Drivetrains in Ultimate Ascent

[apples000]

Our team has been curious as to what drives teams are using on their robots. Our team's performance has never actually been limited by our drive system so this year we agreed to sacrifice a complex drive system for a more refined climber/shooter. During week 1 we played around with older robots, and determined that we would benefit from an omnidirectional drive. Several years ago our team made a shifting swerve drive that had shifters/CIM's inside the rotating wheel modules. After our full season (2 regionals/Atlanta), we never shifted to the low gear to push other teams around. This year we've done testing with 6wd with vex pro ball shifters, or mecanum wheels. We've actually found that our 8" vex pro wheels, when geared properly, let us easily outmaneuver our 6wd robot. After reading online that mecanum wheels are so bad, we were reluctant to put them on, but we've only been impressed by them. Why do people say that mecanum wheels are so bad?