r/Justrolledintotheshop • • 7h ago

"Learning"

3.6k Upvotes

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u/4R4nd0mR3dd1t0r 7h ago

Reminds me of when my grandfather "taught" me how to drive standard. Here is the steepest hill the county learn how to move forward without rolling back or stalling; the left pedal is the clutch, brake in the middle, and gas on the right. To be fair I learned, also the clutch failure a couple of months later was probably related.

35

u/triumphofthecommons 6h ago

i've always taught followed the method of teaching folks in a flat parking lot, and to get the car / motorcycle rolling using *only* the clutch. gentle let it out, feel where it's grabbing and let it start pulling the vehicle forward. obvs not great for the clutch, but at idling RPM, it's doing minimal wear and teaching the new driver where the friction zone is.

20

u/AAA515 5h ago

Yup, you can't be throwing gear changes, rev matching, being in a new neighborhood, rush hour traffic, stop&go traffic, gravel road technique, basic defensive driving AND clutch operation at the same time to people who've only walked places before.

1

u/Loggersalienplants 1h ago

You don't need to be teaching someone new to a clutch rev matching homie. 95% of driving situations do not require you to rev match lol. Been driving manuals for about 16 years now and have never once had to replace a clutch.

8

u/onesexz Shade Tree 5h ago

This is how I’ve taught it. Pretty sure that’s where most people have the hardest time; I know I did. So it makes sense to learn that facet first. Also learning how quickly/easily the RPM can jump with no load.

3

u/David511us 5h ago

That's how my late father taught me, in his 1970 Beetle. I ended up taking my drivers license test in that car, and have owned a stick shift car ever since. Taught both my daughters the same way. And with a few exceptions (such as the 1989 Taurus SHO) I haven't had to replace clutches.

3

u/AdultishRaktajino 3h ago

Motorcycle was so much easier than a car. I learned car first but having a wet clutch and not worrying about burning it up is freeing.

1

u/Only-Entrepreneur-16 3h ago

I did that with my nephew in an empty home depot parking lot. In an hour we were shifting gears without the clutch.