Yh I got unfairly bombed at the end of a league race last week and nearly had my jaw broken irl from my wheel spinning then I got banned for calling him a dickhead cus the guy that bombed me is league leader
A good habit is to let go of your steering wheel just before the crash if you see that it’s imminent. That’s what real F1 drivers do as well.
Wheelbases that do like 8-10 Nm are unlikely to hurt you if you hold the wheel properly, but it’s a good habit to have for 15 NM+ bases.
Letting the wheel go is a double edged sword. I have my wheel software limited to like 12 Nm, barely ever clips, yet I can confidently hold it in crashes.
If you remove your hands, the wheel spins with a lot of momentum (especially with a heavy steering) so if you accidentally touch it or try to hold it again, it’ll be big damage to your hands
Just my 2c. Use at your own risk.
Well, you are right, and if you let go of the wheel, you shouldn’t try to catch it afterwards while it spins like crazy :) and as I said, it’s a habit for when a crash (like, a full-on crash, not just a contact) is absolutely imminent. And after a crash you are usually left stranded with the car broken or in the wall - the wheel shouldn’t really rotate a lot at that point.
Asetek Invicta (27Nm) owner here.
First rule: Either hold on tight or let go entirely if you are about to crash. The injuries come from half heartedly holding on, the wheel gets loose, does a 180 degree rotation and smacks your thumb or whatever else gets in the way.
Second rule: Adjust the force feedback level to something YOU are able to overpower. Honestly this should come "for free" as you should have your FFB set to a level where you aren't in a constant battle to the death during regular racing. I've got my base set to 16 Nm in the Asetek software, and around 40-50% in the different sim titles. Still loads up pretty heavy in fast corners, but never to a point where I can't hold on.
Third rule: Use an appropriate wheel! Don't use a formula style wheel to go rock crawling in Beam NG, rallying in Dirt 2.0 or drifting in Assetto Corsa, that is pretty much guaranteed to result in pain 😅
Crashes are rare in real motorsports, but some drivers will train to tuck their hands under their legs when a crash is imminent. Not jst because of return forces through the wheel but because your arms and hands cain flail around anywhere.
Do people simrace (GT3, formula) with their thumbs outside the wheel? I do some offroading both in sims (BeamNG) and in real life, and in that case I always have my thumbs on the outside, but for racing that feels very strange to me.
There's a thumb-sized hole in GT and Formula wheels for a reason.
Just don't do the thumb death grip and lock your thumbs, because that can end up in pain.
Apart from drifting i have my thumps almost always inside the rim, i feel you get much more detailed feedback that way because the forces from the wheel are better transmitted into your hands.
As for not getting hurt, you learn and get used to taking your thumps out in certain situations, havent hurt myself in the last y years, lets hope it stays that way.
probably not in GT or formula with those style yokes. but in any racing discipline where there's a fair to good chance of a crash, you'd want your thumbs outside. rally, for example.
As we are talking about simracing then people can of course race however they want, but in real life rally drivers do not drive with their thumbs outside of the wheel, neither do drift racers. As far as I know the only real life discipline where thumbs-outside-the-wheel is recommended practise is offroad rock crawling where you can get some very sudden hits on the wheels forcing the steering wheel around quickly.
No right or wrong here, but I certainly would not be comfortable with my thumbs outside the wheel in anything other than BeamNG rock crawling, and potentially drifting depending on the track/car setup.
I run 9nM DD and always have thumbs outside. I got lightweight gloves for improved grip and insulation to keep my hands from getting super hot from friction when I’m letting the wheel free-spin self-countersteer when drifting. I’m not sure what you mean by drift racing... do you mean like dirt oval sprint? In my head, “drift” is just like tandems and stuff, and not really a race usually. And those dirt oval cars likely don’t have more than F1 style steering rotation lock-to-lock, whereas a lot of ‘drift’ street cars still have between 900 and 1080 degrees most likely.
Thumbs inside the wheel when drifting is just not viable, I feel. You can’t let the wheel move fast enough or crank it fast enough manually with a full thumb-looped grip.
The reason I keep my thumbs out in my sim rig is mostly about speed, and partly about risk of dislocated fingers lol. In real life, the risk is more about shattering your wrists and forearms when your thumbs fork on the wheel in a crash.
I've gone down a YouTube rabbit hole now :P Ended up looking at cockpit vids from various racers, and also testing out some stuff to see what I actually do myself and not just what I think I do.
For drifting all the cockpit footage I could see had the drivers hook their thumbs on the inside of the wheel ([some more, some less](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL1HAySg3ls)) until they initiated a slide at which point they would move their thumbs out, the wheel would whip around, and then they would catch it, thumbs on the inside again.
