I just switched over to the mini gears, having raced them for the first time last weekend. I chose the Sharp Quick Change mini gear hub, mainly to save time, when changing gears between races. So far so good. I will need more time on them to know for sure, but it seemed like they helped me with my starts. I have struggled to attach myself to the karts in front of me, on 95% of my restarts. I did not have that problem this past weekend. Might be a coincidence, might not be... We shall see.
How do you determine what rpm the engine likes to be at coming off the corner? Also, why as close to 50 as possible? I know you can run that gearing with standard size sprockets, do you notice a difference?