[Jon Stratis]

As Richard indicated, the real question is: how fast do you want to lift? Once you know your speed target, you can work backwards to figure out how much mechanical power you need from your motor. Personally, I always leave in an extra factor of about 50%, since there's friction in the gearbox, weight estimates might not be perfect, and your battery state at the end of the match probably isn't great.

My team has lifted our robot before using a single CIM motor one year, and two mini-CIMs another year. This year, it's two CIM motors, based mostly on availability and not needing them elsewhere - we'll take all the speed we can get while climbing!