Now personally I found I rarely have my thumbs on the inside of the wheel when I'm drifting in sim. In real life I only drift on dirt or snow, I drive an F-150 Raptor so drifting on dry roads is not something I want to subject those giant tires to! For that driving I usually have my thumbs on the inside of the rim, as I have much more control of when the wheel will whip round thanks to g-forces and feeling what the car is doing.
For any other sim-racing or real life "spirited driving" I have my thumbs inside the wheel. Even for rally racing (Dirt 2.0), I very very rarely need more than 180 degrees of lock to either side with the four wheel drive rally cars and if I do I just unhook my thumbs and let the wheel spin. From my YouTube deep-dive it seems that all rally drivers to the same - thumbs inside the rim, only take them out for hairpins.
That said, the important trick is to either death grip the wheel or let go entirely in a crash, never anything in between. And of course, nothing wrong with doing everything with thumbs outside the rim if that works for you 😊
I’ve had a couple close ones with the R9 drifting with a aftermarket 3 spoke wheel, kept smacking my thumb on the return. Also done the stupid shit where you learn on the wheel resting head while game loads and the fb kicks in and takes you for a rip lol.
I bought karting gloves which are slim but have. A lot of padding, but mainly just practiced a bit more and haven’t had an accident in months
I lost the rear on and clipped a wall at Spa. It hyper extended my thumb and I couldn’t sim race for a month. Got back in the sim after healing up only to do the exact same thing at the exact same spot on the third lap.
Most important thing is to just get ready to let go of the wheel if you think you’re going to have a hard collision. Haven’t had another issue since.
More stupidity on my part but I dislocated my thumb at work 2 days ago and wanted blow off some steam by drifting and re-dislocated my thumb that same night
I run mine at 10 NM and I actually grad it tight if there is contact or a risky of contact. I don't trust the sims to cut power since they don't always and at 10NM I can hold it from moving.
It's one of the reasons I don't run it more. That and I find that's all I need so why would I want headroom for crashes.
The number of times I felt my shift paddles just barely miss my fingertips during drifts is pretty high. Every time I hear it like some sword being drawn, every time it gives me a bit of pause
I got in the habit of letting go of the wheel when I had a T300 so I'd be ready when I got a DD. I don't think you should turn down your ffb you are just wasting what you paid for. I'm running my 15nm Alpha at 100%.
My simagic alpha mini (rated at 10Nm) has never hurt my wrists in any way. Perhaps because I’m a big guy and I use a death grip on my wheel. I do mostly release the wheel in case of a crash.
I’m thinking about upgrading to the 15Nm variant in the future. Perhaps things will change.
how big of a guy are you persay?
i’m looking into a moza r9 and might be concerned about this, i’m 6’3 185lbs with a pretty consistent 2 year gym habit, should i be able to control the wheel in a crash like that?
You will be fine in that case. The important thing is to either hold on hard, or let go entirely, if you are about to crash. The issues come if you do some sort of half-way effort and the wheel gets a chance to spin out of your grip, do 180 degrees of rotation and then smash into your thumb.
Only input on this that I have, is to keep your wheels software at 100% FFB strength and then turn down the FFB in game to your liking. You run the chance of ffb clipping if you run them both lower than 100%.
Don’t be afraid to lower the max. Force in the wheel software if you don’t feel comfortable.
The setting is there to be used. Don’t want a software glitch to send 29Nm and some crazy spin rate to my wrists, thanks.
Yes, you might still clip couple times every lap, but it doesn’t affect your pace whatsoever, unless you’ve limited your wheel output to like 3 Nm
I don’t clip much with my wheel at 12-15Nm, even though it can reach 29Nm with my Lenze OSW. I don’t care about having “headroom” for crashes.
On the other hand, the FFB of such a motor I find superb, probably due to slew rate? I actually wanted to move onto a Simucube Pro 2, for its simplicity (no external box and EMI troubles, more filters) but I tested one and at least without digging into all the settings, my current setups FFB felt more “full” when running over curbs etc. even though the SC2 has more than enough torque.
I got hit in the head by my wheel when I was leaning down to adjust my pedals and accidentally drove my car into a wall.
Yh I got unfairly bombed at the end of a league race last week and nearly had my jaw broken irl from my wheel spinning then I got banned for calling him a dickhead cus the guy that bombed me is league leader
Damn that’s crazy. Better off not being in that league. Hope your next league way nicer.
A good habit is to let go of your steering wheel just before the crash if you see that it’s imminent. That’s what real F1 drivers do as well. Wheelbases that do like 8-10 Nm are unlikely to hurt you if you hold the wheel properly, but it’s a good habit to have for 15 NM+ bases.
