Learning to Drive Manual
- Thread starter Hot Sauce
- Start date
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Practice, practice, practice.......that's the only way. Just like tennis.
Let the clutch pedal out very slowly without giving it any gas just to get the feel of exactly where the clutch engages. After you're familiar with the point of engagement, start giving it a little gas just before that point and continue giving it gas slowly as you release the clutch pedal slowly. If the car feels a bit jerky or feels it's about to stall, just give it more gas or push the clutch in and then shift to 2nd gear (don't forget to push the clutch in before shifting, of course).
Let the clutch pedal out very slowly without giving it any gas just to get the feel of exactly where the clutch engages. After you're familiar with the point of engagement, start giving it a little gas just before that point and continue giving it gas slowly as you release the clutch pedal slowly. If the car feels a bit jerky or feels it's about to stall, just give it more gas or push the clutch in and then shift to 2nd gear (don't forget to push the clutch in before shifting, of course).
Do waht is said above with the clutch pedal first thengo somewhere quiet and just practice moving forward really slowly and stopping and starting just using the accelerator and your clutch.
It's mainly down to being slow and smooth with the clutch. You will get it with plenty of practice.
It's mainly down to being slow and smooth with the clutch. You will get it with plenty of practice.
SempreSami
Hall of Fame
Raise the clutch slowly until you reach the 'bite', then release the handbrake or whatever.
tennis_hand
Hall of Fame
feel the clutch. that's it.
jmverdugo
Hall of Fame
Very good advice, this is calling getting the "feel" of the car, it is important becasuse different cars have different clutchs and different gas pedals. Also and very, very important, calm and patience. IMO the hard part is not the stick but keep the car in your channel.
Steve Huff
G.O.A.T.
Get a friend with a dirt bike (a low-powered one, not a motocross bike). Learn on it (off road). Even though you're using your hand to operate the clutch, you'll still get a better feel than you do in a car. I had motorcycles by age 12, so when it came time to drive a manual, it was easy the very first time.
therogerfan
Rookie
I learned it this way. Try to get the car moving without pushing the gas pedal at all. The car will move only then , when the clutch is perfectly released. If everything goes well, start adding gas slowly
D
Deleted member 22147
Guest
It's easy, I passed my test a month of so ago, just need practise.
First time I went out driving I couldn't get the car going, but soon as I did it I never messed it up again.
I never used to put enough acceleration on before taking my foot off the clutch.
First time I went out driving I couldn't get the car going, but soon as I did it I never messed it up again.
I never used to put enough acceleration on before taking my foot off the clutch.
BreakPoint's advice is solid. When my dad was teaching me, he had me bring the car right up to the curb of our driveway and stop the car. He then had me practice starting the car to get it up the curb from a standstill. I thought it was helpful.
Also, some people say that it's easier to get a better feel for the clutch by practicing without shoes -- barefoot. Might be worth a shot
Nadal_Monfils
Semi-Pro
^^^ Agreed, I have a standard transmission and I always drive barefoot because it gives me a much better feel of the pedals. You just have to keep practicing and it will eventually become second nature.
Rickson
G.O.A.T.
I've been driving stick since before you were born, son. You need to get the feel of the clutch. You step down hard, but come up slowly. Many people treat the clutch like a brake pedal and that's a big mistake. You grind the gears by half clutching so make sure you step down hard. Now in 1st gear, you come up slowly until you feel the car moving a little without having to step on the gas. Most people can't do this without the car stalling, but I can and you should learn how to do this too. When the car gets that forward movement, step on the gas slowly and you'll be moving smoothely. Make sure you're on a level street because an incline will be dangerous for a new stick driver.
0range
Hall of Fame
Just keep practicing and get used to driving in different conditions... go up/down hills in Burnaby, get stuck in the traffic on Kingsway (go and stop, go and stop, repeat...)
Give it 2 weeks to get used to it, and then give it 6 month to get truly used to it.
Nadal_Monfils
Semi-Pro
Stop and go traffic with a stick is miserable. You have to keep the clutch in almost constantly and your leg can start to cramp up, so be sure to keep massage oils under your seat!
Hot Sauce
Hall of Fame
When I'm in first and I have the clutch down, it already moves either forward or backward slightly.
I'm almost ready to give up. This whole experiencing is ******* the ****ing hell out of me. It is all so demoralizing.
When the clutch is in you are in neutral, regardless of what gear you have the stick in, so unless you are also on the brake, the car will roll with the road.
