[Thad House]

Originally Posted by Paul Copioli

Bob,

A couple of things:

1. Did we have pinions gears in stock? Absolutely. We have never sold this item and I estimated a low usage in this first year and brought in a lower qty early. Why? Because I see no reason to use a pinion gear with an OD larger than the pilot diameter of the CIM motor. With the 12T and 11T pinion so abundant and the fact that they fit within the CIM motor pilot diameter I figured we would not sell that many 14T and 13T pinions. We sold out of these gears very quickly, which baffles me. To add to the pain, we have run into extensive shipping delays on the additional gears. BTW, these shipping delays are 100% due to US delays, not import delays. Lastly, everyone who ordered before Kickoff received their 14T pinions so I don't know where the confusion is, but if you can get us your order number then we can clear it up.

We e-mailed each and every customer that was affected by the 14T and 13T pinions individually. If your mentor that ordered did not receive the e-mail then having your order number will help track that disconnect as well.

We have offered to replace the 14 and 13T pinions with 12 or 11 tooth pinions and some customers have taken us up on this offer. There is no reason a lack of this pinion should keep you from driving.

2. Regarding the cylinders, we need your order number and we can figure out went went wrong. Without the order number, or at least the person's name who actually ordered the items, there is not much more we can do.

I get it, your frustrated. So am I. I am extremely sensitive to the needs of FRC teams. That is why we directly communicated to teams who ordered the 14T pinion. That is why we are actively responding on this thread. That is why we told our customers to go to AndyMark to get the 14T pinion.

At least for our team, the reason we chose the 14 tooth pinions is because it gives the perfect ratio with the 50-24 gearset and 4 inch wheels with 6 cims. Ive seen alot around here that 10.5-11 fps after adjustments is what alot of teams run when they use 6 cims, and that requires the 14 tooths, because 12's are too slow when used with 50-24, and 12s with 30-44 is too fast. If you guys had something like a 47-27, with 12's that would be a perfect ratio and we would be happy with the adjustable there.

I do agree that 14 tooth pinions are not great because they dont fit thru the hole. Also, I've always disliked the andymark ones because the bore is really tight, so getting the gear off after putting it on is almost impossible. To solve this this year, we actually bored out the gears so they slip fit on, like the vex gears do.