You can use the emergency brake to keep from rolling back if your car doesn’t have any built in rollback protection.
Just pull the e-brake with your hand, and reduce it at the same rate you engage the clutch when pulling away up hill. Easy peezy.
Otherwise, just make sure you get really good at not riding your clutch for any maneuvers. It’s easy to burn them out if you’re using your clutch to make up for bad driving habits.
Accidentally stopping the engine is no shame. Whatever anybody thinks. Focus on not making collisions. You can always just start the engine again. Nothing bad happened. Collisions are the real headache and what is important.
Keep the radio/music off. It’s much easier to hear the engine and how the clutch engaged while you are getting used to your new clutch
I find it interesting how those of us having learned with manuals just know when to shift after a while, even if the music is blaring.
You sort of just feel it.You’ll get there soon, OP, just keep practicing!
Old VWs just had a mark on the speedo telling you what gear to be in. So you kinda shift around the marker. So easy.
You literally feel it in the seat of your pants, after a while.
I have 2 cvt scooters (no real defensible reason), and it makes me uncomfortable having RPMs go up or down without direct relationship to speed
Hehe yeah I feel you mate.
I ride motorcycles and struggle getting used to scooters. The almost digital feeling throttle control (on/off, speed will come eventually) is not for me.Enjoy your scooters this summer!
Keep at it.
Nothing really to it, you just need time and lots of practice to build up the “muscle memory” for it, until it becomes little more than a reflex.
you can’t spend too much time practicing in a big empty parking lot.
Or if you know a farmer, a paddock is also a good option
One I haven’t seen here yet. If your battery dies, you can usually get the car rolling (neutral with people pushing, or turn down a small hill) and once moving a bit you can throw it straight into second gear and hit the gas and it should cause the car to start and you can drive it to a destination to replace the battery (or just let it charge the battery if you left the headlights or interior lights or such on and let it die on accident). No second car/jumper cables required.
You can get an assist from a speed bump if you time it right. Just as the car apex’s the bump drop it into 2nd and the wee hill can be enough to start the car.
The first time I pop started a manual car I felt like a god lmao, it’s an awesome feature
If you stall and everypne starts getting angry, ignore them and do your thing slowly and safely.
Safety first!
Yup. Once you recover from a stall a few times you can get pretty fast at it, but don’t worry about going slow and methodical.
You’ve gotten a lot of solid practical advice, so I’ll take it to theory.
Learn how it works and what happens when you push that clutch in and let it out.
Here’s a video with a lot of detail and animation.
+1. When you know what is going on inside you can get a much better feel for what the car is doing.
When you are cruising along, if you back off the accellerator a bit you can feel the whole drivetrain go ‘loose’ (If you back off a bit more you will start engine braking). This the backlash in the gearbox & you will find you can pop it out of gear without the clutch quite easily. Putting it back in without the clutch is best practiced on an enemies car.When my truck’s clutch cylinder blew, I managed to limp it to the shop just by rev-matching and slipping it into each gear. I couldn’t stop without stalling, so I definitely blew a couple stop signs, but I made it.
When you start the car on uphill roads, press release the clutch slowly and press the accelerator at the same time. Balance it.
Pffft thats not the fun way, the fun way is to redline the engine then slam off the handbrake.
You’re going to drive it without lessons? Is that legal where you live? I’m confused about the question
I was just asking for general tips tbh, I have experience driving and rode a motorcycle for several years, I just never had a manual car before. If that makes more sense?
If you’re used to a motorcycle clutch, you’ll take to a manual car very quickly.
When approaching a light or stop sign, smoothly press down the clutch and break pedal together. If it’s a red light where you might be for a while, pop the gear into neutral and let go of the clutch.
I was taught (rightfully or not) that holding down the clutch too long can damage it.
Really all you would wear out is the throw out bearing doing that and the clutch plate will go before that does. They are like $10 so they always get replaced with a clutch job. The pressure plate can be reused generally for 3 clutches
Don’t money shift it, pay attention to the road.
People will be annoyed with you and honk at you when you stall at a traffic light or something. Know and accept that fact. Do not mind them. Take your time to do things right. With time you’ll gain muscle memory and you won’t have to think about it at all. Until then, don’t mind the impatient drivers.
I watched my ex drive a manual for over a year. I intently focused on when he was shifting and what not. When I got the car finally for myself, I just got in and went. I had a friend show me how to reverse in the parking lot. I called my supervisor and told her, “I’m driving the kia in today myself, I might be late” and I took my first ride. Made it to work on time, but stalled everywhere I went for two weeks until I got the hang of it. Took a bit longer to get the hang of downshifting.
Dont panic when you stall! You’re just rebooting, keep going!
Don’t step on the clutch with just your toes or the ball of your foot. Push down with the entire length of your foot. It’s easier to control it that way because you’ll be lifting/depressing the pedal with your knee movement instead of ankle.
Also, don’t ride the clutch, even if you think you’re just resting your foot over it lightly. That still puts pressure on the pedal. Rest your foot on the dead pedal when not shifting.
Don’t rest your hand on the shifter (applies to automatics too).
Use engine braking to your advantage.
To add on, if your left ankle is on the ground when working the clutch you’ll have trouble controlling it.
Like scytale says, use your whole foot so the action is at the knee. This means lifting your ankle up off the floor.
Don’t money shift it. That’s when you feel like racing and you slam it into second from first, then from second into what you think is third but is actually first again.
To bypass that I always just let shifter go back to the middle and then I change the speed.
Yes it takes avay 0.3 seconds to do but allowed me to never money shift and be able to overtake cars without doing it either.
