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Rinoseat G25 edition review
1
(34 posts, started )
Rinoseat G25 edition review
Time for a review of my Rinoseat. I've had it for two weeks now approximately, and I've been using it quite a lot.


Packaging and assembly
The seat was packed in a compact cardboard box. Each part was wrapped in plastic or cardboard for protection. The box also includes all you’ll need for assembly, including tools. A nice gesture!

Assembly was not very difficult, but I took my time since I wanted to get it right. The instructions were OK, but with some ambiguities. If I were to do it again now I could probably do it in less than 15 minutes.

Disassembly/storage
My room is very small (10m^2) so I have to partially disassemble it after use. This is very easy! After removing a couple of screws it will fold like this:



Unfortunately you’ll need to use tools to tilt the seatback. I think this could have been done with some handles or something instead. It’s not a big deal, though.


Build quality
The seat it covered with artificial leather. All the seams are high quality and seem very well done. The metal parts have a nice paint cover, and all the welds and joints appear solid.

Use
Now, on to the fun bit. Is it comfortable to use? The short answer is yes. The long answer is yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.

I was totally amazed at the comfort!! It’s hard to put a finger on what exactly does it, but the whole feel of the seat is extremely good. The mix between soft cushions and still good support works very well indeed. Once you’ve adjusted the distance to the pedals correctly, the base of the seat will provide excellent support to your thighs. Also the way the seat is constructed, a lot of your body weight is held up by your legs, so there’s less weight on the seat itself. Since your body weight gets distributed over a large area it feels like you’re “floating on air”. (I stole that expression from some other review. ) Together, this means that even after long hours of racing I don’t get tired at all.



I’m using the Nixim mod, which requires me to use quite a lot of force when braking. I was slightly worried that this would cause the whole structure to flex and bend when I’m driving. However this is not the case – it feels very stable and solid.

Some words about adjustability: I was a little concerned about whether or not the seat would be big enough for me. I’m quite tall (2 meters) so I was wondering if the pedals could be shoved far enough away from the seat. (The pedals are connected to the seat base by a metal tube) And indeed they can! The distance from the seat and the pedals can be selected from about a million different positions, so this should work for everyone. Moreover the height/distance to the wheel, the angle of the pedal base and the seatback angle can all be adjusted as you please.

Now on to some of the negatives. Some people have expressed concern that the wheel isn’t supported all that well. And it’s true – the wheel support will flex some when you’re driving. This has both a negative and a positive side to it. Some people might think that it feels a little weird that it moves around like that, but on the other hand it means that the vibrations from the wheel get transferred into your seat. So when you hit a curb or something you’ll actually feel a thump in your legs. While subtle, I think this effect adds a little bit to the immersion, but the wobbliness of the wheel is a tradeoff that not everyone will be willing to make, I suppose.

One minor thing at the end – the legs are quite “pointy” and leave quite deep depressions in the linoleum on my floor. I’ve fixed this by placing some thin plastic discs underneath the legs, so it’s not really a problem, but anyway.. it’s the sort of thing that could easily be fixed by the manufacturer.

Overall
All in all, the Rinoseat is just what I was hoping it would be. The quality is great, and it can be adjusted to a lot of different positions to fit your fancy. It’s small and can be stored easily, but even though it’s small and looks kind of flimsy it’s very comfortable and stable. The only exception is the wheel support which flexes a little more than some might like. Personally I don’t think this is a problem, though, and all in all I’m very happy with the seat. It’s a little bit on the expensive side, though, but the value is great still.

I’m even thinking about making some extensions on it so I can use it for flight sims as well, which shouldn’t be too difficult considering the modular nature of the construction.

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If you want to add your own review or thougths about the seat, or if you have any questions, please feel free to post here.
Nice review mate.
Very nice review

i will giving me one on x-mas...if the transport doesn`t take a month

Rhino Seat rockz
Nice one m8 Well done on the review
Thanks!


Quote from itsphilthy :Very nice review

i will giving me one on x-mas...if the transport doesn`t take a month

Rhino Seat rockz

I hope Santa will bring you one.

For me, transport took about 3 weeks once the seat was sent. There were some initial problems which caused significant delay in my case, but Renato assured me that this was a one-off thing. So that's why I didn't mention shipping in the review, because I don't think that my experiences here are representative.
#6 - Riel
I have one for a few months now!

I used it a lot, the seat is just great. Can't find a single thing that is bad about it.

Only the elastics in the backrest tent to jump loose. 'PETS'. It's easy re-attached, but during racing it is quite annoying, just feeling a bit less support on your back.

The manufacturer said it was a production error and was already fixed (happend before december ), he offered to send me a new backrest.
I had mine for a year now.
The problem i had at first was that the wheel was to long away from me ( I like to have the wheel high and close to my body). So I had to mount an extra rectangular steel plate on the wheel stand that give me a couple of extra inches so I could get the wheel a bit closer to me.
No big deal though.

Bout the backrest I can agree. No support for the back at longer races wich can be a little annoying.

Otherwise the seat is very good
#8 - Riel
Don't get me wrong: the support is good when the elastics are in place.

There are 4 or 5 of them, they tend to snap, so you feel that some support goes then while racing.

After race have to remove leather, reattach the elastic and it's ok again.

But when 1 snaps, more pressure on others, so the following elastics snap sooner

(note, not really snapping, just the hooks come out of the holes, it's not damaged).


