The Chicane Podcast

Moza Active Pedal Worth It?

• Track Ghost Sim Racing • Episode 47

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"It's like the Jetsons, but it's here now." These words perfectly capture the excitement coursing through the sim racing community as affordable 3D printing technology transforms what's possible for home racing setups. In this tech-packed episode, Jason, Eric, and Jeff share their journey into the world of 3D printing, revealing how this once-futuristic technology has become an essential part of their sim racing evolution.

The conversation takes a major turn as we dive into Moza's market-disrupting hardware announcements. Their new force feedback shifter offers 12Nm of torque with incredible versatility—functioning as an H-pattern shifter, sequential, handbrake, or even a flight stick. But the true showstopper is their M Booster active pedal, priced at $799-$999, less than half the cost of competitors like Simicube. We explore the important question on everyone's mind: can this budget-friendly option deliver comparable performance to its premium-priced rivals?

The team also explores iRacing's latest update, which brings significant graphic improvements that make third-party visual enhancement tools obsolete. We challenge preconceptions about NASCAR sim racing, with the hosts agreeing that oval racing delivers some of the most intense and challenging virtual racing experiences available. The episode wraps with valuable insights on overcoming VR motion sickness, offering practical tips that could help more sim racers experience the immersion of virtual reality racing.

Whether you're considering upgrading your sim racing hardware, curious about 3D printing possibilities, or looking to enhance your virtual racing experience, this episode provides essential insights from experienced enthusiasts who are constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible in home sim racing. Subscribe now and join our community of passionate racers exploring the cutting edge of virtual motorsport!

TGSR Studio Preview: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHaKl3ARw4c/?igsh=OG01dHE4MnJxM3N0

https://mozaracing.com/en-us/mbooster-active-pedal/

Please e-mail the show for any questions, comments or stories/experiences at thechicanepodcast@gmail.com

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Intro/Outro Rights below:
Song: Low Mileage - Hold You [NCS Release]
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Jason:

The Hello and welcome to the Chicane Podcast, where we discuss all things in the sim racing world. I'm your host, Jason Rivera, and I'm joined here by Mr Eric Kelly and Jeff Smart. How's everybody doing today?

Jeff:

Doing good, doing good, dude, we got some stuff to talk about. There's been a lot of news in the sim racing world in the past week. We got a lot of stuff today. I'm telling you.

Jason:

Q2 came, it's here and they're lighting a fire on the market which, eric, has all the goodies for us today. Welcome back everybody. Everybody's in good shape. It seems like we're running through the year right 2025, already approaching April.

Jeff:

I can't believe it. Week one of F1's under our belt.

Erick:

A little bit wet weekend.

Jeff:

Oh yeah, oh yeah and when this hits the streets, we'll be done week two, I guess.

Jason:

Huh yeah, in china listen and please don't tell the seven time world champion how to drive a car. You're pissing the guy off on the first, on the opening gp hey, I heard k1's available. I don't want to use it right now he's like, I'll let you know I'm not close enough, stop it like, like.

Erick:

Please don't repeat it.

Jason:

Please say it one time, that's it all right, so let's get into some announcements this week. Obviously we have a plethora of stuff to cover which which I'm going to let that sink in the main discussion. But for me, for myself, it's been nothing but a lot of plastic in the TGSR studio, a lot of burning plastic, melting plastic. It's 3D printing and again I apologize if today we go over 3D printing. Please mute the video. Please don't.

Jeff:

But yeah, we're like three new kids with a new toy.

Jason:

It's the toy for adults, I'm telling you, and it's the toy that everybody wants to use in the house, and I'm pretty sure the gentleman here can attest. So I mean, I'm running two printers now and I did a preview of uh, of my studio. If you want to check it out, it's on instagram so you can see what, what it looks like in in the background. Um, what else? Nothing, nothing, really else for me. I like that. Um gro uh. Season 12 for the porsche started today, at the time of this recording, which is thursday today, uh, and we had 37 porsches on the track. So thank you so much for the new users that signed up. If you're curious, and if you just found this video and you're curious what GRL is, please look in the videos. We have two videos already that we made on the league and it's been fantastic. That's it for me. I'll pass this over to Mr Kelly.

Erick:

Yeah, as far as announcements go been 3D printing. You see, yeah, um, as far as announcements go been 3d printing, like you see, I it's. Like you said, it's the, it's the hobby for adults, but it's also they. They've made leaps and bounds with the printers, so it's a lot more hands-off, a lot more efficient. It it's just. I can't. My mind is still blown at the possibility of going to sleep and there being just an empty bed and waking up and I have a thing on there. I printed this last night.

Jason:

It's like bro oh no.

Jeff:

It's cool man.

Jason:

That looks solid. Wait, wait, you got the QR what. Rob Markman Jr. Yes, Okay, look how solid. Look, he's struggling to get that wheel off. That tells you right there, rob.

Erick:

Markman Jr. So this is specifically for Sip Magic.

Jeff:

Yo, it's even got the logo put on and everything.

Erick:

Rob Markman Jr. Yeah, if I had AMS I could have did multicolor.

Jason:

And carbon fiber.

Erick:

Yeah, carbon fiber and even I can't focus here. Yeah, and so it's set up for the QR. There's a little bit of stuff up there from the supports, but it prints in two pieces and you put them together. This one I actually reached out to the guy guy designed it because he made one that was shorter and I asked him if he had a taller one with an a1 profile and he was like sure, and dropped this in there and like I say it's.

Erick:

it's like when I first picked it up off the printer, like this is like solid that might have taken a minute, huh yeah, like this, took probably about 5 hours to print just this stem piece cause of the walls probably yeah, solid this is pretty much solid filament here. I took a chunk out of the roll huh yeah, but you know that's the price you pay and yeah, look at that, no worries, just snap the wheel on no delicacy?

Jason:

none at all, man but yeah, looks good over there, it's a conversation piece you need to plug it in to get the wheel to light up in the background.

