Posted on | by ben

Finally able to kick off the year, all teams were out on Saturday for the first Day of Spring rolls. After weeks and weeks of cold and icy roads, the weather finally cooperated long enough for Saturday. For some reason there were no permits for Sunday, so even though the weather was nice enough, teams were forced to sleep in and/or stay warm. As it happened, this Saturday was also Greek Sing which made it even more impressive to see the teams (including the frats) in mostly full force. Clearly the teams understand what needs to get done in this extremely short lead-up to Raceday.

In Attendance (New buggies)

Org Saturday
AEPi Kamikaze
Apex Ember, Phoenix
CIA Equinox, Icarus, Orca, Ascension
Fringe X1, Beacon, Bissa
PiKA Banshee
SAE Lucy
SDC Vice, Bane, Malice, Rage
SigEp Kraken, Barracuda, Pandora
SigNu Bungarus Krait
Spirit Inviscid, Kingpin II, Zuke
Robo Singularity

Observations (Saturday)

  • AEPi – With 2 drivers in a single buggy, AEPi opted to roll their veteran first. Whether this decision was greek sing related is unknown, but it is likely a good move to guarantee at least one driver. At this point, their veteran only needs a couple rolls and a pass test to qualify which should give them the rest of the days to focus on their new driver, assuming they still plan on trying to race her as well.
  • Apex – In a great turn of events for the now-Senior org, Apex made it out with a second buggy on Saturday allowing them to double their ability to try and qualify their 5 drivers. It’ll still be an uphill battle though with only one veteran driver. They looked good through the chute all morning despite the craggy road.
  • CIA – As one of three orgs with a new buggy on the course, CIA debuted Eqiunox to the world with the same style shell as Icarus. We assume this is an attempt to make improvements on their last build so hopefully we’ll get a good comparison as they speed up to Raceday. The org also managed a few firsts for the season marking the first incident with a driver stopping just after hill 2 with helmet blocked vision and also obtaining the first and only pass test of the day for Ascension as she passed Icarus.
  • Fringe – Prepped and ready with a new buggy of their own, Firnge showed off their radical 9 wheeled buggy X1 nicknamed milibuggy (thanks Glenn) by those of us in the Chute. The new buggy rolled fine in a straight line, but noticeably lost speed through the turn. Word is she feels great to push though. Aside from the new buggy, their new Beacon driver got a chute walk-through after nearly stopping by Panther Hollow Bridge. She was heavily bagged, but she definitely seemed to have lost some knowledge over the break as she made some very wide and unpredictable turns through the chute.
  • PiKA – Out with only a single buggy, PiKA did some quick work getting Banshee up to speed. While we expect them to qualify at least one driver for raceday, this is no time for an entire team of non-veteran drivers to be staying home. With so little time to qualify new drivers, we could be looking at a slower team this year.
  • SAE – Ending last season with only two rolls, we were very excited to see  SAE bring Lucy back out to the course. Thankfully they have a veteran driver behind the wheel, so if they are able to sustain these last few weekends of rolls, they should have no problem getting qualified. Unfortuantely, it seems something has gone wrong with Lucy’s front wheels as they sat at about 45 degrees while she came up the backhills. We’re not sure if this is pot-hole related damage, but it looks like she could use some serious help to get those wheels back upright.
  • SDC – Back as the defending champs and team-to-beat, SDC was able to be one of the first orgs to show off their impressive veteran rollout, even atop the cratered surface. Their newer drivers seemed to have a bit of a tougher time though as Vice was having some trouble figuring out the chute and ending the day in the bales. After making the turn into the chute, she seemed unable to stop turning and at a fairly low-speed burried herself in the inside bales. No injuries were reported.
  • SigEp – While most teams have a good number of new drivers, SigEp has a nearly full team of veteran drivers, a trait that is only beaten by Spirit. This only made it more surprising when Kraken managed a mid-morning spin just past Westinghouse pond. The roll before, Kraken looked very hard to push as she clickety-clacked her way up the backhills, followed by a very apologetic follow-car driver.
  • SigNu – Having only made it out a few times last season, we are excited to SigNu back on the course. Also with a full team of new drivers, it will be tight trying to fit in all the rolls they need after their lack of participation last semester. Krait rolled quite well over the morning taking an extremely tight line through the chute. With a history of rolling over through the turn, it was good she went slowly through the turn. We hope to see them smooth this line out a bit before we make it to Raceday.
  • Spirit – Joining CIA and Fringe, Spirit also unveiled their new buggy wrapped in brown paper like it’s ready to be shipped. The new buggy looks like their previous builds though this time sticking with the flat tail. As we have come to expect, their buggies are all stripped down awaiting their new Raceday paint jobs. We just hope they get them soon so that we have some time to re-learn them again.
  • Robobuggy – Sneaking in a few pre-sunrise rolls, the Robobuggy crew was out again gathering more data and working on their freeroll. The group has been using the same frame and shell buggy for the last several years and it sounds like they’re finally working on an upgrade to their fleet. We’re hoping for a clear Carnival this year so that these guys finally get a chance to show off what they’ve been working on.

