Powerful. Portable. Modular. The World’s smallest water propulsion system for your snorkeling, diving, paddling & kayaking adventures.
We have spent the last 18 months perfecting a product that is sure to change water sports for many of us and make them far more accessible and enjoyable.
The Bixpy Jet is an electric water jet propulsion system that is designed to attach to virtually anything that needs a motorized boost in water. You can attach a Bixpy Jet to your kayak, standup paddle board or even hold one underwater as a diver propulsion device. The motor weighs just over 2 lb (1kg) and with its lithium-ion battery, is capable of pushing a kayak or standup paddle board over 7 MPH (11km/h)!
At roughly the size of a water bottle, the Bixpy Jet pushes close to 100 gallons of water per minute! It features a brushless motor, a built-in “brain” to keep it turning and two water cooled heatsinks so well integrated into the design, you would never know they had any function other than cosmetics!
The most challenging task aside from designing a powerful mini water-jet was developing a variety of incredibly simple and intuitive, yet versatile attachment kits to allow you to attach a Bixpy Jet to any kayak, canoe, standup paddle board or anything you need to motorize in water. All of this with the aim of ensuring you’ll be able to motorize your existing watercraft and not have to purchase a new board or kayak.
Using the same versatile attachment point on the motor housing, we have already designed 5 attachments and are offering them in this Kickstarter campaign. We are also hard at work identifying more popular kayaks and boards so we can design custom fitted adapters for more popular products on the market in the near future.
By connecting your Bixpy Jet to a Handheld Battery Pack, you create the ultimate diver propulsion device, the Bixpy Swim Jet. The Bixpy Swim Jet is unlike anything on the market. It is super portable – weighing just over 5 lb (2.3 kg), including the battery – it’s packed with features and it will make snorkeling and scuba diving more fun than ever before.
The Handheld Battery Pack features a sturdy and ergonomic handle with a magnetic switch that controls your motor. One tap brings the system to life and lights up your battery status indicator. A second tap starts up your motor in speed 1 and another tap takes you to speed 2 (full speed). When your motor starts, a powerful LED light guides your way under water.
There is even a standard 1/4″ camera mount on top of the battery pack so you can record your adventures with your favorite action camera!
You can now motorize your standup paddle board (SUP) with a quick change of your original fin to a Bixpy SUP Jet. The Bixpy SUP Fin Adapter fits into all standard US fin boxes.
Now you can paddle further and faster, fight wind and current and cover more water than ever before. Motorized SUPs are a great way for beginners to learn how to paddle board and the best way to get your family and friends onto the water. The Bixpy Jet will give your paddle boarding a boost of up to 6 mph (10 km/hr) – without paddling!
You control your Bixpy Jet with the wireless remote control which can be worn on your wrist or paddle.
With the Bixpy Generic Kayak Adapter, you can attach your Bixpy Jet to virtually any kayak or canoe. The anodized aluminum bars will adjust to accommodate larger or smaller kayaks, and the mechanism includes an ingenious adjustable elbow to accommodate a wide variety of slopes on the back of many kayaks or canoes. This kit also includes a complete steering mechanism that runs along the side of your kayak (on the inside or outside of the hull) to a joystick that allows you to steer the motor like a rudder for full control of your kayak.
For Hobie® kayak owners, we have developed two adapters to motorize Hobie® kayaks equipped with the MirageDrive® systems.
The first option provides you with a cassette insert to replace your MirageDrive® pedals with a Bixpy Jet. This adapter simply clicks into the opening of your kayak and replaces your Mirage pedals.
Your other option is to replace your Hobie® rudder with a Bixpy Jet, taking full advantage of the existing Hobie® steering mechanism. This adapter also features a flared “wing” to allow you to steer your kayak when not under power.
Last but not least, for those who own inflatable kayaks, you can motorize your kayak by purchasing a fin box and applying it to the bottom of your inflatable kayak. You can then use the Bixpy SUP Fin adapter to attach a Bixpy Jet to your kayak! Steering is done using your paddle.
A Bixpy Jet can boost your kayak to speeds of up to 7 MPH (11 km/h), with 10 forward speeds and 3 reverse speeds. You control your Bixpy Jet with a wireless remote that is included with the Outboard Battery Pack.
In addition to powering your motor, your Bixpy Outboard Battery Box has two additional low voltage outlets. A handy 5v USB outlet is a great feature for when your phone, tablet, camera or speaker is running low on battery whether on water or land. A 12V outlet powers your fish finder or other 12V electronics requiring up to 3A of power.
To ensure maintenance-free operation and the ability to use the Bixpy Jets in fresh or salt water, we explored every nook and cranny of the material science world. Every single part of this sophisticated device is custom built to withstand the harshest conditions. From the custom built motors inside to the shaft seals, we have left nothing unexplored. The Bixpy Jet even features a “grass cutter” just behind the propeller – one less thing to worry about on your fishing trips.
To combat the corrosive effects of salt water, every part is made of corrosion resistant material. All aluminum components are anodized and the motor shafts are made from a specially treated grade of stainless steel 316 for both hardness and corrosion resistance.
In addition, all the components and connectors that are submersed are rated to depths of 100 ft. and even components that are exposed to mere splashing are rated to at least IP67, with many rated at IP68.
Both the Handheld Battery Pack and the larger Outboard Battery Box float, as does the remote control unit so if they ever end up in water they’ll be easy to recover.
There are two aluminum heat sinks discretely integrated into the body of the motor housing and not only act as a cosmetic accent but liquid cool both the motor and the electronics. Cool components run faster, more efficiently and last longer.
We have spent over 18 months researching and testing various propellers, motors, nozzles, electronics and batteries to create the most powerful and sophisticated water jet propulsion system in the world. We hope you love it as much as we do!
We have worked very hard to bring Bixpy Jets to a point where they are ready to be manufactured. We are out of prototyping and have already produced final working models. We have sourced all of our components, finalized our software needs and gone through 11 different iterations of the jets to get to where we are today. So once funded, we won’t be looking for bits and pieces and trying to develop ideas. We’ll put all of our effort into assembly and packaging of your Bixpy Jets. We even have our assembly space, in San Diego, equipped and ready to get going!
Like any product with this degree of complexity, however, we rely heavily on our suppliers to meet our deadlines and deliver our motors, batteries and other components on time. Since some of the elements of the Bixpy Jet are so specific to our needs and not “off the shelf” material, there is a possibility of some delays from back orders. One of these items is the very specific marine grade stainless steel that we use for the shafts. As we use a less commonly produced stainless steel alloy, we’re limited in our options and to some degree at the mercy of supply.
To mitigate our situation, we have multiple suppliers for all of our major components, so if one fails, we can quickly fulfill our needs through another supplier. We have also given ourselves multiple time cushions along the way for unforeseen delays.
Unlike many startups, our team includes an experienced CEO with 18 years of experience in starting and operating multi-national companies, along with an experienced CFO with 20 years of experience operating the finances of multiple seasonal businesses. Along with that, we have two very experienced and capable engineers on hand to deal with anything that’s thrown at us. All in all, we have an incredibly capable and passionate team to move this project forward and we are confident that we can overcome all the challenges and obstacles presented by introducing such a complex product to market.
We have also worked on an efficient and organized manner to update our backers. So you will always get updates and information from us as we progress through the project.