[EricH]

If it was up to me... I'd simply take the Kitbot, swap the stock gearbox for a shifting one, ratio TBD after Kickoff (and, as well, type and supplier TBD after Kickoff--don't forget AndyMark in there!), and spend the rest of the 6 weeks working on the gamepiece manipulation system that goes on top, or getting driver practice, or programming, or all three. You could even play around with the kit gearboxes prior to getting the package with the new ones and spend about a meeting or two swapping the new ones in later.

My reasoning is that I don't put all that much stock in 6-CIM drivetrains. Sure, they've got more available power, but as noted above me, they've got some drawbacks, and more to the point, in most years they aren't exactly required. Using only 4 CIMs also gives two for use elsewhere, where I might need a lot of power that I can rely on.