Gears and Busses

[freakyfrogfortyfive]

Is it worth it to add gears to my main bus in factorio?

[daniel0674]

Yes. in the vanilla game gears take two iron plates, which in effect means that two iron plate belts are equal to one iron gear wheel belt. Gears are also used in a lot of other recipes down the line and are the first things I include in my main bus, alongside of Steel.

[menghao]

It's a matter of taste.

[freakyfrogfortyfive]

Ok thanks for the quick replies

[Emmote]

Some people say no, because gears are used in such high quantity, and are made very quickly, that it's better to make them locally, others say yes for reasons daniel already said.

It's really up to you. Bussing gears can simplify your factory a little, but just be prepared to expand, because you will use a lot of gears.

[Greep]

It's mostly true on marathon/deathworld games, where each gear is 4 iron, so you get more than a single blue belt of iron's worth material in a single yellow belt. On default.. honestly it just doesn't matter that much. I personally would, but some guides say otherwise.

[GMC]

The compression is good; but some counterpoints:

• While gears are used extensively for science and for factory construction, rockets barely need any (the satellite needs 5 radars which need 5 gears each).
  
  
• Unlike circuits (of any colour), gears only have a single ingredient (iron plates), so making them locally doesn't reduce the transport overhead beyond the "compression", and may increase it: if a product needs both iron plates and gears, bussing gears means that you need two belts, making them locally only needs the one for iron.
  
  
• If consumption of gear-heavy products drops (the consumption of different types of science pack varies according to the specific technology being researched), those gear belts will be using up space which could have been used for iron plates (which are always in demand).