Everyone has given great advice, do not give up. Once you learn, going back to an automatic is tough. I second the advice that suggests learning how to get the car moving without using the gas. It really gives you a good feel for the clutch. I learned this way and would get up through third gear without using the gas. It showed me what the car feels like when it NEEDS gas.
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Yes, I highly recommend avoiding trying to learn how to drive a stick on the streets of San Francisco. I can guarantee you will die from either a car accident or of a heart attack. :shock:
DrumWizOHBD
Semi-Pro
How powerful of an engine do you have? If your engine is not too small, you can start in 2nd gear. This has a bit longer of a "catch", and can be easier to find a feel for starting. However, if your engine doesn't have enough torque at low RPMs, you will actually be more likely to stall. On big Trucks and Sports cars, you can actually start in 3rd gear fairly easily. Good Luck!! You're gonna need it, especially if you are learning on the mean streets of San Fran!! ^^^^^^^^^
tennis_hand
Hall of Fame
when u are experienced, u will always step slightly on the throttle first and then release the clutch and step in the throttle more simultaneously.
u will stall the engine more if you try to feel the clutch first, because if u are not careful enough, u stall. less margin for error.
tennis_hand
Hall of Fame
then better get an auto car, if u have to stop in the traffic jams frequently on slopes. I know manual car is fun, but in traffic jams, especially on slopes is not fun.
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
In several areas in San Francisco, there are many very steep streets with hills of angles of 45 degrees or greater. It's like being on a roller coaster, except that you have to stop just before you get to the top because there's a traffic light or stop sign at every intersection at the top of the hills. Even an experienced manual driver like me gets nervous when the light turns green, especially when there's a line of cars behind me. You have to use the hand brake because there's no way your feet are fast enough to get off of the brake pedal over to the gas pedal before you start sliding backwards. And of course if you stall, you'll roll back as well. Now, I'm talking REALLY steep hills. When you see them for the first time, you'll swear they are 90 degrees and it would be impossible to even drive up one. Also, parallel parking by the curb on one of these streets is not fun at all.
Hot Sauce
Hall of Fame
Oh man, that is a scary picture.
DrumWizOHBD
Semi-Pro
I had totally forgotten about the parking brake technique. This can be very helpful. I n my part of the country it is so flat that you rarely need to do this. I remember my father telling stories of driving a bread truck in San Francisco and having to learning the hand brake technique. It was the only way to get started at the top of those insane hills!!
tarheels2323
Semi-Pro
Wow. I swore I would never get an automatic car, but that would be pushing it for me. Is it bad enough you can't even hold it with the clutch?
Nadal_Monfils
Semi-Pro
My manual's E-brake isn't a hand brake but it's a foot brake so hills are really tough for me. I just have to roll back a little before I can start going and hope no one stops right behind me. The first time I was on a bridge I stalled 4 times in a row and was really nervous because everyone behind me was honking and getting pissed.
Rickson
G.O.A.T.
Didn't I say to practice on a level street? Personally, I like hills because it scares the driver behind me, but you have to get used to it.
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
I think the car would stall if you tried to hold it with just the clutch or even burn out your clutch.
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Hmmm..what kind of car is that? I don't think I've ever driven a manual car with a foot brake instead of a hand brake, although I think some trucks I've driven have that.
Dedans Penthouse
Legend
I learned the ropes as a kid in an eastern seaboard city that also has some steep hills; it's hills are not as large as as San Francisco's nor as steep but as far as "steep" goes, the streets didn't run perpendicular down to the water: you have to remember that this city whose street scape dates also to the late 19th century had to contend with SNOW, i.e. as a result, many of the streets/hills were gradually zig-zagged downward towards the Hudson River in addition to "terraces" as streets as well, hence the nickname the "Terrace City."
That said, I can verify about your "feeling the back of the car hump up" sensation when the clutch engages and then sloowly release the hand brake as you gradually increase the gas so as not to roll down into the car behind you (don't you love it when they insist on moving right up on your tail?). That said, San Francisco's hills are not 45 degrees--or greater---whadda ya nuts, or something Breakpoint? :shock: Looking at a 45 degree angle on a protractor is one thing, but riding up (or down) a 45-degree hill would be impossible during, e.g. rain when the road surface is slick. Recall that Range Rover brags about being able to handle a 37 degree incline and that will give you an idea of just what a 45 degree incline involves.
That said (and not to be picayune), but the steepest streets in San Francisco pan out to 29 degrees, e.g. Jones Street (near Fillmore). Oh and another thing: those "steepest" streets do not have paralell parking; it's always diagonal parking....otherwise you're looking a potential (weak parking brake) runaway disaster.
