Note, this is a review of the first generation GPX Pro, not the current GPX Pro4/8 units- however, much of this review should apply to both units.

Overall, I’m in love with the GPX Pro- it’s a great cost effective solution for capturing and analyzing data while you are driving or riding (all my tests were done on my SV650 race bike). The unit is easy to install, use and surprisingly easy to read, even in strong sunlight- probably due to it’s use of a grey-scale LCD display rather then a color display that is used on laptops and iPads. The software “GPX Studio”, is also easy to use and has tons of great information, but unfortunately Windows only (no plans on a OSX or Linux port, but it works great under VMWare/Parallels). I really learn a lot by looking at my brake markers and corner speed.

XT Racing has the best customer service I’ve experienced- quickly responding to bug reports and feature requests. They have even helped me debug problems over a weekend so that I would have a properly working unit in time for my races!

There are a few problems that I have had with the GPX Pro:

They seem to have been fighting a reliability issue with their LCD display. I went through 3 units in one year (they’ve paid shipping both ways every time and even sent one 3-day so I’d have it in time for a race weekend). Apparently I’m not the only one having issues. They believe they’ve figured out the cause of the problem and my current unit has the “fix” and so far so good- it appears their solution has worked. Either way, I’m 100% confident that XT Racing will stand behind their product and resolve the issue.

The second issue is that the unit has to be reformatted/reset to factory defaults about once a year due to performance issues that crop up. After a while, the unit becomes so slow, that it just locks up and crashes. XT Racing claims it’s due to a file system issue that the flash memory is using (this problem I was told has been resolved in the newer GPX Pro 4/8 units). So far, the problem has always been fixed by reformatting the device, but doing so means you lose all your settings. The good news is that it takes a while for this problem to crop up, so I think I’ll only have to reformat my unit once a year.

XT Racing is a small company. That’s good because is means you don’t talk to some technical support guy, but rather to one of the engineers who designed the product if you have a problem. If you find a bug in the firmware/software they’re really good about fixing it right away (I know a guy who sent in a bug report on Friday afternoon and got the fix on Saturday in time for his races). XT Racing is also very willing to work with people- even making me a custom NPT threaded temperature sensor for my SV650.

The pros are:
– Very inexpensive for the features compared to the competition
– Easy to install & good documentation
– Software is easy to use (works fine under VMware/etc too if you run OSX/Linux)
– Great technical support. Their engineer has responded to my emails over the weekend and they’re very good about integrating feedback into their product.
– Amazing customer support.
– Their analysis software (GPX Studio) is a free download on their website and they’re happy to send you some sample data so you can play with it if you’d like to see what it can do.

Cons:
– Reliability could be improved

Basically XT Racing is a small company who seems very customer focused and has bent over backwards to make me a happy customer. I’m sure Starlane, AiM, MoTeC are great too, but IMHO the price/feature sweet spot is clearly with the GPX Pro.