Comment on I'll just take the bus
Flamekebab@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
I always hated this instruction. When instead I had it explained that one can think of it as fading the clutch out and fading the accelerator in (and that points in between are fine too) I immediately understood and never had an issue again. Admittedly I stalled a few times when switching to a different car whilst I learned its specific tolerances, but conceptually I was golden.
...now I drive an electric car.
Really depends on the amount of torque your car has at idle, in some you don’t need to touch the gas pedal at all to set off.
Or how good the anti-stall system is, the car I learned in was basically impossible to stall by letting the clutch up too fast, it would just automatically fade in power.
Geometrinen_Gepardi@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Also it’s never taught that you should lift the clutch to the bite point and keep it still until the car builds up some momentum. I think people do it so subconsciously that it doesn’t occur to them that that’s the key to moving from a standstill.
ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I love teaching my friends how to drive stick. The first lesson is how to make the idle car move by lifting the clutch foot so slow that you can feel the car move and keep going slowly until the foot is off the clutch pedal. It’s about a 15 minute lesson and the driver understands what to do with the clutch. The gas is easy.
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
In their own car right? That’ll kill the clutch after a few friends.
0ops@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
It’s slow, but in most cars the idle is torquey enough that it’s not that slow. My beater doesn’t even have 1st gear anymore, so I start in second, and I can still go from a full stop to clutch fully released and rolling in like 4 seconds without touching the gas at all.
I feel like this is something that you just have to do to learn though. You can’t smoothly and competently operate the clutch without understanding the bite-point, and for a noob it’s going to be really tough to get a feel for that bite-point if they aren’t taking it very slow at first. Speed will come, usually after only a few starts
ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Nope. I teach them in my car. And yeah, the car might sometimes stutter but that doesn’t hurt anything. It’s hard to harm to a clutch without using the gas pedal or a graded street.
hobovision@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
You aren’t having them redline the engine and slip the clutch going up a hill. Practicing idle starts in first is probably way less wear than a single sporty start on a highway on ramp.
Noobnarski@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It depends on the car, my first car used gasoline, so the idle torque was low and you really needed to push the gas at the same time, otherwise it would stall, maybe not if you are releasing the clutch extremely slow, but that is not practical.
My current diesel car has so much torque even at idle that you really don’t need to press the gas pedal while releasing the clutch.
greenhorn@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
On principle I only teach in their car, but made an exception for my friend’s husband since he wanted to rent a manual overseas. I learned my lesson, he didn’t
BootLoop@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
This wasn’t taught to me either but this is the best thing for teaching others. I’ve explained this to a few people before that were struggling to learn and it made the process much easier.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
It’s like learning to ride a bike. There’s all this balance going on, but after you’re good at it it’s just natural and you kind of forget how to explain what to do because you stopped thinking about it so long ago.
bleistift2@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
I was taught that. I learned driving in Germany, though.