Simgrade VX Pro Pedals Review
- Danny Lee
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
These pedals have far more character than you might initially think just by looking at them, and the more you hear, the more intrigued you will feel for the Simgrade VX Pro pedals. They are extremely short, which will appeal to those with compact space. They are designed, manufactured, assembled, and sold from Finland, which will appeal to those who’d rather send their money somewhere different for a change. They are extremely smooth and precise, which will appeal to those who seek high performance, and they are sensibly priced with a 2-year warranty, which will appeal to everyone. Clearly crafted with a splash of clever and artistic engineering flair, let me show you how it’s been to use the Simgrade VX Pros.
Affiliate Disclosure
Before I start, please be aware that Simgrade has provided the pedals featured 'free for review' in exchange for this video. Read the whole thing through before making a decision, but if you do decide these are the pedals you want then links to buy can be found directly below. These are 'affiliate links' which grant me a referral commission if used by you before purchase - you pay no extra. You can find my full list of links on the Discounts and Links page. Using these helps support me and thank you for doing so.
Affiliate Link: Buy From Simgrade
Overview
I want to confess something. I wasn’t majorly interested in reviewing the VX Pros for a long time because 'you eat with your eyes first', and I wasn’t a major fan of the overall aesthetic. However, I could no longer pass up these often-recommended pedals. I saw many comments urging me to investigate these in previous videos, and no voice holds more weight for me than yours. I am willing to be wrong, and getting to know them, I was wrong about these.
Right now, they are 398 euros excluding tax for the throttle and brake alone. By my calculation, that’s around £450 all in to your door in the UK once tax and shipping are factored in. Likewise, the 3-pedal set as you see above, with throttle, brake, and clutch, is 533 euros before tax and shipping. That’s around £587 to a UK address once tax and shipping have been mixed in. Price-wise, as far as I can see from my British postcode, it sits above mid-tier pedal sets like Simlab XP1’s and Simagic P1000’s, but slightly below VRS pedals and well below the likes of Asetek Invictas. Prices may vary by region and may have changed by the time you watch this, but that’s what I calculate as I write this.
Before I bang on about the design, I want to get this out of the way. These pedals perform very well. To me, they’ve been brilliantly smooth, precise, and consistent. I now understand why I couldn’t mention VRS Pedals without someone echoing back half the time asking me if I’d tried Simgrade VX PRO Pedals. They feel similar in terms of their buttery smooth linkages, and they’re just as crystal clear in operation. I just wanted to plop that down so you can watch the next segment without unnecessary suspense.
The most striking and unique aspect of their design is how small their footprint is. They are extremely compact like no other pedal I’ve seen; even the box is tiny. This will be exciting to some people, trust me, especially if you’re a little short on space, but just as equally if you like offbeat design. Having very little pedal overhang would be brilliant if my rig was up against a wall, but I personally do just enjoy compact gadgetry. I’m a minimalist at heart; the less space things take up and the less clutter they pollute the room with, the better.
The compactness of the VX Pros is achieved by a really weird-looking steep spring angle on all three pedals, which aims the spring forces almost straight down, but the weirdness continues. Each pedal’s spring rod rolls directly along the load cell on these bearings, using the load cell itself as some kind of plank walk. Normally, the spring is directly fixed or anchored to the load cell in some way, not allowed to roll along it like some kind of microscopic rowing machine. No other manufacturer does this, as far as I’m aware, and VX Pros have been around long enough for this not to turn out to be some kind of fatal design flaw; it stands the test of time, it seems. It’s such a unique and quirky way to convert your pedal pressure into a digital output. Smooth, cylindrical roller bearings move back and forth along that shiny silver load cell, which detects the pressure being directly put on it.
As I wrote this review, took a tea break and waited for the kettle to boil, I realized that this might be the only pedal set in the world that might be vulnerable to one particular edge case problem. You see, if you’re going full throttle down the straight, and then a beetle happens to walk behind the roller bearing, when you lift your foot, the beetle could act as some kind of wheel chock and cause your throttle pedal to stay stuck down even when released. It would be the world’s first DNF by hard-shelled insect.
Seriously though, I just really enjoy off-piste, alternative solutions to a problem that’s already been baked into industry norms. It puts some joy and intrigue back into it. Being designed in Finland, it wouldn’t have been a shower thought; it’d have been a sauna thought.