Erick:

I was gonna talk I was gonna talk to you about that because I need that to happen, because I originally wanted to put them on the wall, but then I'm like I got a 3D printer I can print stands. He's like I ain't got time for these Kind of dope man, so yeah.

Jason:

And then you got the shelves too. I see you with the shelves, yeah.

Erick:

Yeah, 3d printed those floating shelves there's three of them, I don't know, just kind of having that for the PC space. Some other stuff I printed in the past, like a little Porsche that's nice clean too a desk version.

Jason:

They got the big, they got a 60 inch version.

Erick:

I want to print the wall version.

Jason:

I don't have the room for it.

Erick:

I don't have the room because in my mind, like right above this desk right here, the problem is if that print, if it fails, it ain't important Because there's so many pieces, like the amount of filament and time. I got anxiety about that. I'm tempted to, but it's been printing more stuff for the rig. Like this is for the power switch.

Jason:

Dude, this guy.

Erick:

This is a strain relief for the USB. The USB and the power Focus up. Look at that. It even says it. It's stuff that you would. At this point I'm pretty nice to have Just customizing stuff, cleaning it up, and it's great.

Jason:

I mean, I've been on the same kind of journey. I'll show what I printed out a stand for that carbon fiber. You can see my face now. It's just a stand to hold them up, and that's the texture that we looked at on the website, just so you guys can see what it, what it legit looks like. And they are double-sided so you can print on both sides. And here's the other, the other texture that I have there. See if the light can kind of grab it there. Yeah, you see it there anyways. That, anyways, that's part of the addiction. Right, it's the honeymoon phase. We're going to print all kinds of shit and even things that we don't need. We're still going to print them just to see. Oh yeah, just to see I got this stuff that I printed for me.

Erick:

Like my wife, she's been sending me stuff, she's got a watch charger oh, she's got a list, bro, for you. Yeah, tablet stand and all kind of little stuff Same here. The more she starts going down that rabbit hole, I'm sure going to get a lot more stuff.

Jason:

Oh yeah, Jeff, what do you have to say?

Jeff:

bro Out with it, my problem is my wife got it and she saw me printing some stuff out and she's like how you doing that? So she went out there and got the. She went out and got the bamboo lab app. So like if, as soon as the printer goes idle, you got like, and my, and then my dad, you know he's on vacation out here hanging out and he downloaded the app. So if that printer is idle at the moment, it goes idle and it's cleared off with the next print, well, you better send something to it because somebody else is. So we like we just finished and my wife got the. Uh, she just put something for the, for the crocs, the kids, you know, the kids got the croc, little things on them, oh she printed that out.

Jeff:

Uh, nice, yeah, so she, um, but like about that the first time. So I got, we went, I got some new speakers for the surround sound in the living room and I'm on Amazon looking for mounts for them so they can mount to the wall and stuff, and I'm like wait a second, yeah, let me jump in there. Not only do they have mounts, but they got mounts for the speaker making model that I have, yeah, the one-to-one, yeah. And then, oh, you don't like that one. They got ones that like rotate and pivot and all this other stuff. So, yeah, it was cool. I had like two custom ones and then, you know, just like small little shelf speakers. They look awesome, save $60. Easy.

Jason:

So… that's the first time that you're saving a large chunk of cash. In the long run they'll pay for themselves, I think, in the long run.

Jeff:

And then, when in doubt, I'm just printing off cable management clips for the rig. There's more cable management here on the rig now than there ever has been.

Jason:

These printers got here last week. They haven't stopped up until we had to record this episode. Yeah, exactly.

Jason:

They're probably questioning did he get tired? But this studio has been just nothing but all night. Anyway, again, we are not Bamboo Lab sponsors. We all got Bamboo Lab printers. I would love to be one. I would wear a shirt. We're just sharing out the wonderful hobby that we explored late, because 3D printing has been here for a while. But it's very different watching someone print something than you having something in your house, and all three of us can agree to that, I think.

Erick:

I mean very different owning. It's the, it's the future, but it's here like it's I mean it's yeah, like um. I think last week neil was saying it's like the jetsons, or somebody referred to that. That's exactly what it feels like, like cartoons, when they depict the future and they have a little box and they close the door and open it up and something disappears there.

Jason:

That's that's like something being beamed down to you, so yeah, you're 100, right.

Jeff:

So I forget what I printed and I brought it down. I showed my dad and my parent, my mom and dad, and it was hard for them to like, understand. Like when you say you press the button and we birthed it, like, and it we it appeared like it's hard for them to understand. You know, like how it works. You know like, boom, it's a picture on a computer and an hour later, boom, I have it in my hand, solid reality.

Jason:

It's like the jetsons.

Jeff:

That's the funniest analogy I've heard in a long time it's the.

Erick:

It's the closest thing, man. Yeah, that's the closest thing I can, but god bamboo.

Jeff:

That's the closest thing I can. But God bamboo sure makes it easy and like just easy.

Jason:

Right, and we're just talking. This is not just a sim racing printing machine. It's an appliance. Now, this is definitely part of the home. It's an appliance. This is a tool. That's this is a. Let me stop, bro. Let me stop On to the show. Jeff, how was your week? I mean that's part of your week.

Jeff:

Yeah, yeah. No, it's been good. It's spring break for the kids, so spending some time with him yeah, racing a bunch, which I'll get into it here in my topic here, but that was good man.

Jason:

Boy. We got a lot to cover today, though. All right, yes, we do, and and I don't again, I don't want to hammer the the followers of the show appreciate you all. Um, yes, but 3d printing? I am open to any questions, and so are so are, so is jeff, and so is eric. So keep those comments coming. Those are fun. We love seeing those. Um, anyways, I will pass this on to eric for the first topic of the day. Um, yeah, what are we? What are we talking about, brother?

Erick:

so, uh, there's a little company who makes emracing products called moza. You might have heard of them they. They uh shook things up today. Well, yesterday, uh, they released a new product and they released several products, but in reality I think two at most are really kind of still in the show. I start out with the you know basically the secondary one first. So this is one of the things they released. It's a force feedback base. Right, I call it a base because it's a shifter. It can be a handbrake, it can be a sequential, it can be h pattern, six speed, seven speed uh, and it has 12 newton meters uh of torque 12 newton meters on a shifter damn yes yes, and they were talking about some of the things that you could emulate with it and even, like you know, missing gears when you're shifting.

