To slip or not to slip

I’ve been playing around with lightening up my slipper, both on the 22T 2.0 and B5M.

On the TLR, I had an old Avid Triad slipper lying around that I installed.  It doesn’t fit quite right, you should use your old spring, nut, and spring adapter, but it dropped 5 grams off of the drivetrain which is huge!  It also places the weight closer to the center of rotation.  Much like an ice skater doing spins, the closer you bring the weight in to the center, the faster it spins.  Moving the weight outside slows down the rotation.

The truck is faster, not tons, but I can definitely tell.  I was able to drop another 0.3-0.4 seconds off my laptime with some additional tuning.

Stock slipper with garodisc pads:

Avid Triad slipper:

On the B5M, I jumped in with two feet and installed an Exotek slipper eliminator.  I’m not sure on the weight savings yet, but I would guess somewhere around 8-10 grams.  You can get rid of the spring and I went to an aluminum nut (instead of stock steel), so that should add up.  The buggy spins up MUCH faster than before, I’d say acceleration increased something like 20%.  It’s quite a change.  You also get more precise throttle application with the eliminator.  It makes it harder to drive, because it’s less forgiving, but if you have the skills it should help overall.  Hopefully my spur and pinion gears don’t get chewed up too bad, otherwise there isn’t really a downside.