[Solace]

most likely they just locked the drills in high and turned down the voltage on the Chip to match rpms.
we have a prototype that is geared down at about 1:1.8 (i think) using the drills in high, and it goes somewhere around 13 or 14 ft/sec. assuming that the two out gears are a 22 and an 80 tooth (it's what they look like at least), that puts them at about a 1:3.6 or so. So, I'm guessing that with the chips added in, they could pull 8 or 9 fps. not blazingly fast, but certainly competitive.

looks good, although i will definitely agree with the comment you made in your other pic. there will be lots of bots flipped this year, especially with bots using the 12 inchers to climb the stairs. but they won't be flipping themselves on the stairs, they will be flipping themselves on other robots. unlike walls, robots push back. I can't count the number of times that i've seen robots with exposed wheels ride up on other robots and get flipped, even with extremely low centers of gravity.

You might want to consider putting a guard over one set of wheels. You don't need to be able to go up the stair with both ends, and putting a shield over one end will give you a surface you can use to push against other robots without worrying about flipping yourself over.