[Chris]

I know this was a huge point of contention last year, and of course there’s no Q&A up on this topic yet, and I know Delphi isn't official.

But in the opinions of, as FIRST would put it "reasonably astute observers" I’m curious what people think.

It seems they made significant effort to fix the rules as they pertained to fasteners in the bumper zone.

Ref: <R07> F
F. Each BUMPER segment must be backed by a piece of ¾” thick by 5” tall piece of plywood. Small clearance pockets and/or access holes in the plywood backing are permitted, as long as they do not significantly affect the structural integrity of the BUMPER.
And the definition of frame perimeter
To determine the FRAME PERIMETER, wrap a piece of string around the HOSTBOT at the level of the BUMPER ZONE - the string describes this polygon.
Note: to permit a simplified definition of the FRAME PERIMETER and encourage a tight, robust connection between the BUMPERS and the FRAME PERIMETER, minor protrusions such as bolt heads, fastener ends, rivets, etc are excluded from the determination of the FRAME PERIMETER.

So my question is, do we think that the butt of a bearing counts as something that can extrude slightly outside the frame perimeter (<.125”) in the bumper zone.

It seems by these two rules I can pocket the bumper, to have a robust flat connection. So my interpretation would be yes.

Thoughts?