Re: Why not to shift?
 

We went with a two speed 8WD setup last year, geared for 7.3 and 18.8 fps (14:40, 28:35 or 15:48, 28:40 with 4" wheels). This was created using standard AM gears and shifters that we packaged with our own sideplates.

In competition we never used high speed once. I think it was a combination of a) it was too fast for us, and b) with the field divided in half, there was never a time when we wanted to cover a lot of ground very quickly.

This year we're debating whether we want to have one speed or two. We already know we can do it, for us it will be a question of whether it makes sense for the game and whether the added complexity and weight is worth the effort. If we do decide to do it I have a feeling our fast speed will be a more controllable ~10 fps, pushing our slow speed down quite a bit lower than it was.

Re: Why not to shift?
 

We also didn't use our high speed the way we thought we would, but that's because we had a wide robot that ended up being more tippy than expected. We were really happy to have that low gear for climbing bridges and barriers last year. I think last year we were better off with a 5-6 ft/s robot (that can go 12 ft/s but doesn't) than we would have been with a single speed 9 ft/s robot. And I think we would have been no worse off (except in one particular match) with a single speed 5-6 ft/s robot.

If we do shifters this year (likely), then we will be looking at choosing a sane high gear that we can drive comfortably; perhaps 12 to 14 ft/s. And making it stable enough to actually be able to drive it that fast.

Re: Why not to shift?
 

We don't shift. I've always wanted to, mainly because I thought it would be really fun, but it seems to have worked out ok over the years.

Re: Why not to shift?
 

Being finalists on Einstein probably counts as "OK."

Re: Why not to shift?
 

What was it geared for?