at about 5 degrees. This causes the akas to be at their maximum height when fully extended:



I'm wondering why it isn't oriented with the aka receiver angled down and the aka angled up relative to it's bracket, to compensate, like this:



The aka would still be at the same angle when fully extended, but would sit higher when folded forward or backward. I'm probably missing some bit of engineering (or boating) reality here, but I'd be grateful if anyone could point out what's wrong with that setup.

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I'm not sure why the AI amas drop when folded.

When we folded one ama in on the TI while peddling we did not notice any change to the way the TI handled. On the TI the amas stay parallel to the boat when folded and I think that makes a big diference.

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Jerry D.
St. Johns, Florida
2010 TI
2008 AI

Well that's a bit better, but it would be better still if the amas actually lifted out of the water when folded. The AI in Adventure mode (no amas) is very fast when pedalled. From what Roadrunner and Stringy say, I gather the TI is no slouch either, when used that way. Actually, on re-reading Roadrunner's post, the amas on the TI sit out of the water when extended and running flat anyway, so it's really just an AI problem.

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