slot racing torture

Hehe, yeah, that was me. ;-)
The biggest problem with marshaling the bikes was when someone would knock their rider off. It's only too bad I didn't put blue-tack on their butts BEFORE the race, rather than after.

I noticed those are the non-leaning type,I have the scx leaners and was going
to build a wood hillclimb course till I figured out that without magnets they just fall over....
and magna braid is too much$$$.so I scrapped the thought.

That definitely adds a new dimension....

Yeah, they're the Scalextric "stiff as a board" type. I had wanted one (just one, really) for a while, but then my LHS put them on sale at $10 each. Well, I walked out with 4 of them, of course! Chipping them was a tough choice, knowing how quirky they are to drive, but I'm a sucker for quirky and challenging, so I did it. Fortunately, someone already figured out how to chip them, and I followed their guide almost precisely. I think I'll bring them to a friend's house this Wednesday and see how they run on his 4 lane analog routed MDF track.

Mr Flip, I have four of these sitting in the 'waiting to be chipped' pile. I had imagined all of the problems you encountered but was still hoping to get them done some fine day. I like the power-down idea. You have not discouraged me yet!

Good! I hope that the video is more ENcouraging than DIScouraging. Anyone who watches more than one heat will see several times when all 4 racers make it through multiple laps without crashing. It's especially fun when a couple are very close together or passing.

My son likes them even better with the magnet removed. It pops off easily. With low power, no magnet, and no brakes, they take longer to gain speed and slow down, plus they kind of tail out in the turns. They are even harder to keep in the slot without that downforce, though.

They're not everyone's cup of tea, though. You can quite clearly hear one of the guys suggest an IROC rule that bans Moto GP bikes. ;-)

I just came by a few of these and decided not to chip them after reading what was involved... APB at least gives me that choice... you are a brave man!

Does putting blue tack on your bum really help slot racing... must try that next time i'm at the club

Yes, that's where the computer screen is that people turn to look at and use the mouse and such on it.
Glad you enjoyed the races. I admit, sometimes I'll rewatch videos like that just to bring back the memories of how it felt. There's another one where I had a group of analog guys over, and it's well over an hour long. Lots of great racing in that one. It's the "PSSRA at Rainier Raceways" video in my YT videos.

Sadly am a rug racer - no permanent track - but am setting one up in the kitchen tonight to have a play (10' x 5' to play with, and enough curves of varying radii to allow me to cram as much track into the space as possible).

I set up an oval in the living room last night just fer ****s n' giggles - you DO have to lean them - noticable speed improvement when you get it right. If you lean wrong way into a corner the rear gets no traction and it just stops with the rear spinning on the spot... go too fast and they fly out of the slot like a rocket. If you don't lean and just keep them upright, noticably slow, at a guess mainly due to lack of traction from rubber slicks directly on the metal rails vs mag strength, but lean em just slightly off so the rear hits textured plastic and they don't `arf shift it some! If I can slacken the front yoke off on each, then they'd probably even counter-steer like a proper bike as you drop them into the bends.

Main discovery thus far is the magnets are vicious, and positioned just behind the guide. It's strong enough to stop it on the plastic centers of changeover sections unless attacking flat out... so they need adjusting. Fortunately these Bycmo bikes have adjustable mags - two screws raise or lower the mag.

The motors sound fairly rough, but that'll be the linkage to the back wheel... and there's a high pitched whine from the separate motor that handles the leaning that could get annoying after a while. The roughness kinda suits them tho.

The detail in the models is great, and build quality feels quite good. Can't imagine chipping one for digi unfortunately - don't think there's space in there unless you could embed the chip into the rider, but he already acts as a cover for existing circuitry. As they're 1/24, they tower over my Scaley cars... not sure my flyover supports will go high enough!

They come with controller adapters to cover all brands of track too which is quite handy.