Erick:

They can simulate that, um, when it's a sequential, like I, I don't do much shifting, but they were talking about with the amount of torque it can create like a lot of resistance, almost like a bump stop. You can adjust that, like as far as travel and stuff. It's. It's pretty interesting, uh, to be honest. Uh, I think we're talking about this with somebody else on the podcast.

Jason:

We're like they're marketing flight. Sticks with it. You see that.

Jeff:

Yeah Dang, those aren't cheap, huh.

Jason:

Yep, the flight sticks.

Jeff:

Yeah, just the stick on the top of the thing is $180.

Jason:

Bro, look at a Verpo stick. You're looking at $1,000 for a stick. Sheesh yeah. It's kind of cheap this is where I'd be down here.

Erick:

Yeah, that's where I'd be. $40 shifter knob $40,.

Jason:

Yeah, Let her rip tater chip or just print one, whatever.

Erick:

Oh yeah, hey look, you got it right, man you damn right they're coming out with that dumb adapters. So 12 peak.

Jeff:

It'd be cool, if you have, you know, the moza clutch, if they could integrate that, because it would be a software thing, right, hmm, where it doesn't give you the gear if your clutch isn't in yeah, and that actually would be pretty simple yeah.

Erick:

Because it's kind of like a binary thing.

Jason:

There is that shifter that I'm looking at printing the one that Vlad mentioned.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Jason:

The one he built, and it has that feature in it, and that's what I'm waiting for.

Jeff:

So they're really pushing the flight sims on this too, and racing huh.

Erick:

Yeah, I feel like racing is kind of secondary. I think that this will probably be targeted more towards the Flight Sim guys. I think it'd be cool, but they were just from their marketing it seems to be pretty heavily geared toward being beneficial for Flight Sims to use it. For that, I think they did a great, great job of, you know, consolidating products, because you buy this base and it's essentially whatever you need.

Jason:

yeah, that makes it worth it, because you have two in one, basically, or three in one, so you got a sequential flight stick and an h pattern yeah, and yeah, it's handbrake, it seems like you know, because a lot I see a lot of people trying to have rigs that do both.

Jeff:

You know it's hard to do both good, but this one would give you the option to switch over and put a flight controller on there.

Jason:

Well, this solves a problem that most of us like. Just exactly what you said, jeff. I'm into flight sims, but I have so much racing hardware it's hard for me to move stuff around. So if I can have one piece, that's only half. All I need is a throttle quadrant, that's it. And then when?

Jeff:

I want to go flying. It's not cheap, though, huh Damn 549.

Jason:

I would like to try it. I would like to try it.

Jeff:

You said it had some type of direct was it direct dive? I forget what it had for the 12 newton meters, so it's got like think of it as a base.

Jason:

Look at that. Read that, Jeff it's. It says that it simulates turbulence in the stick.

Jeff:

That's cool. I mean, I don't know the first thing about uh, uh, uh, but that seems cool yeah, it really does and it says it's using dual servo motors and they're delivering the peak torque a 12 newton meters. So I don't know probably not some type of direct drive.

Erick:

Then I'm not a direct drive yeah, and I think direct drive uh well, I don't know yeah, direct drive is technically a servo.

Jason:

Yeah, it might just be kind of, but why is he using two of them Interesting?

Jeff:

Maybe to create that One's good, two's better.

Jason:

Right, Maybe to create that cross friction right, Left and right and up and down. That's probably why they're using two of them. See, with steering on our rigs it's only left and right and up and down. That's probably why they're using two of them. See, with steering on our rigs is only left and right. So that probably, but they look tiny oh maybe so. Maybe it's 12, 12, 12,. Sorry for interrupting. Maybe it's 12 Newton's peak, but that means six a piece.

Jeff:

Oh, maybe like left and right, forward and backwards.

Erick:

Yeah, more than likely, because just look at the way they're saying it like equipped with dual servo motors and if it's like that, six newtons is not I?

Jeff:

I mean, I'm going to say something that might, you know, trigger some people, but I wonder where moza is in the flight sim hierarchy of equipment. You know? I think it's probably you know somewhere, but it started yeah, you know, but in the sim world they're probably slight arcing upwards.

Erick:

I wonder where they fit in the pecking order for flight sim equipment uh, I don't do any flight sim, yeah, but I mean I'd say it's probably budget.

Jeff:

You think so, for 500-something bucks is budget now. What's a budget base now go for in sim racing.

Jason:

I disagree, eric, because you got Thrustmaster I think those are the budget ones and you got Logitech making flight sticks that are like 100 bucks yeah.

Erick:

I guess that's true.

Jason:

But the thing is that the price is $549, right.

Erick:

But it's not just a flight stick.

Jason:

It's a dual triple, it's three things in one. But if I was a flight sim only guy, I wouldn't be looking at this. I would be looking at something especially for that price. I would be looking at something a little different, right, something like a Verpool, or I forget the other ones, but Verpool is the one that that resonates with me. I like. I like their brand.

Erick:

Yeah, something more purpose built. And it makes sense that I think the person using the single rig and trying to do dual you know, do racing and flights in this will probably have like immense value because of the space savings. Oh true.

Jason:

And you see the top of that right. It looks like some sort of quick disconnect where you can push down and spin it to lock it Twist to lock. That's what it looks like. It looks clean, it looks like a modern design. You know it's just six newtons on a shifter is not that much torque, you know, because you got to think, guys, you think if it's a short shifter, then leverage right. The less leverage, the less force. But if you have a somewhat medium-sized shifter, six newtons is nothing you can.

Jeff:

That looks cool.

Jason:

Yeah, I don't know what aircraft that's for, but that looks cool. That's a fighter jets.

Jeff:

Yeah, it's some type of.

