Heusinkveld Sim Pedals Sprint Interview and First Impressions

[Paul Jeffrey]

We talk to Niels Heusinkveld and try out the soon to be released Heusinkveld Sim Pedals Sprint.

Catching up with Niels Heusinkveld at the recent very busy Sim Racing Expo over in Germany, we took the opportunity to quiz the man behind Heusinkveld Engineering about his newly announced Sim Pedals Sprint set of high end sim racing pedals. With Niels in a buoyant mood following what appeared to be a largely very positive reception to the new hardware, we took the opportunity to question him about the features and improvements of the new gear, learning plenty about how some dramatic software features and production improvements have moved the product range on from the already very impressive offerings of HE Engineering.

Not content with merely taking Niels at his word, we also couldn't quite resist the chance to get strapped into the cockpit and have a go ourselves, recording a short but sweet talk and drive segment as we give our first impressions based on the limited time we had with these brand new set of pedals.

Frankly, I was very impressed, although it is exceptionally hard to gather any serious kind of feel with something like a high end set of pedals with such a short period of time behind the wheel... not helped any by a crowd of people watching on, and a camera and microphone in my face!

However, with that said I'm going to be lucky enough to take receipt of a review set of these pedals in the very near future, so please consider this more of a taster video, with a much more in depth and detailed look at the HE Sim Pedals Sprint set to appear on our various social media channels in the near future. So stay tuned, get subscribed and watch out for some new footage in the (hopefully) coming weeks...

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[Enzo Fazzi]

Received mine today too. I just compared my brake against your pic and it's built the same way.

Got some cutting, drilling and polishing ahead of me

View attachment 308899 View attachment 308900

Just a question out of personal interest, what material is that plate and how thick is it?

 

[o Tiger Feet o]

The baseplate is very difficult to mount, much harder than the older HE version, due to the limited access to the mounting holes for the bolts. A real pain actually!

Very much this! I've taken a brake before things start getting smashed.

 

[sam75]

I feel your pain

I ended up removing the heel plate to get access to the pesky bolts and then re-mounted the heel plate once the rails were bolted in place. I nearly took the pedals off too but somehow managed to get the bolts started in the t-slot nuts. Once you get the thread going it gets easier (a bit.. ) .

Good luck anyway ! It’s worth the effort

 

[EsxPaul]

Just a question out of personal interest, what material is that plate and how thick is it?

Enzo, it is stainless steel 430, 2mm thick.

 

[EsxPaul]

They're meant to be like that. View attachment 308904
Besides, it doesn't matter all that much where you have the larger diameter spacers, just as long as they're on both sides of the rubber, and in between rubbers if you use multiple.

Thanks for clarifying that.

I think the slight confusion comes from the picture in the manual called "Available brake stiffness settings"

In that picture the illustration shows a slightly different order of arrangement for the default setting. No big deal though

 

[White Hawk]

Thanks for clarifying that.

I think the slight confusion comes from the picture in the manual called "Available brake stiffness settings"

In that picture the illustration shows a slightly different order of arrangement for the default setting. No big deal though

Mine was set just like the default configuration with the XL rubber.

 

[EsxPaul]

Mine was set just like the default configuration with the XL rubber.

I'm guessing they decided to make a change at some point after the v1 went to print.

I'll most likely spend far too many hours faffing around to test out the range of feeling that can be achieved. I'm also thinking of using the "I had the brake rubbers in the wrong order" excuse for my terrible lap times

 

[White Hawk]

I'm guessing they decided to make a change at some point after the v1 went to print.

I'll most likely spend far too many hours faffing around to test out the range of feeling that can be achieved. I'm also thinking of using the "I had the brake rubbers in the wrong order" excuse for my terrible lap times

Actually I think mine might have been the same, I’ve since changed it to the next harder configuration so forgot but I did take one photo beforehand.

 

[Enzo Fazzi]

Hello everyone, here's something I've been working on for the past couple of weeks that you might find useful:

https://heusinkveld.com/sim-pedals-sprint-smartcontrol-presets/?v=796834e7a283

 

[o Tiger Feet o]

I managed to set up my Sprints and base plate last night.

Other than the 2 rear mounting bolts of the base plate to rig being a fiddley-faff everything went smoothly.

The only thing I cant do is loosen the bolt holding the brake plate on, so I can turn it round. Its super tight. On the rear is a locking nut, but the problem is its so tight the allen bolt on the face side will round off if I give it anymore torque. Any ideas?

My hamstrings are aching this morning after a few hours use last night Abit of fine tuning is required I think

 

[White Hawk]

I managed to set up my Sprints and base plate last night.

Other than the 2 rear mounting bolts of the base plate to rig being a fiddley-faff everything went smoothly.

The only thing I cant do is loosen the bolt holding the brake plate on, so I can turn it round. Its super tight. On the rear is a locking nut, but the problem is its so tight the allen bolt on the face side will round off if I give it anymore torque. Any ideas?

My hamstrings are aching this morning after a few hours use last night Abit of fine tuning is required I think

Same issue I had with the Throttle plate which did round the bolt as it was so tight, I had a little Draper ratchet so used that instead of the little spanner that you can’t get a good grip on the nut on the other side with and I loosened from the nut instead of the bolt and that seemed a bit easier on it, but as the bolt wouldn’t take an Allen key anymore I had to use a star shaped Torx head screw driver to hold it as I turned the ratchet.

 

[o Tiger Feet o]

Cheers... As suspected then. I really didnt want to be bodging tools in my new pedals.... Problem is without returning the whole lot what can you do.

 

[White Hawk]

Cheers... As suspected then. I really didnt want to be bodging tools in my new pedals.... Problem is without returning the whole lot what can you do.

That’s the only thing you can do if you want to lower that plate I guess, if you have other tools to do the job with better grip on the nut and bolt then give it a go, not sure I’d want to use a drill on it. Just be slow and careful with it, if you don’t have the tools I’m not sure, don’t know if they will replace the whole pedal to sort it out for you, maybe. Anyone else got any ideas in here?

 

[o Tiger Feet o]

Its a shame because its a nicely thought out idea let down by a too small/weak bolt.

 

[Enzo Fazzi]

Don't worry about destroying the bolt. We can send you replacements. It's a bit annoying that they're still being overtightened. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

[Kevin Cox]

My brake pedal started spiking today and reads 65kg even though I'm hardly pressing the pedal. Only had these for 4 months. I have never modified them and just used them as is straight out the box.

 

[Enzo Fazzi]

My brake pedal started spiking today and reads 65kg even though I'm hardly pressing the pedal. Only had these for 4 months. I have never modified them and just used them as is straight out the box.

This is the issue that was mentioned before. We've seen a small percentage of brakes fail and we've updated the loadcell mount so it doesn't happen anymore. Send us an email at support@heusinkveld.com and I'll ship a new brake to you.

 

[Fabrizio85]

@Enzo Fazzi Congrats for your customer service, I've received a new brake for replacement in just three days.
@Kevin Cox Don't worry, you're in good hands

 

[Fabrizio85]

And added two 3mm thick stainless steel plates above and below that main plate to avoid flex.

 

[Elaphe]

I have a problem: after installing my pedals, the cable that goes from the throttle to the brake is 1 cm short. They are in a fix position so moving them close means making new drills and it would be a hassle. Is there a way to fix this problem, any kind of standard extender? I could cut the cable and join all the tiny cables one by one, but would that void the warranty?