ASK Cubby, 01.15.2015, Version- Looking for Answers, Blind to the Truth

“Newbie Who Is An Oldie

Hi Guys,

I just wanted to drop you guys a line to thank you for your website. I am a 65 year old senior who got into r/c back in the days of the original RC10 when my now 30 year old son wanted to go racing, which we did. We bought a kit and I put it together and we raced at an indoor off road track in Carlsbad, Ca. Fast forward to today and I am getting back into the sport sans my son who has moved onto to bigger and better things but I have always loved the tinkering with 1/10th scale electric. I am blown away by the technology in today’s cars with brushless and lipo battheries…Yes, we used old school brushed motors, NiCad batteries and AM radios…..Hey, I do have an extra Com Lathe if you want to buy one..LOL…Yes, I have kept all our stuff…

But my reason for writing to you is to THANK YOU for your site…..I’m also a computer/Internet nerd and love the info you guys offer and will be a regular reader as I am trying to come up to speed on all this new stuff….Gonna go Off Road…IERC in San Bernardino and On Road at TQ Racing in Chino……

Keep up the great work and maybe we will lock horns at IERC or TQ…….Seeya

Steven W.”

Cubby- Hey now Stevey, be sure to shoot us your snail mail so one of our interns can shoot you out a sticker pack.

First off, thanks for the props. Back in the day (not that long ago really) out of every 10 emails, 8 of them would be melting down on us, one would be incoherent, and the last one would be filled with love. Lately that has changed, the meltdown crowd is either getting lazy or burnt out, so now days out of 10 emails 8 are generally positive, which is nice to see considering all the time and effort we’ve put into the site.

About rc technology… 2005 was really the banner year. Around that time 2.4GHz radio gear, Lithium based batteries, and brushless motor technology really started gaining steam in our hobby. Sure, there were people that were slow to adopt, but ’05 was the year when all three “new” technologies started really taking off in rc. Since then the industry has been making small gains, refining the tech, making products even more reliable and efficient. This has resulted in cars with the power and run-times that you see today (that would have been unthinkable before the year 2000).

Btw… our hobby just might be on the verge of another big change. Look at the posts from the last couple of weeks here on BSRC. There is now a Carisma car that comes standard with hidden body mounts, Killerbody RC is putting out an entire scale rc garage, and heck, we just finished our very first review of “action figures”. 2005 was the boom year for technology, a decade later in 2015 we just might be seeing a scale realism revolution.

Peace and love Steve, and yes, we might very well be bumping elbows on the stand some day.

“SCT Shocks

In your opinion what’s the best shocks for short course? I’m looking for 110 mm preferably.

Thanks,
Drew H.”

Cubby- Yo MTV raps Drew, thanks for the email and welcome to the Big Time.

IMO the best 110mm short course shocks on the market are the Power Stroke shocks from Pro-Line. Why are they my favorites? For a few reasons actually. First off they hold up well when bashing. We very rarely bend a shaft or break a shaft end, and it is rare for them to leak. For performance, they are about as good as it gets. They have very little stiction, meaning they have very little friction between the seals and the shafts, and this makes them incredibly smooth. On top of all that, they are highly adjustable and their damping is as consistent as it gets. The Power Strokes are simply great shocks that don’t cost an arm and a leg.

Okey Dokey, that’s all I have for ya this week. Send your emails, questions, rants, and epic meltdowns to Cubby at BigSquidRC.com. Should your email hit our front page you’ll get a free sticker pack and if you are lucky enough to win the “Letter of the Month” you will get hooked up with a sweet BSRC t-shirt.

YOUR Cub Reporter