Erick:

I was hoping they'd show the connector on the bottom a little bit or give us a little bit of angle on it Of how it connects. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, but it looks like it's some sort of quick release, like you were saying, jason, but it looks like it might be like a little collar that goes up and snaps down, maybe based on this, or maybe it twists down.

Jason:

Or maybe it goes up and then it stays up and then, when it comes down, it locks it down like yeah yeah, I can see that, but yeah, so this is the, the base.

Erick:

Like I said, this is the uh, probably the second most interesting thing from. You know my standpoint, um, and let's see well, I think it's pretty cool.

Jason:

I think I think it's not for everybody, is what I'm going to say. I think that's geared towards a particular user and here we go.

Jeff:

What do you?

Erick:

got here, buddy, this looks super cool, yeah, so this is definitely the piece that stole the show. So Jason was. I was messaging him when I was trying to just get to this page, not even purchase it, but their site was crashing Just trying to pull this page up this morning after they sent out the email saying that this was, this was live. So they were having some, a lot of, I some, a lot of, I assume, a lot of demand, a lot of people that were just interested. But this is their moza m booster active pedal. So first things first most important piece is the price $7.99 to $9.99, right. So if you want just this pedal, it is $799. And as far as active pedal options go, that's less than half of what you'd pay for the current options, which are the Simicube.

Erick:

Pro and the Simicube Ultimate. So I think, as far as it being budget, if you're looking for active pedal, that's definitely that's the only game in town in the budget world, uh, but 700 bucks for your one pedal is you know?

Jeff:

800 seven yeah, it's not, yeah, it's not yeah, budget period for any social imagination, but, but it's and I'll say this cheaper than the semi-cube 100.

Erick:

Yeah I'll say less expensive, I'm not gonna say cheap yeah yeah, well it's.

Jason:

I think it's two products that you really can't compare right. In my opinion. Um, if something costs half the price, there's definitely. Uh, there's definitely. What do you call this Shortcomings? That were measures that were taken to get it at that price point.

Jeff:

Yeah, Simucube isn't pocketing a G per pedal. They're making or they're selling right.

Jason:

No, and I mean I wouldn't recommend any active pedal to a new sim racer anyway. That's my opinion, that's my two cents. Right Like, if you're going to start out with sim racing and you're building a budget set, there's way not better pedals, but there's other options for you to start. However, if you are in the Moza ecosystem, what remains to be seen is that if this pedal works on console, then that would make it the only active pedal to work out the box on a console, which we don't know. We don't know yet because they're so they're. They literally just came out like days ago, like maybe two or three days ago yeah I don't think anybody has their hands on them other than reviewers.

Jason:

Uh, like mike from the sim racing den has it, I think, boosted media and um race beyond matter, which is another, another great creator that has it.

Jeff:

Yeah, I don't think they've reached the wild. You know came into the wild.

Jason:

Yet to your point, so if Moza, yeah, if this pedal works on the console, then this is hands down. It's going to have to be the best option you can get on a console, because it's the only active, it's the only thing that exists. Wait, right there, right there, with support for inverted mounting and full compatibility with pc and xbox system okay.

Erick:

Yeah, that's what I was looking for, because I know they have an xbox bundle, but I was trying to see which pedals worked, and the crp2 pedals.

Jason:

I'll go back to the so are they saying the crp works, or they're saying the booster works?

Erick:

So the booster, if you're going to use it with a pedal set, you'd have to use it with.

Erick:

It says compatible with CRP2 pedals for enhanced performance and seamless integration. So they have the option for you to buy it with the CRP2 throttle. So they have the option for you to buy it with the CRP2 throttle and I would assume that this would just show up as a brick. But the question obviously with console is once you disconnect this from the PC, or do you need to have this plugged into the PC, to a PC and the console for the options to to stick?

Jason:

so how that works would be interesting and correct the trouble and if the sim actually supports an active pedal, because there's sims out there that don't, that don't. Yes, yeah, there's sims out there. Simi cube is. Simi cube was the only active pedal until up until now that's on the market and for LMU they had to be a patch and an update to get it to work, to get the the pedal works, but the telemetry with the ABS, the G-Force and everything and all the other stuff that it does.

Erick:

So that's kind of cool, though I mean, I don't know, I don't know I was looking at the $1,000 price and, to be honest, that's a better deal because you get the pedal, which is $800 by itself, but then you get the CRP2 throttle pedal, the CRP2 plate and the extended plate for for essentially 200 bucks more, yeah, but essentially nobody's.

Jeff:

I don't think there's going to be anybody that orders it with the stuff, because the person that's getting into sim racing isn't buying an active pedal to jason's point. Right, these are people that have something and want to take the next step with an active pedal. I think they're just by the single pedal and integrate it to whatever setup they have.

Jason:

I agree with Jeff 100%. However, someone that has a rig which is not many of us someone that has a rig that uses a console to project to, not to project to play the sim, this is an option for them, but it's only on Xbox, it's not on PlayStation. So, hands down, the best sim on console is GT7, I must say. I mean ACC is on there, but again, acc is severely limited on there. There's no third party server support. If they were, then I would have a very, very different opinion on it.

Erick:

But as far as online.

Jason:

You know racing, racing, you know gt7 has the grids.

Erick:

You know, it's just the way it is yeah, and I'll say this too acc on ps5 at least does not, um, does not, send out telemetry. So okay, even if you have a pc with simHub, it won't send anything out. Yeah. So, DT7 wins there as well.

Jeff:

I say this guys.

Jeff:

Yeah, go ahead, jeff, I was going to say let's talk about the price for a second. I think Moza picked the perfect price. I don't know what their profit margin is, but I think that they killed it with the price because there's still a huge gap to the semi-cube pedal, right? I mean, what are we looking at here? Almost a thousand dollar difference. Um, now the the question here in everybody's mind that's watched this come out was is there a thousand dollar difference in performance? And my opinion, we'll know when the masses get this thing, uh, and what they have to think. I I if, if you're sent something, it's hard for me to take it that it's. There's only a handful of people out there in the world that I trust their opinion, regardless of what they say when they get it shipped to them for free. We'll see what it comes out. You know, when somebody that paid their thousand dollars to get it, what they think of it is that if it's going to make up that thousand dollar price difference for performance, does that?