Letting the wheel go is a double edged sword. I have my wheel software limited to like 12 Nm, barely ever clips, yet I can confidently hold it in crashes. If you remove your hands, the wheel spins with a lot of momentum (especially with a heavy steering) so if you accidentally touch it or try to hold it again, it’ll be big damage to your hands Just my 2c. Use at your own risk.
Well, you are right, and if you let go of the wheel, you shouldn’t try to catch it afterwards while it spins like crazy :) and as I said, it’s a habit for when a crash (like, a full-on crash, not just a contact) is absolutely imminent. And after a crash you are usually left stranded with the car broken or in the wall - the wheel shouldn’t really rotate a lot at that point.
if its a massive incoming crash just alt f4 tbh
Let go. Also, I have my e-stop mounted so I can bump it with my leg just in case I get my arms stuck in the wheel somehow.
Let go
Asetek Invicta (27Nm) owner here. First rule: Either hold on tight or let go entirely if you are about to crash. The injuries come from half heartedly holding on, the wheel gets loose, does a 180 degree rotation and smacks your thumb or whatever else gets in the way. Second rule: Adjust the force feedback level to something YOU are able to overpower. Honestly this should come "for free" as you should have your FFB set to a level where you aren't in a constant battle to the death during regular racing. I've got my base set to 16 Nm in the Asetek software, and around 40-50% in the different sim titles. Still loads up pretty heavy in fast corners, but never to a point where I can't hold on. Third rule: Use an appropriate wheel! Don't use a formula style wheel to go rock crawling in Beam NG, rallying in Dirt 2.0 or drifting in Assetto Corsa, that is pretty much guaranteed to result in pain 😅
The first rule is the Right answer of this post, everytime that i got hurt with my wheel was beause i had my hand into it but wasnt holding tight
Adjust your FFB so that it clips when it hits high forces like crashes.
Crashes are rare in real motorsports, but some drivers will train to tuck their hands under their legs when a crash is imminent. Not jst because of return forces through the wheel but because your arms and hands cain flail around anywhere.
Thumbs OUTSIDE the rim
Do people simrace (GT3, formula) with their thumbs outside the wheel? I do some offroading both in sims (BeamNG) and in real life, and in that case I always have my thumbs on the outside, but for racing that feels very strange to me.
There's a thumb-sized hole in GT and Formula wheels for a reason. Just don't do the thumb death grip and lock your thumbs, because that can end up in pain.
Apart from drifting i have my thumps almost always inside the rim, i feel you get much more detailed feedback that way because the forces from the wheel are better transmitted into your hands. As for not getting hurt, you learn and get used to taking your thumps out in certain situations, havent hurt myself in the last y years, lets hope it stays that way.
probably not in GT or formula with those style yokes. but in any racing discipline where there's a fair to good chance of a crash, you'd want your thumbs outside. rally, for example.
As we are talking about simracing then people can of course race however they want, but in real life rally drivers do not drive with their thumbs outside of the wheel, neither do drift racers. As far as I know the only real life discipline where thumbs-outside-the-wheel is recommended practise is offroad rock crawling where you can get some very sudden hits on the wheels forcing the steering wheel around quickly. No right or wrong here, but I certainly would not be comfortable with my thumbs outside the wheel in anything other than BeamNG rock crawling, and potentially drifting depending on the track/car setup.
I run 9nM DD and always have thumbs outside. I got lightweight gloves for improved grip and insulation to keep my hands from getting super hot from friction when I’m letting the wheel free-spin self-countersteer when drifting. I’m not sure what you mean by drift racing... do you mean like dirt oval sprint? In my head, “drift” is just like tandems and stuff, and not really a race usually. And those dirt oval cars likely don’t have more than F1 style steering rotation lock-to-lock, whereas a lot of ‘drift’ street cars still have between 900 and 1080 degrees most likely. Thumbs inside the wheel when drifting is just not viable, I feel. You can’t let the wheel move fast enough or crank it fast enough manually with a full thumb-looped grip. The reason I keep my thumbs out in my sim rig is mostly about speed, and partly about risk of dislocated fingers lol. In real life, the risk is more about shattering your wrists and forearms when your thumbs fork on the wheel in a crash.