Adjustability is complete even in such small confines. The travel of the throttle can be bound by an adjustable backstop. The resistance of the throttle spring can be altered by changing which of the cups the end bar sits within.
The pedal faces can be raised or lowered, the entire pedal assembly can be tilted, spring preload can be changed. The brake and clutch are similarly interchangeable, the brake spring attack angle can be changed easily to essentially alter the brake stiffness and it’s quick and easy to do so, the clutch has a two stage ‘ramp’ bracket which achieves that distinct clutch-like pedal feel with a shockingly small amount of hardware, no supplemental mechanism which would add cost, literally just this piece of steel profile, which you can also switch out for an alternative spring behaviour, it’s all very clever and so compact. As far as I can see, there is no vector of adjustability that has been sacrificed in the name of compactness, everything you’d expect is here and more.
Driving
So to the thing that matters most, the driving. There is one thing I’ve come to value above all from a pedal set: clarity and repeatability. I want my pedals to feel so smooth that they achieve a metaphorical mirror finish, the purest possible 1:1 link between real-world movement and on-screen output. These VX Pros have to follow a very tough act, the VRS Direct Force pedals, which I’ve been using for a long time and have come to adore for those specific qualities.
To my surprise, the Simgrades feel equally smooth, silky, and friction-free. There’s no noise, no grit, no ripple, no bumps or lumps, just a pure, glassy glide through the pedal range on the throttle, with a brake pedal that I can trust wholeheartedly. If I weren’t wearing shoes, then I wouldn’t be surprised if you could detect my heartbeat via my brake traces; it gives me extremely high confidence. Immediately, I feel right at home with these, and I note that I have made only one change to the brake pedal, slotting the main spring into a higher notch to alter its angle of attack, to bolster the main spring resistance—other than that, it’s perfect. It’s great to take a pedal set out of the box and discover that it was almost perfectly suited to me from the get-go.
In my testing window, I have essentially forgotten I’ve switched my pedals to the VX Pros. That’s a glorious achievement by itself because when it comes to performance items like pedals, I often judge things not by what they give me, but by what I think I lose when I use them. I expected to miss my VRS pedals somehow, but I simply don’t. As far as I’m concerned, these are top-tier pedals with an enticing price point and some unique personality traits, but personality traits that influence presentation and don’t deflect or undermine performance at all.
Optional extras
Now, like the sweeties next to the checkout, you may see that there are some optional extras available for the VX Pro, including a tilting heel support and a side support. For me, the tilting heel support actively obstructs me and gets in the way of my leg action; immediately, I knew this wasn’t for me.
The side support is also, in my mind, totally redundant. In both instances, I would encourage that you don’t automatically throw them into your initial order just for the sake of it - buy them if you think they solve an issue that you are having. We are all built a bit differently, but for me, they are completely unnecessary. Smart, but unnecessary; only buy them to solve an emerging need, don’t buy them pre-emptively.
There is also a brake kit that provides additional notches for spring rate adjustment, as well as two alternative springs that are both softer than the supplied yellow spring. Again, I haven’t had the need for this kit; the standard setup is nicely firm and yet has some wiggle room to soften up to a respectable medium strength by moving it down the notches. But if you’re someone who knows they like a really spongy brake or a rock-solid brick wall brake pedal, do consider the kit as it actually expands the range in both directions, not just softer. For me, in all three cases, it would have been money wasted as the VX Pros are delicious as standard, but be aware of their presence in case you find yourself wanting them once you’re all set up and using them.
Summary
In summary, I put the VX Pros right alongside the VRS Pedals in terms of performance. They are extremely clear and consistent pedals, and I honestly don’t know if I could tell them apart in a blindfold test. If your question is ‘Which one would you recommend, VRS or VX Pro?’, I would say they are neck and neck. If you’re the type of sim racer that feels your precision is currently outmatching your current pedal set, if you have belief in your talent and intuition, and you’re targeting that big upgrade, you will be tremendously happy with the VX Pros. Just be ready for the reality that you won’t be able to blame your pedals anymore. That eccentric and compact design is just the cherry on top.
Thanks for reading, and I hope this has been entertaining and informative! If you've made up your mind and you do proceed to buy, the links below will take you to Simgrade's point of sale via an affiliate link. Affiliate links grant me a commission if used by you before purchase by telling Simgrade that you came through me. You pay no extra, but you support me to continue on! Cheers ~
Affiliate Link: Buy From Simgrade
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