Erick:

does that make sense? What I'm trying to say?

Erick:

yeah yeah, I think that'll be just to. I mean so to be honest, if you're the only show in town, the price is whatever you make up. Yeah, just being honest. So as far as semi-cube having active pedal, they literally had a technology nobody else had. There was no competition as a company, who it started to make money like. That's why you start a company. They priced this at a at a point where they created a. It sounds like a luxury tax, almost like saying that you know they're.

Jeff:

There's no way it could be as nice as this.

Jason:

There's no way it can be I mean yeah, okay is there a thousand dollar price.

Jeff:

Is there a thousand dollar delta between the two everybody?

Jason:

that'll be hard to is the thousand dollar question everybody knows that I'm a Sammy Cube fan, and it's because I'm a fan of the reliability of their products. Well it's good top quality shit.

Jason:

Buddy Construction right, yeah, but to be honest, here on the show on the Chicane podcast, it's something that we'll never know until we try both of them. That is the correct answer and that is the answer. That is a question that you need to tell yourself, right? If you're shopping for a pedal, if you want the next step, if you're a beginner, don't look at these, I promise you.

Jeff:

You won't appreciate it for one.

Jason:

Right.

Erick:

It'll be hard to justify it.

Jason:

There's other better, not better but there's great alternatives at a fraction of the cost to get you into the hobby. Now, if you already have a rig, you have a setup, you have everything and you're considering this. You got to ask yourself the question. First of all, it's hard this is really difficult for me to put out. It's a quality thing, but it's a quality thing that you can't test out unless you go to a sim racing expo or unless you have a friend that has the products. It's not something that you can buy in straight up return. It's really hard to do that. Um, so yeah, I would. I would just say this, I would just this I'm gonna piggyback off jeff. Um, let's get the masses out there, let's get the data, and there's really no other way other than to just take the plunge I mean, I watched, you know, every review I could kind of watch and that we had.

Jeff:

Somebody had something about there and I did like the. The comments were hey, it seems to be a little bit more grainy with the push, um, with you know the stroke, if you will the pedal, then this I don't know if they had the semi-cube, but that was their feedback um, if you're thinking you're getting the semi-cube for you know legitimately half the price and I think you probably should check your expectations, um, but you're also saving a thousand dollars.

Jason:

So let's be honest here, right, I mean that's a that's a great argument that we can have all day. Because I will counter with this If you purchase the Simicube, 99% of the time it's a better-pilled product. You don't have to worry about it. This is a brand-new product that we don't know if it's going to, later down the road, break down or if you're going to have an issue with it or whatever it is. And that a thousand dollars that you saved, you suddenly didn't save anything. You know what I mean, and I've had other branded hardware on my rig and, trust me, I thought I was saving money and that I was mistaken. So I mean and that's again, that's a back. That again, that's a good debate. It's a healthy debate because we're trying to give you perspective.

Jeff:

And this is awesome, right? This competition thing is good for everybody. A people get cheaper stuff, like I had a high school coach said like competition, what makes America great? You know, when it comes to quality and price.

Jason:

Look at Semi-Cube like a Porsche, right, let's say a Porsche comes out and it's a 911, what is it? Gtrs? Right, gt3rs? That's almost a $400,000 car. But then you have I don't know, I'm going to piss people off, I'm going to say it here on the show. Then you got a Tesla Model S that completely smokes the Porsche like tenfold and fight me on that, let's go. Comments, I'm ready. And it's like a fraction of the cost. Is Porsche going to lower the price? They're like no, we're Porsche, we're not going to lower our price just because there's a competitor out there. There is a user base and there's a following.

Jason:

Yeah, there's a, there's a following of that brand and they're like well, I mean, yeah, that's great, that's, that's, that's your $800 pedal. I have my pedal over here. Which one would you like? You know what I mean. Like comparing, yeah.

Erick:

Yeah, that's a great. That's a perfect comparison too, because in that comparison the tesla only beats the porsche in one category which is exactly drag racing that's it.

Jason:

You put them both straight line speed and the tesla dies and the porsche runs off with it.

Erick:

So literally and figuratively yeah, so I think, comparing the semi-cube to the but they're both cars.

Jason:

You know what I'm trying to say.

Erick:

They're both pedals, they're both cars, you know yep, and in this comparison with the pedals, the one of the kind of fundamental benefits is you put this pedal on your rig and you never have to get down there to adjust it again. You do all that software so that they both provide that benefit exactly. Ie, they're both cars. But if you are competing, if you are somebody who is like very into precision and you're like you're running your rig heavy, you might need the quality, reliability of the semi-q, whereas if you're more of a casual person who you know exactly good moza durability might work for you this is the real talk about this type of stuff.

Jason:

Guys, I want you to listen to this, because this is the real talk, seriously, I I mean you can. You can be either or you can be a casual or competitor, but you can also be someone that's chasing immersion or someone that's chasing a you know, pedal vr yeah, I've dreamed about having having one of these pedals, like I've got shakers on mine.

Erick:

This would be crazy they have a stock yeah, sorry look at that.

Jeff:

You can't even buy it right now.

Jason:

That's the ultimate, though.

Jeff:

Yeah, that's the ultimate.

Jason:

So the ultimate is the one that's kind of like oof. I mean, that's why they released the Pro, right? The Pro is kind of like they're trying to be more competitive in the market without losing too much. Because that pedal is overkill, the strength of it is overkill.

Erick:

This is what you need, right here.

Jason:

Scroll up to see the back there you go. So you know, I think from an undisclosed source. I've heard some things about the new Moza pedal and again, it's very early stages. These guys got test review. What do you call this Version one? What do you call that Beta versions? Or the software is brand new. You can't expect things to be absolutely perfect. That's asking for much. Even if it was a semi-cube product, I would say the same thing Give it time to cook, let people use them for a few weeks after the fact.

