The BDH H1 "Bazooka" is full size professional grade dedicated H-Pattern shifter. It is modelled after Ford Escort MKII Rally shift mechanism which gives you actually "real life" feel. Its nickname "Bazooka" comes from the unique body shape.
The H1"Bazooka" has very strong claim to be in the elite section of H-Pattern Sim Racing shifters so naturally we wanted to see ourselves. Here are our findings and spoiler alert: claims are totally legit!
Overall Score: 4.6 out of 5 |
| Appeal | 97 | |
| Design | 90 | |
| Performance | 95 | |
| Immersion | 100 | |
| Value | 80 |
| The Good: | The Bad: |
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The following video review is to be regarded as add-on to the current one. Both were made to work together in conjunction and compliment each other. For real-time experience check it out below:
Features
- Based on Ford Escort MKII Rally gear shifting mechanism
- Aluminium machined body
- Default shifter stick: 100mm
- Shift knob is standard M10x1.5 thread
- Extended Shifter stick Kit available
- Adjustable mechanism tension
- Nylon Rally style shift knob - black or white
- Can be bottom and side mounted with body forward or reverse
- USB connectivity, PC only
- Gears: 7 forward, 1 reverse
- Gears 7 and R are on one gate - up/down. Engaging them requires stronger input to overcome gates 1-2/4-6 depending on shifter body direction.
Pricing
- BDH1 H1 Shifter without knob - £950 without VAT
- Shift knob - +£15 without VAT
- Gear Stick Extension Kit - £65 without VAT
- Mounting Hardware Kit - £10 without VAT
Product Design
The BDH H1 shifter sports a sleek, machined aluminium cylindrical main body with extended black shifter shaft. Comes either with white or black shifter knob. USB controller is nicely stashed in an engraved enclosure between shifter and mount base.
Our unit survived more than 6 months of heavy use and multiple rig readjustments. The scratches on the body speak clearly for that. This being all machined body you should pay extra attention to keep it scratch-free:
When we take a deep look at the main assembly we can clearly see at the far end the Shift Gate Mechanism cover. In the center of the shifter we have the USB controller enclosure which features a beautifully engraved BDH logo. On top is the tension adjuster. On the stick-side we have a small cover which provides access to the main stick-shaft pivot assembly:
Bundle
In the basic bundle you get... well, nothing additional. You can order shifter without knob or pair it with black/white one at additional cost. The default nylon knobs are based on classic rally design.
In the early production photos we saw the same knob milled from Aluminium. We never tested it ourselves but it looks cool! Definitely interesting option!
Recently BDH started manufacturing a Sticke Extension Kit - it gives you two additional extensions with 45mm and 70mm length. This effectively gives you 4 different Gear Stick lengths: 70mm, 100mm 115mm & 145mm.
Mounting hardware should you need it can be ordered separately. It is standard T-slot nuts and bolts - something that you should already have in abundance and is not that much of an issue. If you have non-t-slot based rig, BDH will offer you support and help you figure out mounting options.
What is missing here? We ourselves would like to have option to order all these bundled together at reduced additional cost. We are sure a lot of you would consider spending little more money and obtain the complete shaft options at start. While you are at it why not throw in several knob options to change when you get bored?
Dimensions
The Bazooka shifter body measures at 300mm length and takes up 80mm width when bottom mounted. Side-mounting it will add 30mm on top of that. The H1 is in the middle height range for shifters - bottom to gear knob top measures 300mm as well. The gear stick is pretty long and allows you to tuck the shifter body somewhere out of sight where it will not interfere with anything and still have the gear knob in correct position.
Weight we measured 3244gr without cable (with knob). This heavy enough and requires extra care while mounting so you do not scratch the nice machined finish. This bumps shipping weight to about 4KG, which presents itself in a quite large box at your doorstep. Shifter is being sent for the time being assembled, but BDH are working on new packaging with which shifter stick will be shipped detached from body. Looks pretty neat on pictures - step in the right direction.
Shifter looks bulky but in reality it is not - actually is quite compact device because of its unique design. Below you can see it compared to another popular shifter:
Retaining brackets
Shifter is mounted to base through two brackets held with 4 screws each. The top brackets have milled indentation which serves to alighn the shifter in bottom or side mounted position. To switch between them you will have to change the position of a small plastic washer screwed to the shifter body:
Shifter details
The BDH H1 shifter is built around microswitches connected to a standard USB gamepad module. We will not get into much details but this type of controller is very common and well know and has its own limitations. The biggest one of them being its widespread use - a lot of people utilize those in button boxes and other hardware which then leads to compatibility issues when you connect second one. In future we are sure this will be addressed but for the time being keep it in mind especially if you already use such gamepad controller.
The controller itself is mounted in a cleverly designed enclosure between shifter body and mounting base. Be careful when you assemble them back together not to cut the switch cables!
