::[LTD] R145 Discussion::
Okay, we all know R145 is a good track for 3-sided attack wheels (you can look through just about any thread in this subforum and find results that show that), and I think we've all come to the conclusion after facing down MF-H Bakushin Leone 90RSF that it's not so great at attacking by itself. If you try it out just by putting it on a ZG wheel and doing solo spins with it in either orientation and comparing it to GB145, it also becomes obvious it can be used to either improve or worsen the imbalance of Zero G wheels (or for the better balanced ones, increase the imbalance more or less compared to GB145), meaning for adding weight while retaining stamina it is usually superior to GB145, (something I'll do solo spins to show if I ever sort out my trouble getting consistent times for more than 3-4 trials in a row).
We've also seen from testing in other topics that for attacking low opponents, it is inferior to H145 (which also works better on phoenic by covering up more recoily contact points than R145), unless your metal wheel itself can do this. This is all quite obvious and consistent with past findings and there's not much else to look into with it for attack at this point aside from testing on specific wheels. As such it's worth asking "th!nk, why are you making a thread for it, we don't need it, we're done, do something more useful."
Well, there's one aspect that I think we've overlooked: Defense. While R145 is the heaviest viable defense track (A230 is heavier as are a few of the 4D bottoms even accounting for tip weight), meaning it is without any real doubt going to perform better against anything that doesn't make contact with it, it is regularly accused of having excessive recoil. I disagree. Every case I've seen of people saying R145 increased recoil in this subforum seems to be due to it exposing a contact point on the wheels underside that caused that recoil. "But th!nk", you may say, "we have GB145 and that's quite round surely it is better!" Well, not really. GB145 is an oval, and that means its widest axis still provides leverage for opponents, quite a bit of it, it seems. Futhermore, in addition to being lighter than R145, whereas R145 can flex upward slightly when hit in that direction, GB145 does not, which means in the rare occasion they're against an attacker that can hit them upwards from below, R145 is much better suited to taking the hit, whereas GB145 is uh, pretty awful at it from what I saw today.
Lastly, R145 also covers more of the underside of the metal wheel, which means it will take more hits for the MW than GB145, and despite its shape, in my testing at least this seems to be beneficial.
To test this, I used a very specific matchup, MF-H Leone 85LRF vs MF-H Earth Aquario GB145/R145CS.
Leone is chosen because its contact points are very low and have a lot of horizontal smash around the height that GB145 and R145 protrude at. It also doesn't make as much MW contact as most other things I tried that had the power to do anything to CS in this setup. LRF is used because it was the most reliably aggressive rubber flat variant I could find and honestly I kinda like it on Right Spin beys. CS is chosen because RSF wrecks everything really so you'd not see a big difference, and it's also decently tall.
The results were shocking even to me, and I'll talk about that afterwards:
MF-H Earth Aquario GB145 CS vs MF-H Leone 85LRF
Standard Testing Conditions, one L/R launcher, tips cleaned every round, stadium cleaned thoroughly before round 1.
Detailed Results (Click to View)
Leone: 10/20 = 50% (All KO)
MF-H Earth Aquario R145CS vs MF-H Leone 85LRF
Standard Testing Conditions, everything same as above (yes, cleaned the stadium again just in case).
Detailed Results (Click to View)
Leone: 3/20 = 15% (All KO)
Comparison of Results: R145: 85%, GB145: 50%
As you can see, R145 scored an extra 35% compared to GB145. This strikes even me as excessive, so I have some thoughts on how it happened:
First off, I have heard rumors that some R145's are softer or harder than others. Mine may be particularly flexible, helping absorb hits better.
One thing I did notice is that Earth had much less stamina in the R145 battles, more than I'd expect R145 itself to cause. It's possible that hits to R145 result in rotational recoil rather than regular recoil, reducing spin in exchange for not moving as much, and what I observed in the trials did suggest that was occurring - Earth R145 would sometimes "pause" from hits but not really move anywhere.
While Leone was the most suitable wheel I could find, from the hits I do think it was getting under the tracks, and as explained in the intro, this gives R145 a huge advantage it might not normally have. Still though, side-on hits to the track moved R145 noticeably less in all but a couple of occasions.
Finally, Leone DID score a couple of very hard hits on Earth R145, but both resulted in wall saves. I doubt it, but perhaps it isn't making good side-on contact most of the time or whatever. I don't think there's anything else that could make side-on contact with the track without making contact with the metal wheel every time (even Leone 90 would result in much more metal on metal contact), but still, these did make me pause for thought.
Basically, I'd appreciate it if someone else could reproduce these exact matchups to check my tests. Hopefully someone actually has Leone because I really cannot find a viable substitute, and I've looked at basically everything so don't quiz me on whether each other wheel individually would be an adequate substitute, the answer is basically always going to be "No, but if you want to test it go ahead".
EDIT: If you don't have Leone, Bahamdia on 85RF/R2F/LRF with a small, flat Crystal Wheel such as Dark Knight would probably suffice. Harder to tell if you're hitting GB145 or making crystal wheel contact but it should hit the track plenty.
To Do List for Me, Feel Free To Help Out
Comparatives with GB145 against 145 height attack
Comparatives with GB145 against taller attack types - maybe Cosmic on the off chance its force smash could affect R145 worse????
Solo Spin comparatives with ZG wheels in both orientations with comparisons to GB145.
Upload photos of post-test wear on GB145 to show it does get hit pretty hard.