Are two speed transmissions worth it?

[Tim Delles]

Originally Posted by Hachiban VIII

I am the only one to have voted "no" so far...

We used our 2 speed AM shifters 1 out of every 2 matches this year. They helped us dart across the field, but we never used them for an extended period of time.

I'll admit they weren't useless... but they weren't worth the weight of the pneumatics.

If you're going to use pneumatics anyways I would say "go ahead." But otherwise save the weight and put it where it counts - in the scoring device.

What about the servo shifters... in all seriousness you can do either (one is not better than the other they both do the same job)

But as to the actual shifting I have a couple questions for you.

have you ever bene in a match and thought to yourself dang i wish i could go faster to get there quicker?

have you ever thought dang i wish i could go a bit slower so i could have a little more pushing power?

I can almost give you 100% certainty that every team has thought that.

The easy answer to your question is yes you should ALWAYS have the option of shifting.

We have used a shifting transmission since 2003 (except for 2006 when we made a custom single speed). After last year I realized you should never do a single speed because throughout last year i was always saying yes to both of those questions.

This year we opted for the 2 speed AM transmission because of a few reasons.

1. Reliable - It has been tested by so many teams in first with very little if any negative effects.
2. Cost - Cheaper to buy the shifter than make it, when you account for the time spent on the CNC machine making the parts and the over all cost of everything put into it. (remember less time spent on one part is more time spent on another or more time for drivers!!!)

Just my 2 cents