Erick:

I don't care if you've been using it for three months.

Jason:

And then you're like, yeah, I've been using the pedal for three months and it's awesome for three months. And then you're like, yeah, I've been using the pedal for three months and it's awesome. No, I want to know where the pedal stands in the community and how is it growing with it later. Are things breaking, glitches, what have you so enough? I know I'm rambling, sorry about that, but it's a great discussion. It's a great discussion because I'm not telling you to buy a semi-cube and that's it. I'm sharing my experience and my experiences. Semi-cube hardware has been the best that I've used and it always impresses me and it's still my favorite part of the rig. But that's me, that's Jason. You know so, but that's me. That's Jason. That's the new Moza pedal. It should be available. You can order it right now and the shifter More to follow.

Jeff:

Grab it and let us know how it is. That too, yeah, do that.

Jason:

Or maybe we can have mike and we can have a discussion with him. Who knows mike? You're watching this and he can let me know.

Jeff:

Let me know or somebody buy it and make a review so we can watch it moza, you can sponsor us. I will test this pedal for you I got a place right there for it, right in there look I will hurt my back. I was about to say I I could have sworn. I just heard my knees chirping to say, hey, we want that, we want it, we don't want to have to get down in there again.

Jason:

Oh yeah, so that alone is kind of a worthy feature. But yeah, so what's next, eric, what we got next today?

Erick:

For me. I didn't know if I know Jeff was talking about something on iRacing. I didn't know if you wanted to touch on that oh okay, so, jeff, what do you got?

Jeff:

for us this week. Yeah, just you know. I think most people have noticed the. It's just the update to the to iRacing as the new season gets started. I think by that when this drops we'll have the new season started. Um, not going to dig super into it because it's most kind of play, catch up and clean up business here. I think everybody's the biggest point is the graphics and the sun and just it pops is that probably the best massive?

Jeff:

changes. We kind of skip over the NASCAR. I think we kind of spoke on this the last update that spoke to iRacing is really dumping a lot of effort into updating NASCAR and I think to that point I don't think they had went a while without updating the cars, the inside, the tracks et cetera. So they're dumping a lot into that. But boy, it just looks nice going around the track. And Jason, you brought up a good point the other day in that text. You were like, hey, delete and uninstall the. Um, what's that software? Reshade, reshade.

Jason:

Yeah, you don't need anymore so, yeah, if you guys go back into a previous I don't think we mentioned it on the show or maybe we have briefly, but uh, dan suzuki, which I'm a big fan of, dan, if you're watching, I love what you do. Man, keep doing what you're doing. He created a video that were the best settings for iRacing. Now the video is still he's not joking, yeah, it's really good. But at the time we didn't have this new lighting model. So he told you hey, you can install this program, it's free, it's called Reshade and you can mess with the lighting or simulate a fake HDR or sharpen the image. But again, it's a little bit of power that you would need to run that in the background.

Jeff:

Just a little bit. Performance takes a little bit of hit.

Jason:

Just a slight hit, but then every time that iRacing has made now two times I think they've made changes to their uh, lighting gamut and you know, the lighting itself basically in reflections, um, there's no more need for reshape there, really isn't? I uninstalled it and you know, you get that little bit of performance back and it pops. Man, I mean it's really nice. It's really nice. Um, so something to consider if you were using reshade and I don't know, I think it's great, I think that's how it should be right yeah, I mean it.

Jeff:

Just it was like I don't say night and day. When you jumped in and got you after you did the update, which my update was like 30 gigs this week, this, this season, I was like holy cow. I didn't even take the content, I was like, just give me what I need to get back into it. Yes, so it looks. It looks no, beautiful, beautiful um that's really, you know, big nascar update, big um.

Jason:

You know, uh, I won't say graphics, but uh and all the tracks they updated like seven tracks of nascar a lot of nascar update yeah the, the new, the new, um, kind of what they were doing with spa and remaking or re, uh, redoing the tracks, remapping, yeah, with their drone footage and all kinds of stuff. They're doing that, they're giving that to nascar which reminds me yeah, go ahead, go ahead.

Jeff:

I was gonna say it would be super cool if I racing released a video like behind the scenes over, like them, from them flying the drone to how it gets.

Jason:

To software release like just show it's coming, it's gotta it's gotta be, it's gotta be what it's gotta be in the makes. Like them in the back and you see the computer and they're dialing in.

Jeff:

Yeah, that would be. You know, because, like we're tech people, you know we get a kick out of that stuff, how that stuff works and is built Unless it's like the secret sauce type of stuff you know where they're like. We don't need the other. You know our competitors. If you were learning how that we're doing this, I don't know.

Jason:

You the other. You know our competitors. If you were learning how that we're doing this, I don't know. You know I could understand if they didn't. I will say this something about nascar is I'm not really a fan of watching nascar because I mean, in my opinion it's just left turn racing.

Jason:

Sorry, again, jason is on fire today go ahead and crucify me, but that right tire is brand new. I would take that right tire. They don't need it. I'll put it in my car um, but racing racing in an oval race is intense as hell bro dude it's hard, it's hard and it's intense. So i'm'm actually excited because DNR just built a dashboard that's specifically made for Oval Racing and he's the only one that has one out there right now. So I mean, you pair that with the new update to iRacing and the tracks and the three new NASCAR cars that are releasing.

Erick:

Yeah, I was going to bring that up.

Jason:

It's time to get our Oval license. That's what it's time.

Jeff:

It's about that time I gotta quit messing around and just knock. I think I have like one more one more race to do or uh um, in the rookies I keep going to unranked races because they're fun the driving them is very different very different it's. It's totally different than, like a formula car, uh yeah but man uh does race.

Jeff:

Racecraft exist in oval racing dude, you get in these nascar and you're going down the straightaway and you'll be on the wall, we'll say, and then you don't move the wheel and somehow you're in on inside. You're like I don't know how I moved, but I moved yeah, yeah, that's, that's that's steepness on.