The standard gear knobs are nylon, but as mentioned before on pre-production unites we saw some Aluminium ones. Design resembles classic rally knob - pretty good item. Feels very comfortable, also quite nice to touch - nylon material is actually very pleasant. It relies on standard metric gear knob interface (maybe the most popular one) - M10x15. This allows you to use wide array of aftermarket knobs (as we did later on in the review).
The tensioning mechanism sits right above the USB controller. It is adjusted with Hex screw held in place by thumb stopper. This is tool-free adjustable and is in relatively comfortable place (even in our awkward mounting positions we can adjust it without issues):
Shifter internals
Switch gates: the shifter gates mechanism is built around 8 microswitches held in place with a 3D printed shroud. It has very cleverly designed gates - plastic covers mounted on M5 screws in the correct places. The plastic covers provide very good feeling when you switch between gates - even if you hit them the transition is smooth and unimpaired. They are also perfect length and you have discrete gates with pronounced separation.
Should you ever need to service this (for us only once the plastic nuts came unscrewed, more on that later) the cover is very easy to remove even when shifter is mounted - it is held only by a single stopper screw. If you suddenly start experiencing gears requiring more precise shifting or force to overcome gate - this is clear indication that some of those caps got unscrewed :
On the other side of the shifter we have a simple cover held in place with two screws. Removing it gives access to the stick-shaft pivot assembly - again very easy to access even with shifter mounted on rig. If you start feeling longitudal freeplay in the shift level - tighten the screw underneath:
We have not dismantled any further the shifter as it voids it's warranty, also out of concern if we will ever be able to assemble it back. Shifter has some holes on the side from which you can see the internals, but it is too complicated to take pictures on them.
Mounting
When you decide if you prefer bottom or side mounted shifter and actually find place it is very easy to mount it. The mounting base has 4 elongated mount holes accepting M8 hardware and it is only a matter of screwing it in somplace on your rig.
Here we used only 3 of the holes and some side brackets as they allowed correct position relative to seat and other hardware. Shifter body is facing forward which gives us gear 7 and R on the far right - past gear 5-6 gate:
Of course if you have tubular rig you will face some issues, but BDH are happy to work with you and help you find the proper solution.
Baseplate is very solid and mounting only with two screws it should be stable enough but do not be fooled: this is life-like shifter, very strong and requires really solid mount to operate properly.
The unique design with long shifter lever allows you to mount the shifter body in the low part of your cockpit and have the shifter in correct position. This is very comfortable to align it with all your other sim gear you might have. As you can see below we successfully mounted it in perfect position working together with handbrake and full size sequential shifter:
This mount point looks like it has no clearance for shifter travel but this is not the case. Shifter even with the 100mm default stick has relatively short travel and clears every gear perfectly (we could never achieve such compact and well aligned setup with our previous shifters):
Having the shifter mounted so low and stick clearing nice everything around we managed to throw in the mix fully functional mouse pad (looks smaller than it actually is). We even had space to add our navigation/seat control box - shifter travel clears all components very well
Another very cool feature of the desing is that it has flat mount place right next to the gear level-shaft pivot assembly. This will allow you to place a small exciter there and have dedicated vibrations in your shifter. As this is so close to the gear lever you can feel the vibrations without much loss - work really well. We suppose even vibration motors will work well there:
As we always like to take things to extreme we also mounted a full sized Aura bass shaker. Works very well even with the loss of signal we get in the construction:
A little background: This is the first high-tier H-Pattern shifter we test here - hope somebody sees this and gives us other products to review ;). On the other hand we have experience with enough low and mid-grade H-Shifters as well as mid and high-grade sequential ones. Paired with experience with lot of real cars we believe we know what to look for in a sim shifter.
Appeal
The BDH H1 "Bazooka" looks sick! This is definitely piece of hardware that you want to be visible and one of the centerpieces on your rig. Its unique shape, comfortable layout and slick machined Aluminium machined look indicate perfection. Actually the only thing we found not to be on par was the knob - it is good by itself, but paired to the shifter's premium look it trails behind.
Another coolness factor - this thing is modelled after the shifting mechanism in Ford Escort MKII rally Car - an icon by itself!
Actually the Round shifter design is so cool that in recent poll at the BDH Online Community about what shape their upcoming product should be it won by landslide over the square-box shaped design. Hope the BDH Team listen to us!
Design
Mechanically the shifter features very clever design. It is based on actual gear shifter mechanism, the gates are very well made and the microswitches are optimally integrated. The switch between bottom and side mount is easy and works well.
The parts we do not like - it is based on standard gamepad module which in itself limits it to PC only and introduces further inconvenience. If you have similar gamepad module in your setup they will interfere and at some point you will even to switch between them when not in use.
Also keep in mind gear 7 and Reverse have fixed position - this means you have to decide if you want them to be on Left or Right. If you have space on your rig and it allows mounting both ways - it is fine. If not - hope you are like us and are lucky that your rig position will align with the shifting preference you have.
Performance
Shifting mechanism: Shifter main shaft has resistance mechanism inside and transition between high-center-low gear on same gate has clearly pronounced mechanical feel and resistance - exactly what you would expect on a real car shifting mechanism.
