I was fortunate enough to catch the longest bass even though I got deducted .5"...at the Jim Salazar's and the CCA's Battle of the Bays tournament this past Saturday. So I was awarded the amazing Bixby kayak jet! I really never liked the idea of a motor on a kayak , buuuuttt....since I won one, I'll be open minded for now....when people asked my opinion on them, I always said..."if you want to get a motor for your kayak...just buy a boat." So after having said that for years, here I am with a new bixpy kayak motor.
After assembling the motor and mount and charging the battery, I was really excited to try this thing out. Since you are not supposed to run this thing dry...I filled up a 5 gallon bucket and decided to try it out. Surprisingly it was alot more powerful than I had thought. On the first level it swirled the water around in the bucket pretty good....On level 2 I had to catch the damn thing as it almost jumped out of the bucket and landed on the pavement....Even more interesting...I really can't wait to try this thing out now...
My preconceived notions about the bixby jet were as such:
1. Not powerful enough to move me my PA, dog, gear, and full bait tank at a reasonable speed.
2. Battery will not last long enough to be useful.
3. Wireless controls might lag and or might not respond in a timely manner
4. Might be difficult to use and or manage on a kayak
5. Battery will be too big and heavy
I found that after 1 trip....
1. Yes, the bixpy jet is powerful enough to move my fat ass, my kayak, dog, gear and bait tank at a surprisingly decent speed!
2. Battery life was alot better than expected! Using through out the day mostly going to and from the fishing grounds...I would say I had about 80% of battery life left over...that's amazing! I even spent a period of time at full throttle (level 10)!
3. Wireless controls responded quickly and reliably.
4. Was easy to install use and manage while on my kayak. It was harder to put away the mirage drive in the front hatch than it was to install this motor.
5. Battery is of reasonable size and weight for the amount of power it stores. I haven't checked the specs but I would guess it weighs around 5 pounds.
So after the days fishing, we were on the way back into the harbor. Perfect time to check the speed of the bixpy next to a great paddler like Greg. Surprisingly I had to dial It back so I didn't haul ass past Greg and John. Surprised me again...! If you don't know Greg is a very good paddler, hes quick too. If the bixpy can keep up with him...Id say it's pretty good.
I did have an issue that's worth mentioning. I noticed at the beginning of the day forward and reverse were functioning normally as expected. Then at the end of the day I got what I assume is an error from the motor as I switched from forward to reverse. The motor made a sound like it was stuck and then stopped responding to controls which indicates an error,also had a flashing led from the battery. I had to reset the unit by switching the unit off and on again via the magnetic switch. Unit worked normally again but only going forward...tested it at home, was able to reproduce the problem a few times but, started to work normally again. I guess I will hold off on judgement for now...could be a break in issue...I'll keep testing.