Jason:

Them turns sometimes, man yeah, it's just participation on.

Jeff:

I'm racing too and you know like, oh yeah, but boy, if you do an unranked race in NASCAR, watch out. Yeah, because your whole race is bumper to bumper and one knucklehead sneezes and it's over for everybody.

Jason:

That's one of the hardest ones to get out of. Rookies is because of that the massive wrecks. It's hard to drive a clean race there. But that's part of the culture, right? Um, but that's part of the culture, right? The crashing in nascar, uh, the bumper to bumper to bump, drafting the to just hit them in the back and go faster because I'm going faster. You only need one gear in nascar, bro, it's fifth or fourth downshift no it's only four it's only s4. Okay, it's four.

Erick:

It's four speed yeah, so once you get to four, forget about it.

Jeff:

You can just unplug the usb.

Jason:

You don't even need it but again, it's not that simple, I'm telling you. I tried it and it was a freaking blast. I I was shaking, I was like dude, this is crazy, like I got people. Oh man, it was fun, it was fun, it was fun, it was fun.

Jeff:

I think I told you guys this but to get out of Rookies you need to race tracks that are like 0.3 miles, like 0.2 miles. I'm talking like 20-second lap times.

Jason:

Yeah, I had to turn off, I was getting dizzy.

Jeff:

It's just like constant turn.

Jason:

As soon as you get the car straightened out, it's a turn again. You know what might be fun, dude, is NASCAR Gen 3, like the faster ones the fastest ones, I guess but actually doing like an endurance race, we have to pit and to see what that car feels like with those tires gone. There's got to be something crazy. I'm going to have to look into this. I don't know if I shared this with everybody maybe I did, but my, my old.

Jeff:

There you go, you got the tool, you got this here, man, so I broke her in.

Jason:

She's been, she's been used a little bit so you got the tool man, so oh yeah, I guess we got time for one more topic. I got a quick one. Yeah, you do. I got one more.

Jeff:

More of a discussion here. Pete Jason tagged me something on Facebook today. I'm sorry, eric did. I was like Eric. You can't tell people I've been VR racing. I can't be telling people I've been driving VR.

Jason:

Because you got triples in the vr.

Jeff:

I was like yeah, like people anyway. So, all right, I have been driving the last week in vr um. First data point I'm not getting motion sick anymore, like when I was doing it. Jason, you saw where the rig was upstairs and I was getting motion sick. I couldn't do a lap when I moved it down here. And I think there's two things why I'm not getting motion sick and I bring this up do a lap when I moved it down here. And I think there's two things why I'm not getting motion sick and I'm bringing this up.

Jeff:

So a lot of people don't get into it because of the motion sick that they get. So I'm hoping that what I think helped me can help some other people is the first and foremost is my wheel is exactly where the wheel is in my headset. So it feels like my hands are actually on the wheel. It's not. They're not off one way or the other. So that is the first one. The second one, I think, is the butt kicker. I think that helps.

Jeff:

You feel like you're in the car. So you start the car up and you can feel it start to vibrate, accelerate, go over the curb and you feel like you're. You know, like you're getting another sense of feedback to the right, to you that you're actually there, opposed to tricking your mind that you're there. And that's where I feel like I'm getting like the motion sick. I didn't get sick at all, um, and I did. I was doing like two or three races, um, just long stints of practice. I could drive around and look around and I was fine. So I don't know what it was, but boy am I glad I jumped into it Because really, what got it is the split reality or the mixed reality that I really want to do that. We talked about a couple episodes ago, oh yeah.

Jeff:

Where you can use your wheel Blended reality and then see the car, and I think that is as good as it gets. I just spent all this money on this wheel. I want to see the damn wheel. I want to see my DNR.

Jason:

That is the future, bro. That is the future right there.

Jeff:

So I've slowly started to tinker with it. That dude says he's going to release a how-to video any day now.

Jason:

Like bro, quit beating around the freaking bush. Just, I think somebody, I think I think somebody left a comment on what they think he did. I mean, I haven't tried it myself, um, I just, I just been busy printing man, printing stuff. I need to get to that.

Jeff:

I need to get to that, but um, yeah, nascar is definitely yeah, go ahead, jeff no, I was gonna say so those are two. You know, if you're one of those, I'd give the try to try to make it what your way your hands and wheel are. Try to match that as best you can. Um, and I think the buck kicker might have helped too. Um, but I don't know why I just all of a sudden light switch.

Jason:

Don't get sick anymore maybe you just got used to it, maybe maybe, I don't know. Maybe the more you use it, the more you kind of adjust to wearing a headset I I'm guessing maybe it is wicked.

Jeff:

Cool.

Jason:

Yeah, it is, yeah, and I racing too, is pretty light on on VR and it looks pretty good.

Jeff:

That's all I've done, I think, but it is spectacular, that's okay, there's nothing wrong with people that race in VR.

Jason:

I'm saying it here on the show. Yeah, it is.

Jeff:

You choose your weapon, I might go back to my triple and I do some time to time, go back and forth this past week, but it's just cool that, like, you can look behind you, you can. You know, um, and then, where you move your head, your mirrors move. You know, if you want to look a little bit more to the right, you can move your head a little bit in the mirror. You know, like it wouldn't real life, um, it's just wicked in. You know the formula class where you're, like, you know, right on somebody and, um, I do feel like I can put my nose, I feel like I sense my nose a little closer to where that car is in front, especially like first corner turns, where you want to stay as tight as you can.

Jeff:

Um, but boy, my brother, my brother came over here and I put him in a NASCAR thing, cause he's just that's, all he likes is NASCAR. He went, he was like this is pretty sweet and then like lost it and went right into the and he was like whoa and he like put his hands up, but definitely, I think the fan would help a lot, because you do get hot with the thing on your face.

Jeff:

No, you just want that Winsome, just buy it bro, I do, I should just get the damn stuff. There you go, man Just get the damn Winsome Get it, Eric. You find yourself Wait a minute Stop, emergency Stop.

Jason:

You have a 3D printer now, jeff, you can 3D print the mounts.