But I will say, playing Steve McQueen ("Bullitt") and launching a car airborne while crossing an intersection of a steep hill at too-fast a speed is a trip; even if you do risk crushing your oil pan in the process. ;-)
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Have you ever lived in San Francsico and driven on some of those steep streets? Some of those streets appear to be 45 degrees, not Jones Street but like Mason Street near the Fairmont Hotel and some streets in Pacific Heights. When you look up at them from the bottom, your first thought is that there's no way you can possibly drive up this hill. They don't even have sidewalks on the side - they have stairs/steps! And, yes, some of them do have parallel parking because I've done it.
These are not even the steep ones that I'm thinking of:
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Some more:
Again, these are not nearly as steep as the streets that I was referring to.
Again, these are not nearly as steep as the streets that I was referring to.
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Nadal_Monfils
Semi-Pro
Well, you push down the brake with your foot and release it with your hand, but you have to bend over to release it which makes it hard to steer and see at the same time. I drive a Ford Explorer by the way.
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Have you ever been there in person? If so, you'd think otherwise.
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Like I said, I've seen that in trucks (like SUV's) but not in cars.
Mike Bulgakov
G.O.A.T.
My father worked in San Francisco when I learned to drive a manual transmission car. I had to use the emergency break on S.F. hills, because as has been discussed, many San Francisco hills are too steep to go to gas from the clutch without rolling. I share BP's feeling about the steepness of the hills, but am pretty sure they are never steeper than twenty or thirty degrees.
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Tofuspeedstar
Banned
I learned the half/half method.
Each bit you let up on the clutch, put that much down on the gas. It's rough at first, but after awhile it becomes a second nature.
Each bit you let up on the clutch, put that much down on the gas. It's rough at first, but after awhile it becomes a second nature.
Dedans Penthouse
Legend
advisory:
"stick shift" drivers: pls. ignore and read/move on beyond this post
(sorry for the hi-jack; it's just a 'sidebar' reply to B.P.):
(here's an interesting "top 10" list of the steepest streets/gradiant degrees in S.F. (this from an official "the City" source my uncle j. forwarded to me) :
- Filbert (between Leavenworth & Hyde) 31.9
- 22nd St. (btw. Church & Vicksburg) 31.5
- Jones (btw. Union & Filbert) 29.0
- Duboce (btw. Buena Vista & Alpine) 27.9
- Jones (btw. Gr. & Union) 26.0
- Webster (btw. Vallejo & Divisadero) 25.0
- Jones (btw. Pine & California) 24.8
- Filmore (btw. Vallejo & B'way) 24.0
Misc. (useless) info.:
New Zealanders claim Baldwin St. in Dunedin to be the "world's steepest street" but the original claims of 38 degrees were "off" as it's actually 35 degrees, which would (it seem) make cobblestoned Canton Avenue in Pittsburgh, PA (recognized as the steepest street in the U.S.) the steepest street, period.
There actually are a number of streets elsewhere (notably in Los Angeles) that are-- however slightly--steeper than the S.F. streets listed above. But as with the case of L.A., they're older streets in "outlying" areas of L.A., because L.A. since the 1950's has limited street grades to around 15 percent:
- Honokaa-Waipio Road, Hawaii 45.0 (max. grade) * (4-wheel drive vehicles only)
- Canton Ave., Pittsburgh/Beechview (btw. Coast & Hamshire) 37.0
- 28th St., L.A. (btw. Gaffy & Peck) 33.
- Eldred St., L.A. (btw. Ave. 50 & Cross Ave.) 33.0)
- Baxter St., L.A. (btw. Alvarado & Allesandro) 32.2
- Fargo St., L.A. (btw. Alvarado & Allesandro) 32.2 (though some est. claim 35 deg.)
