Team 4099 plans on building two WCDs this year. Unfortunately, the ball shifters we need (217-4246) were just discontinued by VEX and its re-sellers as they (supposedly) prepare to roll out a replacement.
Are there any teams out there who have 3 CIM ball shifters they’d be willing to sell? (FYI, we’re a Maryland-based team.)
Alternatively, is there anyone from VEX who can provide access to the parts even though they are discontinued?
Do you have to get the parts immediately? Or would it be possible to wait until VEXpro releases all of their new products on the 15th? They have said that they will be releasing a ton of new products, most likely including a new iteration of the 3-Cim ball shifter.
We would prefer to get the parts quickly to practice building a drivetrain in the offseason. We’ve been able to order the actual ball shifters already – it’s just the third stage that we don’t have.
In case you were wondering, the reason we didn’t just order the ball shifter with the 3rd stage WCD included was that since we plan to use #35 chain for the drivetrain, we thought it would be best to order that third stage separately. By the time we realized that 217-4246 was discontinued and not just out of stock, the order for the ball shifters without the 3rd stage was already placed.
Regardless, even if we could just borrow the parts from someone until we can order that 3rd stage, that would be a great help to us.
Looks like it’s the 13th, unless you have a more official-looking source than a CD post?
Looks like what you’re looking for might be found at wcp, who (afaik) resells vex products.
OP, Is there a reason you specifically want to use the discontinued #35 chain version? Have you contacted VEX to see when the 25 chain version will be back in stock? Why not just wait unless you are planning on doing testing before kickoff.