John,
What a fantastic machine!
I have worked as an engineer at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the past 26 years. The Space Center is located on the northern most tip of Merritt Island and my house is about 20 miles south on the same Island. The Island is about 28 miles long and is surrounded by salt water estuaries that provide the perfect environment for all varieties of water sports. I had been looking for a pedal powered water bike for some time and researched the various models that were commercially available and finally decided on the Hydrobike. It is even better than I had imagined!
When it arrived, I had to go out of town that evening so I didn’t want to start assembling it and then have to leave before finishing it, but I couldn’t stand it. So we cut open the boxes and started putting it together. What an incredible design! We had it together in less than an hour. Whoever designed this machine thought of every little detail. Everything went together perfectly. The majority of the parts are corrosion resistant, (aluminum, brass and stainless) which was a big concern for using it in our salt water environment and the hulls are virtually indestructible. It’s built to last. After the initial assembly, it is designed so that it can be disassembled in minutes for easy transportation.
It went together so quickly that I had time to take it for a test spin before having to leave. I weigh about 235 lbs so I was worried about stability. No problem at all. I can stand on one pontoon and the bike is still completely stable. We launched it using the 4 handles located at the ends of the pontoons, adjusted the seat to the correct height, lowered the drive unit and took off. It is really fast and easy to handle, just like riding a bike on the water. I ended up riding it over a mile before having to leave. It was almost effortless.
What was supposed to be a week of out of town work, turned into a month and a half or more, so I didn’t get to play with it again until recently. A cold front had just come through and the wind was blowing about 10 to 15 mph but I took it out any way. I said this before but I’ll repeat myself. What an incredible machine! I took it across the river about a mile and then up wind about 3 miles, then back across the river and back down to my house. It handled the rough water with no problem, went into the wind easily and was a pleasure all round to use. One other thing that I had been worried about, was running aground. It was no problem at all; the drive unit just kicks up when you hit bottom. You can operate it in really shallow water by moving the conveniently located handle attached to the drive unit and trimming the drive unit up until the propeller is barely in the water. The designer thought of everything!
Jim Myers FL