Jeff:

You can go over to home depot and get the ducks some pc fans.

Jason:

So here's the problem, because I've thought about this already all you need is the board, the controller, that's.

Jeff:

I know, oh, like that's the cheap stuff, the, the, the printing, the printing stuff, the cheap stuff like you're really paying for. You know the board and you know usb interface, etc you can.

Jason:

You can print your own. You can order a board and solder it.

Jeff:

You can right, but then do I really want to hook that up to my PC?

Jason:

and fry everything. But now I'm getting into soldering too, because it's eventual. It's related to 3D printing, because if you 3D print, you realize that you can make things that you couldn't make before. You can make things that you couldn't make before, and now the missing piece is being able to create electronics and build housings for them. So I'm trying to learn. But before anything gets plugged into that baby back there, I better be sure of what I'm doing. You know what I mean.

Jeff:

You can buy a little baby laptop.

Jason:

You can also get a voltmeter and check to see if there's any like what do you call this? Shorts or whatever?

Jeff:

Yeah, it just is.

Jason:

I know it's risky, I hear you. I hear you. There's options out there which I'm going to. You know what For the next episode. I'm going to see what options are there. We're going to go, we're going to dive deep on Winsims, next one.

Jeff:

Eric, you to go. We're going to dive deep on on on winsims. Next one, erica, you, you really got me into vr driving. You sent that video a while back. It was formula racing against the like, the uh ferrari. You still, you still do any vr driving at all uh, I do um to your point about being hot.

Erick:

That is something I mean I want to address because they have different inserts for the headset. I think it's like the Globula Cluster or something like that. It's like a memory foam with cooling pads and all that stuff and distributes the weight better and all of that.

Jason:

That sounds crazy, the cluster on your face.

Erick:

Yeah, it's a wild name, but apparently they're like the, the gold standard for just comfort and consistency too. Um, because the psvr2 headset the type of lenses it has it has a very small sweet spot. So being able to get the headset to that spot and then get it there consistently, have it stay while you're racing is could be problematic. But, um, back to your question. I do VR race and GT seven, but I've actually been doing more um without the headset here more recently. Um, and it's nice to have, like my lovely dashboard and you know, see my button box and you know with the, to see my you know button box and you know with the screen and just get like we were talking about before being able to enjoy some of the other stuff see my wheel and-.

Jason:

Being free, too, from something on your face.

Erick:

Yeah, being free Cause I've you know, I 3D printed a MagSafe mount for my phone. It's on my rig, so I have my phone mounted on there and be able to change music or whatever.

Jason:

I'm telling you, bro, I'm 3D printing stuff, so I have the bamboo studio on the top monitor and I'm racing on. Yeah, bro.

Erick:

I found uses for it. Hey, y'all have got to go, look at that. Look, you hear Jason talking about a sweatshop. You got to watch his Instagram reel.

Jason:

My sweatshop yeah.

Erick:

Make sure you go, look at the reel and it will tell you everything you need to know about what Jason has going on over there. Man, it's a setup.

Jason:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a Next level.

Erick:

Yeah, one guy made a comment on it. He's like man, this is a wet dream, it's a wet dream.

Jason:

Yeah, comment on it. He's like man, this is a wet dream. And I got that Hans Zimmer, what you call it, from the interstellar playing in the background because I can't believe what's happening. I just can't believe it. Something out of this world, Meet the Jetsons.

Jason:

Anyways, guys, great content today, a lot of good discussions here. It's good to have the different opinions on things, man, because that's what makes us human right Is everyone has an opinion, but gathering data and putting it all together is how we get you to a decision. So before we close the show and you go out and watch reviews on those pedals, just know that reviewers are geared to either left or they're geared to either right, with a grain of salt, because when you install the pedals, you're not going to know up until the day that you put the foot on the pedal and it's going to tell you this was worth it or it was not worth it. So that's the realist answer. I mean I can't tell you. I can't tell you one way or the other. You know what I mean. So I really appreciate you guys. Thank you, eric, for driving most of the episode today and, jeff, welcome to the 3D Printing Gang. You're my late bloomer.

Jeff:

But we got you there. Better late than never.

Jason:

But, we got you there, brother, we got you there. And you're loving it, which is that makes me feel good, because-.

Jeff:

Wife loves it Little dude sits in front of the screen watching it print.

Jason:

I told you, you, bro, quality time didn't I tell you I told you quality time with the family y'all haven't started designing stuff yet look at that

Jeff:

no, I know so that's right. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that too, yeah hopefully we'll have.

Jason:

If we have some more info for you guys on any of the stuff that we mentioned here on the show today, we will definitely come back with a follow-up and update you guys. Um, but right now we're just like you. We're. We're seeing a product come out, is q2 and it's available for purchase. That's all we know. Reviewers have had this pedal for months, but we don't, as a user sim racer. We don't have, I don't have any data for you yet. I don't think any of us you know do so until we can go to a store and try them out, which is I don't know if that's going to happen.

Erick:

That might happen for me.

Jason:

It might happen. Yeah, micro center no.

Erick:

So that gigapart store that's over here they have two full mosa setups, they have a flight sim and they have a racing sim interesting for you to try. Okay, I've been going by there like looking at the shelf, looking around like y'all got one of them active pedals y'all got it so and then he bust out a DSLR camera like oh you don't say Like a sword. I'm telling you oh yeah, I'm going live immediately.

Jason:

Immediately.

Erick:

All right guys.

Jason:

Well, thank you so much again. And yeah, if you have any questions or comments or concerns, please email us at thechicanepodcasts at gmailcom. And with that I'm going to give this over to Jeff, because he keeps forgetting to say it Drive fast people and break late. Even though we kind of skipped the round table and Track of the Week, stay tuned for that. We just had a lot of news today. We wanted to put that out for you. So Track of the Week will return on the next iteration of the Chicane Podcast and with that, have a great start of your week, Thank you.

People on this episode

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Jason Rivera

Host
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Erick Kelly

Co-host
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Jeff Smart

Co-host