A new org was sighted on the course Saturday morning as the brothers of PhiDelt plan on starting up a team of their own. As a new frat on campus, the manpower needs for Greek Sing were too strong forcing them to delay their start to another weekend. These guys already have a buggy to roll with as they have apparently found KDR’s old Perun. Assuming they can manage their driver’s many commitments, they have every intention to roll for Raceday.

Having gotten a chance to see them up close, the condition of the roads did not look nearly as bad as it was described to us. This is of course only in comparison to their condition at the end of last year, which is still quite terrible. Amazingly, the city did manage some fills just before the weekend that were actually done very well. There is word that the road will not get paved before Carnival, and at this point we don’t think they can afford to lose a weekend, even if it meant clean new roads. We’re still crossing our fingers for a summer paving since a deal was agreed to last year.

26 thoughts on “Rolls Report: March 21 – Finally First Freerolls”

  • StirThePot says:

    Fringe, if you’re looking to make your buggies even slower through the chute turn, might I recommend tank steering?

  • Shafeeq says:

    Is that a new Fringe buggy, or did they Bolt on a few new parts? Too bad they didn’t copy how skates corner.
    Still, I’m astounded that that steering arrangement is at all stable.

    • He doesn't even go here says:

      Its the same Fringe buggy that was under a blanket at design comp last year, besides, whats wrong with having 3 times the work to prep or maintain?

  • local 8 mm bearing rep says:

    I see nothing wrong with this, have you considered 4 wheels per, if 9 is good, 12 will rule…..

  • the pioe says:

    So much wrong:
    Those (in line skate) wheels are not fast. The best ones are designed ed for the skaters push, not the roll. And the bearing seats are rarely up to the loads from a buggy. We use them in derby when we want to slow down.
    Alignment: getting all 9 of these pointed in the same direction will be very hard, higher drag when they disagree.
    Turning: scrub in the turn will be huge as each wheel tries to track a different radius, taking last year’s fight between the 2 rear wheels to an epic level.
    Theory: I am a bit lost here, free roll rims seem reasonably good of late despite rough pavement. This may or may not work better over potholes but it would seem like this is solving a non issue.

    • StirThePot says:

      the free roll pavement is good now.

      They’re probably going to have smaller wheels mounted on the outside of each set, so that only one is in contact at a time (see also: bolt).

    • Shafeeq says:

      The bearing seats are barely up to the loads of skating. Though tripling the number of wheels might make the load per wheel more manageable.

    • Shafeeq says:

      Skipping paired wheels and going straight to 3 surprised me, but maybe that’s clever – most of the course imperfections are holes & cracks and not bumps, and with 3, any combination of 2 will bridge over most holes without bouncing the buggy.

        • McCue says:

          Can someone explain to me why wagon steering is good or bad and why it should or shouldn’t be used for this?

          • wagon's hoe says:

            In general, either style should work fine if properly implemented. Ackerman often ends up being poorly done at CMU with the wheels pointing in odd directions or at least not in the same direction. This makes for higher rolling resistance as the wheels fight each other to see who will get to go their way. Wagon, often being easier to implement, has worked well but can be hard to package (esp with bigger wheels) as parts of the driver often found in the place where the axle wants to be. In the specific case of the 9 wheels of doom, nothing can save them from their date with slow, not even a triple Ackerman with jesus sauce.

  • Rumor Lathe says:

    Fringe has clearly set themselves on an unsustainable path. Just look at their recent trend of wheels per buggy:

    2011: 3
    2012: 3
    2013: 3
    2014: 4
    2015: 9

    If we try to extrapolate, 2016’s buggy could have dozens of wheels (34, if the rate of wheel increase keeps quintupling) and the year after that could see 159, and in a few years, thousands. Eventually, Fringe buggies will have an infinite number of infinitely small wheels.

  • WheelsX9 says:

    I hear Fringe’s new wheel heating mechanism is roasting the tiny wheels over a fire like marshmallows.

Comments are closed.