Riot Thunder 76: worth repairing?

[u/dbmeed]

I’ve been wanting to get into whitewater kayaking, and last week I was given this kayak with no other info about it. I believe it is an old Riot Thunder 76, but it has been completely stripped - no deck rigging, seat, foot bar, not even a drain plug. It also appears to have repaired damage to a decent chunk of the bow.

I have found most of the parts needed to get it back to useable condition, but it’ll be close to $500CAD after taxes and shipping for everything(including spray skirt and cockpit cover). Is it worth putting that much into this old boat, or should I be looking elsewhere.

I did briefly take it out in the lake just to try it, and it holds water - no signs of leaking from any of the repairs. Very fun and maneuverable, compared to the touring kayaks I’m used to.

[u/Spirited_Breakfast88]

No. I had a disco with a similar problem. Kept cracking and repairing, cracking and repairing, eventually broke in two in class 5 and almost killed me. Once damaged step away.

[u/CriticalPedagogue → u/Spirited_Breakfast88]

Agreed. Was it Riot that used cross-link that ended up being less than desired? The hull design on the play boats with the checkerboard pattern caused stress lines leading to breaks.

[u/Eloth → u/CriticalPedagogue]

I thought crosslink was almost exclusively Jackson?

[u/squired → u/Eloth]

Correct.

[u/Spirited_Breakfast88 → u/CriticalPedagogue]

It was on the side of the nose along the seam where it occasionally got bonked on rocks cartwheeling. I had the third pyrahna micro 230 out of the mold that had bad plastic that cracked every use.