New Products From Avid RC

From time to time I stop by my local tracks to see if I can spot anything the manufacturers might be ‘testing out’. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t. Last night I rolled up into West Coast RC Raceway, one of the premier indoor off-road facilities in SoCal. Sitting at the back of the room was a good friend of mine, Kurt “Coach” Wenger. Recently Coach left a cushy position at Team Associated to work with an up-and-coming parts designer, Avid RC.

As I strolled back there to talk to him and see how his new job was working out, he saw me coming and quickly closed his computer lid. Flag #1. And because he was sitting way in the back of the building with his back to the wall, that threw up Flag #2. Flag #3 was the easy one…I could see new wheels on his B4.1WC that I haven’t seen before.

We talked for a bit and I was able to get the scoop on a few new products Avid RC is coming out with. First up was a brand new set of 1/10 buggy wheels. These wheels have a few trick features not yet seen by other wheel manufacturers. For one, if you look closely at the lip of the wheel, it’s beveled abit away from the wheel’s face. If you use thin glue, this bevel helps prevent the glue from running down the face of the wheel. The second trick feature is the area the locknut goes. Check out the swirl design. These wheels are designed to work with non-locknut wheel nuts, and that swirl design helps grip the wheel nut and prevent it from loosening up.

Coach also showed me their new Short Course wheel. This wheel also features the knurled locknut area as well as the glue lip. The lip is a little different, but the idea is the same.

Next up was the clamping wheel hexes for the B4.1. I was able to sneak a pic of the silvery prototypes but was told that the production units would be anodized black and include a stainless screw. THese wheel hexes fit the Avid buggy wheels perfectly…of course.

The final product was a new set of front and rear buggy springs. These springs are hand-tested and labeled prior to shipping. A label is printed and pasted on the spring container (wait until you see this container) to show you how close they are that they are a matched set. This extra step ensures that you are getting a matched set of springs instead of a pair of springs that ‘might be the same’.

I got the 411 on a few other products but can’t release that info yet. Keep an eye out for these guys…they’re the new kids on the block that now do more than just bad-ass bearings!

[source: www.avidrc.com]