[ksafin]

Do you have any sort of budget amount you can allocate towards this?

There isn't much torque necessary (in our tests) to launch frisbees. We have 1:1 CIM and a 1:1 Mini-CIM, both of which drive the wheels and launch frisbees extremely well.

So you don't need to gear it down, if that's what you're saying you'll do - if anything it'll hurt performance - the torque is good enough, you want adequate speed now.

As far as direct drive is concerned, there's a multitude of ways you can do it, and since I don't know what parts you have (a lot more information about what you have is necessary to help you about how to do it) I would really suggest getting some kind of gearbox-esque thing going.

The modulox channel (http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-2071.htm) is a great, cost-effective choice for simple 1:1 gearing like I suggest you use.