- Maria Ave., Spring Valley-near San Diego (north of Chestnut) 32.0
- Dornbush St., Pittsburgh (btw. Bricelyn & Vidette) 31.98
"stick shift" drivers: pls. ignore and read/move on beyond this post
(sorry for the hi-jack; it's just a 'sidebar' reply to B.P.):
Yes, I have driven "the streets of San Francisco" (many times-much fun) as a lot of "family" live in both San Francisco specifically and in the Bay Area generally: uncle/aunt lived in Woodside-moved north to Belvedere; brother in Atherton, sister in Sausalito, cousins in "the City" itself. No need to take the contentious 'tude dude (if you were); if so, please save that for your "good 'PWS' friends" Deuce, et al ;-) lol/wink
Agreed, looking at 45 degrees off a protractor sitting on a desk in front of you does not look at daunting or as steep as a city street "in the flesh" with a 'mere' grade of 30 degrees. Another way to look at it: mark a spot 6' 11" on the wall, no big deal. Then look at a 6' 11" person in the flesh; they look 8 feet tall--same effect. As for the parallel parking, yes I recognize there's parallel parking on some very steep streets, my point was simply an observation that the steepest streets will usually (and wisely) have diagonal parking.Breakpoint said:
(here's an interesting "top 10" list of the steepest streets/gradiant degrees in S.F. (this from an official "the City" source my uncle j. forwarded to me) :
- Filbert (between Leavenworth & Hyde) 31.9
- 22nd St. (btw. Church & Vicksburg) 31.5
- Jones (btw. Union & Filbert) 29.0
- Duboce (btw. Buena Vista & Alpine) 27.9
- Jones (btw. Gr. & Union) 26.0
- Webster (btw. Vallejo & Divisadero) 25.0
- Jones (btw. Pine & California) 24.8
- Filmore (btw. Vallejo & B'way) 24.0
Misc. (useless) info.:
New Zealanders claim Baldwin St. in Dunedin to be the "world's steepest street" but the original claims of 38 degrees were "off" as it's actually 35 degrees, which would (it seem) make cobblestoned Canton Avenue in Pittsburgh, PA (recognized as the steepest street in the U.S.) the steepest street, period.
There actually are a number of streets elsewhere (notably in Los Angeles) that are-- however slightly--steeper than the S.F. streets listed above. But as with the case of L.A., they're older streets in "outlying" areas of L.A., because L.A. since the 1950's has limited street grades to around 15 percent:
- Honokaa-Waipio Road, Hawaii 45.0 (max. grade) * (4-wheel drive vehicles only)
- Canton Ave., Pittsburgh/Beechview (btw. Coast & Hamshire) 37.0
- 28th St., L.A. (btw. Gaffy & Peck) 33.
- Eldred St., L.A. (btw. Ave. 50 & Cross Ave.) 33.0)
- Baxter St., L.A. (btw. Alvarado & Allesandro) 32.2
- Fargo St., L.A. (btw. Alvarado & Allesandro) 32.2 (though some est. claim 35 deg.)
- Maria Ave., Spring Valley-near San Diego (north of Chestnut) 32.0
- Dornbush St., Pittsburgh (btw. Bricelyn & Vidette) 31.98
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Rickson
G.O.A.T.
How's this for your 45 degree theory? Baldwin St. in New Zealand is the world's steepest street and it's, get this, 19 degrees!
world's steepest street
world's steepest street
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Thanks, but I've seen that list before. I'm not sure how accurate those measurements really are, but in any case, none of those are the streets that I'm thinking of. I'm thinking of Mason Street near the Fairmont Hotel and some of the streets in Pacific Heights. Some of those streets are so steep that even with my car, which has a massive V8 engine with gobs of torque, I feel as if I have trouble driving up those streets. It feels as if I'm driving straight up a vertical incline and my head is pressed hard against the headrest.
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
You have to drive it to believe it. Going down literally feels like you're falling off of a cliff. You have to ride your brakes all the way down.
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
I've been to New Zealand but have never driven up nor down Baldwin St. I lived in San Francisco and used to drive up and down those steep streets quite often and I'm pretty certain that they are steeper than 19 degrees.
For example, does this street seem less than 19 degrees to you? The streets that I'm thinking of are actaully much steeper than this one.
Notice how streets just "disappear" like cliffs:
Here's the comment that went with this pic I found online:
"Yeah, the streets of San Francisco are steep. I did not come to that full realization untill I walked a couple blocks up these 45% angled roads. Wow, and people drive and park on these cliffs. Amazing!"
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Off The Wall
Semi-Pro
2nd
Start the car moving in 2nd gear instead of 1st. It's like slow motion. You get the feel of the clutch engaging without the jerks.
Start the car moving in 2nd gear instead of 1st. It's like slow motion. You get the feel of the clutch engaging without the jerks.
Dedans Penthouse
Legend
Rickson, where are you getting these "15" and "19" degree numbers from? Believe me, I've driven up/down streets with gradients in excess of 19 degrees in my own hometown and Baldwin St. and streets in Pittsburgh, L.A. and S.F. have streets way in excess of the "20 degree" threshold.