But, as I said, newer models should not have this problem.
Is it difficult to remove the cover?

Dont think any of mine has got loose, do you notice that very clearly?
#10 - Riel
Yes and no. I had once that I thought 1 one gone (I heard one snap) and saw there were 2 (which I didn't feel at once), but you WILL feel difference if they are attached. You don't need to remove the leather, just push your hand on the back, you feel the elastics, they are perfectly divided.

At the back, low, there is this velcro to fix it. Just loosen that, and you can pull it upwards. It's quite tight, but you can remove and re-use it and it will be as new, so that's good designed.
A little update: This seat is too damned comfortable! Yesterday I sat down to do some racing, and when I looked at my watch 5 hours had passed. I wasn't feeling tired at all. Scary stuff..
How much does it cost?
#13 - Riel
199 euro's for g25 edition.

Add 50 taxes (depends on your country) and 50 postal.

I payed about 300 total indeed.
Your room is small and you make it much smaller by putting in a racing seat, nice.
#15 - Riel
Devotion!
Quote from PioneerLv :Your room is small and you make it much smaller by putting in a racing seat, nice.

Well I've got a bigger room now though, so I don't have to collapse it between use. I just pull the pedals back, which is a 2 second job (literally).

Point is, the seat works great even in tiny rooms. I thought this might help somebody else.
Quote from TAYLOR-MANIA :,
I'm still kinda doubtful though judging purely by how it looks. It doesn't look like it has a good amount of padding and it looks stiff. And the wheel stand bit looks flimsy. Hmm..

I understand your concerns. And to be honest I was kinda worried about the same thing as you. But I was very pleasantly surprised at the comfort. It seems they have done a very good job at getting high comfort at low weight.

The Obutto does indeed look very good as well. However it's big.. I expect the shipping costs to be significant on that one, but that remains to be seen.
#18 - Riel
Really, you should not have any concerns
It's a very good product.
I'm seriously considering to get me one of those rinoseats, but I've got a little problem: I've tried to contact the producer of the seats via three different e-mail adresses, but I don't get an answer. It seems like other ppl in another forum experience the same problem.
Does anyone of you know what's up with the buisness? Did anyone of you have contact to the manufacturer recently? It would be a shame if the seat wasn't available any more...
I'd appreciate any information about this.

Greetz

aimbottle
Quote from aimbottle :I'm seriously considering to get me one of those rinoseats, but I've got a little problem: I've tried to contact the producer of the seats via three different e-mail adresses, but I don't get an answer. It seems like other ppl in another forum experience the same problem.
Does anyone of you know what's up with the buisness? Did anyone of you have contact to the manufacturer recently? It would be a shame if the seat wasn't available any more...
I'd appreciate any information about this.

Greetz

aimbottle

Now that you mention it, I haven't seen him post anywhere for the past couple of months.. last autumn he answered e-mails pretty quickly. But I do know that they had lots of problems with shipping. For example a whole shipment of ~ 60 seats got lost in transit due to a problem with Croatian customs (if I understood him correctly). A small company like this can't afford too many such mishaps..

I say be patient a little longer, and hope for the best. If you don't have patience, I believe the Obutto seat is going to be available in Europe quite soon. That looks like a good alternative also!
Nah.. the obutto is much to big for my requirements... I'd hoped that there's someone who knows the manufacturer (renato) personally or got contact with him on a regular basis.
So for now my only option is to wait and hope that I'll get some information soon...
(Wanna sell your seat? )
Quote from TAYLOR-MANIA :hey, i'm just wondering if there's a reason for you believing that? Or are you like me and just expecting it to sooner or later? Has something been said about it somewhere?

I'm holding out and holding out...been thinking about taking my desk apart & getting a car seat to build a custom cockpit myself, but it will be such a hassle that i'd much rather avoid...

Nothing concrete yet I'm afraid.. they're still looking for dealers in Europe. Here's a quote from January 12th:

Quote :shipping to Europe is still an issue. The box is rather large and the air shipping rates are HUGE....appx US$450 shipping charges from Beijing to EU. Even from our US inventory, the shipping charges would be over US$300 to France.

It would be great is someone in Europe would like to distribute these for us since we can then send container shipments to them which brings shipping costs down to the neighbourhood of US$30-90 per cockpit. Of course this would entail purchasing 50 or more cockpits, but so far I've received just as much interest from Europeans sim racers as in the US, so 50 cockpits would sell rather quickly.

This is another thing the Rinoseat guys have done right: they've thought about storage/shipping all the way through the design process. The whole thing folds into a cardboard box 80x15x40 cm or something like that, which was a major thing for me. The Obutto guys seem to have designed the whole thing first and then they went "oh hell, we have to ship this bloody thing too! How are we going to do that..?" as a bit of an afterthought.
#23 - Riel
I am still waiting for a replacement backrest ... as you mention it, I never heard of him.
What bothers me most about not being able to get an answer from the constructor of the rinoseat is that there is also absolutely no info on the official homepage. It just annoys me so much that I don't know whether there will be an answer ever.
Perhaps he shut down his buisness, but why doesn't he then take down his homepage as well?
Ahh... so many questions and no answers in sight... :irked:
Anyone got a reply yet? Found this product also very interesting (my racing pos right now kills my back and my pedals always slipping), wrote a mail but also waiting for a response.
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Rinoseat G25 edition review
(34 posts, started )
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