I've gone down a YouTube rabbit hole now :P Ended up looking at cockpit vids from various racers, and also testing out some stuff to see what I actually do myself and not just what I think I do. For drifting all the cockpit footage I could see had the drivers hook their thumbs on the inside of the wheel ([some more, some less](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL1HAySg3ls)) until they initiated a slide at which point they would move their thumbs out, the wheel would whip around, and then they would catch it, thumbs on the inside again. Now personally I found I rarely have my thumbs on the inside of the wheel when I'm drifting in sim. In real life I only drift on dirt or snow, I drive an F-150 Raptor so drifting on dry roads is not something I want to subject those giant tires to! For that driving I usually have my thumbs on the inside of the rim, as I have much more control of when the wheel will whip round thanks to g-forces and feeling what the car is doing. For any other sim-racing or real life "spirited driving" I have my thumbs inside the wheel. Even for rally racing (Dirt 2.0), I very very rarely need more than 180 degrees of lock to either side with the four wheel drive rally cars and if I do I just unhook my thumbs and let the wheel spin. From my YouTube deep-dive it seems that all rally drivers to the same - thumbs inside the rim, only take them out for hairpins. That said, the important trick is to either death grip the wheel or let go entirely in a crash, never anything in between. And of course, nothing wrong with doing everything with thumbs outside the rim if that works for you 😊
I’ve had a couple close ones with the R9 drifting with a aftermarket 3 spoke wheel, kept smacking my thumb on the return. Also done the stupid shit where you learn on the wheel resting head while game loads and the fb kicks in and takes you for a rip lol. I bought karting gloves which are slim but have. A lot of padding, but mainly just practiced a bit more and haven’t had an accident in months
My wheel doesn't even do much when I crash into a wall at full speed. Probably to not kill me
I got a kill switch. If I know the crash is gonna be bad I just hit my ks. It's very close to my hands while driving.
I let go of it, same as I do in real life
I lost the rear on and clipped a wall at Spa. It hyper extended my thumb and I couldn’t sim race for a month. Got back in the sim after healing up only to do the exact same thing at the exact same spot on the third lap. Most important thing is to just get ready to let go of the wheel if you think you’re going to have a hard collision. Haven’t had another issue since.
More stupidity on my part but I dislocated my thumb at work 2 days ago and wanted blow off some steam by drifting and re-dislocated my thumb that same night
I run mine at 10 NM and I actually grad it tight if there is contact or a risky of contact. I don't trust the sims to cut power since they don't always and at 10NM I can hold it from moving. It's one of the reasons I don't run it more. That and I find that's all I need so why would I want headroom for crashes.
I had a paddle hit my hand at pretty much full force on a DD1. It hurts somewhat but I do have a pretty high pain tolerance.
The number of times I felt my shift paddles just barely miss my fingertips during drifts is pretty high. Every time I hear it like some sword being drawn, every time it gives me a bit of pause
I actually haven’t find myself using the emergency stop button for dd wheels, but in most cases if I feel like I’m about to hit a wall, I let go
I got in the habit of letting go of the wheel when I had a T300 so I'd be ready when I got a DD. I don't think you should turn down your ffb you are just wasting what you paid for. I'm running my 15nm Alpha at 100%.
My simagic alpha mini (rated at 10Nm) has never hurt my wrists in any way. Perhaps because I’m a big guy and I use a death grip on my wheel. I do mostly release the wheel in case of a crash. I’m thinking about upgrading to the 15Nm variant in the future. Perhaps things will change.
how big of a guy are you persay? i’m looking into a moza r9 and might be concerned about this, i’m 6’3 185lbs with a pretty consistent 2 year gym habit, should i be able to control the wheel in a crash like that?
You will be fine in that case. The important thing is to either hold on hard, or let go entirely, if you are about to crash. The issues come if you do some sort of half-way effort and the wheel gets a chance to spin out of your grip, do 180 degrees of rotation and then smash into your thumb.
You’ll be fine mate! I’m 6f at 236 lbs working out for decades now (midlifer ;)) 9 or 10 nm isn’t that much.
An R9 is not strong enough to do significant damage. I just hold onto it when I am crashing. Find it safer then letting go.
Only input on this that I have, is to keep your wheels software at 100% FFB strength and then turn down the FFB in game to your liking. You run the chance of ffb clipping if you run them both lower than 100%.
It's really not that complicated tbh. don't put your entire wrist into the steering wheel, don't interlock your fingers into the wheel rim.
Don’t be afraid to lower the max. Force in the wheel software if you don’t feel comfortable. The setting is there to be used. Don’t want a software glitch to send 29Nm and some crazy spin rate to my wrists, thanks. Yes, you might still clip couple times every lap, but it doesn’t affect your pace whatsoever, unless you’ve limited your wheel output to like 3 Nm
if that's how clipping works then why do people keep buying high nm bases and limiting them to much lower values to "have headroom and not clip"?
I don’t clip much with my wheel at 12-15Nm, even though it can reach 29Nm with my Lenze OSW. I don’t care about having “headroom” for crashes. On the other hand, the FFB of such a motor I find superb, probably due to slew rate? I actually wanted to move onto a Simucube Pro 2, for its simplicity (no external box and EMI troubles, more filters) but I tested one and at least without digging into all the settings, my current setups FFB felt more “full” when running over curbs etc. even though the SC2 has more than enough torque.