Tensioning mechanism: Works very well, can be operated tool-free, ranges from no resistance to full lock, long and granular travel. Not much more to say here - works as it should be and allows you to set whatever tension you like.
Gates: Clearly pronounced gates (not so common thing in low and mid grade sim racing shifters), very soft feel when you transition and hit them. Has a little learning curve until you get accustomed to where the gears are just like in a real car. After that - it is pure joy.
Throw: Despite the long gear level this shifter has short throw. Feels great to us as is - fast and precise shifting, short travel - exactly what you would expect from a race car. Recently BDH started manufacturing Stick Extension kit - it includes 45mm and 70mm extension effectively giving you 4 more level lengths. We have not tested it, but the longer throws with 115mm and 145mm seem quite feasible to us. We are not convinced the shortest 70mm throw is that necessary but still good adjustment option.
Gear Layout: Forward gears 1-6 have standard H-pattern layout. Gears 7 and Reverse are activated by pushing the gear level far right/left depending on shifter orientation. This means in order to engage them you have to overpass using extra force gate 5-6 or 1-2 if mounted in reverse. There is no locking mechanism which could lead to accidental mis-shifts. Having said that 7th and Reverse on the same gate next to 5-6 also popular sport/race car layout. In Europe it is most common to have Reverse left from 1st (Porsche gearboxes for example) but such layout would mean one more extra gate and will feel strange when you flip the shifter. Our conclusion here is that this seems to be the optimal layout when you want to provide the option to reverse mount the shifter. It needs some getting used to but after time it feels really natural.
Gear 7 and Reverse transition: Side transition tension to Gear 7 and R Gate is fixed, cannot be adjusted. It is well discernable when you overpass gates 5-6 (1-2 in reversed position) but we found out on heated session it is easy to overcome the gate and go directly to from 3-4 to 7th. This stops being an issue after you spend some time with the shifter and gain experience. Locked (push or pull) 7th and R gear here would be upgrade.
No sequential: no problem! This is dedicated H-Pattern shifter. In our experience combined shifters always are lacking in one or both modes so we prefer separate hardware. The H1's design is great as is and we presume adding sequential mode will unduly complicate it. In our opinion this not crucial feature for high end product - you would want the best performance possible. Furthermore it is complicated to find correct position in which both H-patter and Sequential shifter will feel natural on a single unit. Furthermore we hate changing knobs alternating between H-pattern and SEQ.
Maintenance: During the span of more than 6 months heavy use we experience only single issue - the plastic caps on gate dividers got unscrewed and we could not shift properly. This is easy fix which can be performed even with shifter mounted on the rig (provided you have enough space to remove cover). We are not sure if this is common issue or the added vibrations from Bass Shakers and Rig Motion aided it. As you can see on the pictures even after this long period the plastic caps still keep their shape and do not show signs of wear. We presume here adding some threadlocker will solve our issue. Also good thought it to get several spare caps together with shifter in case some of them fails.
Hardware: Our biggest grudge here. Based on USB standard gamepad it brings issue in it's own. The Bazooka is based on microswitches which simplifies integration with all kind of controllers. We won't delve into this any further - there are a lof of options out there, but all of them are more expensive and will drive the price up. It is very easy to integrate it in a DIY solution as well.
Immersion
The BDH H1 Bazooka here really shines. It is based on actual race iconic car - the Ford Escort MKII Rally. It works exactly as you would expect from a classic rally car and the most common application for H-pattern sim shifter is just that. With proper tension setting the shifter feels exactly like real car gearbox. Example here would be our own Opel Astra G with short shifter - popular choice for touring track competitions in Europe back in the day - it has exactly the same feel.
Paired with good tactile device this gets even better - you can feel very realistic engine vibrations and get a satisfying effect every time you shift. We are sure this can be achieved also with rumble motors and would like to see this integrated in some future product by default.
Value
At £950/EUR1072 the BDH H1 falls in the highest H-Pattern shifter price range. Keep in mind this does not include shipping, tax or any bundled extras. If you want a gear knob or something extra like the stick extension - it goes up. On the other hand you are getting superb product which compared with other professional grade H-patterns shifters out there is much smaller, slick and is something that you would want on display in your rig. Performance is also on par, only we expected the USB controller to be something more.
Conclusion
The BDH H1 "Bazooka" H-Patter Sim Racing Shifter is one very cool advanced piece of engineering with superb shifting experience. It has relatively small footprint, lot of mounting options and its unique design both looks very good and gives you the option to position it perfectly.
Based on the iconic Ford Escort MKII Rally gear shift mechanism it provides just that - real-life experience for rally and classic race cars. Tensioning mechanism provides very wide setup range and we are convinced you will find it satisfying in every sim car with manual gearbox. It is placed in the upper price range of premium H-pattern shifters but is still far from the most expensive ones.
All of the above paired with the clever engineering, great feel and immersion result in a superb product deserving high score of 4.6 Stars and our Exceptional badge. We cannot wait to see what Team BDH next product would be!
