[Rick TYler]

We practiced without bumpers, but added them for competition. They probably saved us any number of problems, including one match in which we nearly tipped over, but the bumper provided just enough width to allow us to rock back. We have a pretty low CG (it's one of the few really good things about our bot), but we tipped once in practice and nearly did (thank you, bumper) once in quals. Successful robots competed without them, but a lot of good bots used them.

The smart ticket would have been to use them as a stressed frame element, but we've already gone over that elsewhere...