[Al Skierkiewicz]

Just to add my two cents...
I understand the up side to dual speed but (a big "but") is it really needed on a 48 foot long playing field with other robots and field pieces in the way. The difference between 8f/s and 12 f/s is only 2 seconds from end to end. As to the design current draw, the circuit breaker although rated for 50 amps will require a current 6 times that great for more than fifteen seconds before the circuit breaker will trip. Add in the influence of the wiring resistances, the "on" resistance of the speed controllers, internal resistance of the battery, and all of the other factors and it is impossible to deliver full rated stall current to any motor in a functional competition robot. Given that max stall current will occur when motor brushes are in contact with two commutator segments (two motor windings in parallel) a multi motor drive will likely place more than one motor in such a condition during a standoff. Depending on slip in the transmission(s) motors are likely to rapidly alternate between two and one winding while in a standoff thereby changing (lowering) the load current. Granted a six motor drive will have more motors in this condition and therefore would get closer to max trip current than a four motor drive. I think that anyone who spent anytime in the Martians pit and watched the results of the dyno test or the Matians superior pushing ability would have to concede that there is an alternative (and a good one) to multispeed transmissions.
Also, what is the risk to add speed change decisions to the drivers? It seems that adding another variable into the driver equation would tend to slow down response times. Although speed changes on the transmissions is fairly rapid, is it the right thing to do in a 105 second match? In rough guess of perhaps four speed changes in a match, you may have lost 2-4 seconds of match time in decisions and speed changes. As we all know, that length of time could make or break a match.
So the question still remains and decisions to weigh the alternatives still exists. I for one think dual speed transmissions are cool but adding up all the factors (time, current, weight, complexity) I still favor single speed.