I was intrigued about the popularity of the sliders, so decided to do a 3000 mile experiment. I did not use my Burg 400 because horsepower can smooth problems over. I used my modified 50 2T because I could afford to buy multiple parts and it is easy to change them out. The nice thing about the 50 is, what may go unnoticed on the 400, will really show up on the 50.
Here is what I found: Sliders really smooth out power delivery.
They don't give a lower gearing for takeoff- gram for gram.
They don't push the belt higher on the pulley, they just push the belt up sooner. This gives the lower rpm's at highway speeds.
Sliders do not react to changes in variator speeds as well as rollers and where it really shows is on hills. Hills where the rollers would pull 30mph, the sliders would drop back to 25. Hillls where I normally climbed them at 15mph from a standing start, I could only achieve 10mph.
The top speed was reduced by 5mph with the sliders. It seems to hit a wall at 35mph on the flats and down hill, where the rollers will allow a top speed of 40mph and bury the speedo (45+) on a down hill section. I have not figured out what cause the governing effect, but I know the engine is not the problem because of the almost 50mph with the rollers.
The change that makes the biggest difference is the belt width. The two belts were a millimeter and a half difference in width.
I also made changes to clutch engagement.
I only changed one variable at a time so I could record the effect of that change. This was not a seat of the pants, I think the performance is better, so it is. This is by the numbers, what I found out. For all around performance, acceleration, top end speed and power, rollers perform better. Sliders give a smoother transition of power and lower cruising revs, but reduced top speed. I don't think that the sliders react any differently in the 400. The 400 just does a better job masking the short comings that show up in the 50 2T.
These are my findings and my stop watch, speedo, GPS, ect... and are probably not as finely tune as most peoples seat of the pants, but I will stick to them.