[U.S.CAT3K]

Would anyone have baseline gearing for a very tight and bumpy dirt track, Komodo Dragon 19T, BX? Started at 24/81 and ended the day at 27/81....straight line speed was getting much better, so I feel I was going in the right direction, but I still couldn't finish any of my 5-minute heats as it seems the motor was getting too hot and the car would start to slow and eventually stop moving (steering still worked, so I'm wondering how much the charge in the batteries influenced this). The shutting down could've been my batteries (having my GFX updated for lipos and had to use my Triton that weekend), but the motor definitely smelled like it was getting hot and the color of the comm confirmed it (was red with the 24 and became lighter in color every tooth I went up on the pinion). The motor had one race night on it previously and was properly broken in, though I've now switched to silver brushes since the stockers have blued on the ends.

Am I close with the gearing? Would going to an 84 or 87 spur help?

Thanks!

EDIT: upon researching it a bit, it looks like the 81 tooth spur is probably too small for how tight the track is, so I'll try the stock 84 and report back. On another note, I really like the BX so far.....great steering and bump handling comparable to my XX4 and will likely be more durable. Kind of surprised the car didn't do better in the U.S. For anyone still running this car, Bastos' French Nationals setup from PetitRC is a great baseline for dirt....the specified white springs are somewhat stiff for really rough tracks, so I'm going to try the softer Yok springs from the optional spring set to tone down some of the bounce and lengthen the front camber links to see if I can get a little more steering throughout the end of the turns.

I should also mention that dirt ingress into the drivetrain wasn't a problem; running Shadows' vinyl diff covers and a piece of tire foam stuffed into the outdrive to protect the thrust bearings, the diffs stayed smooth all day. I also used a small pick to remove any small pieces of dirt that found their way into the rear diff gear after every round, which I also had to do with my CAT 3000, though I don't remember ever reading about dirt getting stuck in the pulleys being as big a problem in that car.