I wonder when Jackson is going to enter the pedal market?

They are all similar and different at same time. LOL.. All are circular peddle. Is that because the Hobie is patented?

Yes, Hobie's Mirage Drive is patented. I'm curious as to why Native didn't opt to patent theirs. Perhaps they couldn't for some reason?

If they simply chose not to, I wonder if they're regretting that now. They're still "First with Reverse," but are now "One of Six with Reverse."

I suppose Native has little to patent since the system it uses is found on countless bicycles and in so many other devices for so many years, decades, even longer. If there is something intrinsic to it that is patentable, I think seeing a very similar unit not long ago in a Chinese "copy" would be the test case. But, no, I don't see anything Native could attack in, say, the new Wilderness Helix Pedal Drives. If so, Native would have been sued by whom, Schwinn?

If I had to make a guess, I'd say the Feel Free hybrid manual/power drive is the least likely to succeed in the market. Too bad because it is certainly very progressive. The best doesn't always win in the market place; if so, we'd still be using Word Perfect and not MS Word.

But, the new Wilderness kayaks like the Radar? For these, you can paddle, manually pedal OR step up to a power drive. So, the flexibility will account for a lot of sales while the Feel Free has limited itself to just a small percentage of the kayak market who will pay that sticker price.

Native dropped the ball, I think. It did bring out a less expensive pedaling option and that is good; but, with the new power units gaining attention, it really HAD to come through with its trolling motor mount, something it promised a whole year ago that would cost around a $100 and allow Native Propel owners the opportunity to drop in a small trolling motor. That whole rigging: a hundred bucks for a mount, a battery and a small trolling motor? It would come in at a fraction of the cost of the power units at the 2016 ICAST. One should have been sitting on display. The sad part is the mount is so simple that it could have been built in literally thousands of machine shops across the USA. And, yet it is still not on the market last I looked.

I also think Old Town Predator's new pedal unit will never become much of a market presence.

I have no opinion on the new Hobie Drive. I think the shifting apparatus is okay and the penguin drive system is certainly more powerful than the pedal systems, but for fishing, the pedals work more like someone driving a unicycle (back and forth pedaling constantly) and not like shifting gears as in the Hobie. Anyway, still a big improvement for the Hobie. Now, if they'd only upgrade the appearance of their kayaks. They look so clunky to me, not very clean lines, too heavy, and on and on.

I give Wilderness the nod this year for making most progress in the kayak marketing war. If only it had put the pedal drive on the ATAK 120, it would have been a blow out.

Lots of opinions. Mine. Brad

Loving that FeelFree. I didn't hear how long they said the battery would last. Anyone??