[trilogy2826]

Surgical tubing. A quick search will show that not all products marketed as surgical tubing are made from latex rubber (the most common). Latex definitely has a robustness issue. After switching to another material, we only have to make sure they are clean before each match. Another secret to making sure that the material lasts is to decrease the slip that your motor and wheel combo present to the pole. You don't want to just make your motors go as fast as possible, you want them to go the right speed for the weight of your minibot (takes a lot of tweaking, at least for us). We tweak the diameter with electrical tape (increasing the diameter of the "wheel") and then apply the surgical tubing.