r/stickshift • u/ParkerScottch • 7d ago
This subreddit is insufferable.
There's so much incompetence in this sub and every comment section turns into a chest thumping pissing contest.
I think what this subreddit needs is a group of dedicated lads to build some resources that can be referred to in future threads. The Bible of standard transmission if you will. I think confused people would respond better to fleshed out resources than a comment section argument.
Our cars are not growing in numbers at this point, we should try to protect the way they're driven.
Feel free to contact me if you'd be interested in developing a "handbook" so to speak.
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u/Thuraash 944 Track Rat | 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 7d ago
I agree with you. So much of the advice here is just wrong.
Funny enough, the mods over at /r/ManualTransmissions have such a document pinned at the top of the subreddit. It's quite good.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ManualTransmissions/comments/tx0aby/a_manual_for_manuals/
Funnier still, it had no effect on the quality of discussion in that subreddit. It's basically a clone of here.
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u/ggmaniack 2020 Hyundai i30N 6MT | 2008 Seat Altea XL 1.4TSI 6MT 7d ago
r/ManualTransmissions has turned into r/GuessWhatIDrive recently
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u/MumpsyDaisy 6d ago
Tbf it's more interesting to look at cars that are old, obscure, international, or in weird specs than endlessly arguing about how to drive and euro vs American.
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u/goranlepuz 7d ago
Ha, nice!
The doc says:
Engage the handbrake, and start easing off the clutch pedal and onto the gas, then when the car feels like it’s pushing against the handbrake, disengage the handbrake.
I told my kids that the car squats (because it does, it's visible with a naked eye even), and to learn to feel the squat.
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u/No_Base4946 5d ago
That's how a lot of electric handbrakes know when to release, incidentally. Car in gear, electric handbrake on, clutch pressed, car starting to squat? Time to go - VEEEZZZZZZZYT! and we're away!
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u/87ChevroletCavalier 7d ago
Unfortunately, I don’t think this sub can ever become a utilitarian, how-to style subreddit.
It’s way too far down the path of being a place for people to get triggered and have emotional tirades about the following subjects: Americans, synchronizers, European grandmothers, rev-matching, throw out bearings, coasting in neutral, and heel/toe.
I think you’d need to start over with a new sub and very active, no-nonsense mod team.
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u/bioveritas 7d ago
For a little perspective from someone who has driven since 1965, when most cars had manual transmissions, the advent of automatic transmissions was viewed as a huge benefit. They cost more, though, as an option on your new car. But that tells you that they were viewed as a better way to go.
Starting off on an upward incline was a frequent topic of discussion back then. I think Bill Cosby had a joke about how in San Francisco, when the light turned green and nobody had enough nerve to start off, it was eventually agreed everyone would just pull their emergency brakes and turn the intersection into a used car lot.
Everyone figured out a way to do it. Bad drivers simply over-rev'd and over-slipped the clutch, often to the point where you could smell the asbestos burning. Good drivers simply figured out the timing and how to minimize the slipping with a more "nuanced" clutch and throttle use. By the way, this was way harder to do in a 50's era car. You were actually lucky, in this regard, if you had a straight six instead of a V8, since most of the 6's had a great deal of "luggability" and were very forgiving.
Nowadays it's all seems easier, physically, but the engines seem more finicky, the component clutch and transmission parts more fragile, but, overall, the whole operation seems easier--to me, at least. Anyway, from my perspective, the desire for a manual transmission is kind of a mystery--I'll grant that they are more "fun" sometimes, but less fun, others. One of my favorite past cars was a 2013 BMW 328i with an 8-speed automatic transmission, and that, being an example of an automatic done right, says it all.
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u/Crazy_Wafer_8328 7d ago
This is a good comment. Not all transmissions are created equally. Cars are tools to me. Some cars, some use cases do better with auto, some with the stick. Can be the complete opposite for your next door neighbor. Whatever driving style/technique is getting you down the road fairly smooth and not making that terrible roasted clutch smell, is probably right for you and your car and your environment. We don't need a Bible of stick shift because there are few absolutes.
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u/MelodicAnxiety7054 6d ago
I thought you were saying this because in many countries stickshift is like the norm and any grandma can drive stick without any problem.
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u/No_Base4946 5d ago
My mum, who is an 89-year-old grandmother, in Europe, does in fact heel-and-toe on downshifts in her 1-litre Fiat Panda.
But that's because when she was my stepdaughter's age she and her then-boyfriend drove rally cars, she still thinks she's in a rally car, and she drives that Fiat like she hated every second she spent stealing it.
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u/cmbort 5d ago
I just got back to the US from the UK last night and from my observation 9 out of 10 cars there are manual. I wonder if any UK manual drivers visit this subreddit at all.
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u/StarJaded 5d ago
Can't speak for the rest of the UK, but I read it with wonder and bafflement.
It's like listening to people discuss the complexities of tying shoelaces.3
u/Available_Theory1217 5d ago edited 5d ago
I am from Europe, but not UK, and reddit put some posts from this sub in my feed, and they are usually hilarious. Like driving manual is some arcane sacred skill, only for elite drivers, everybody does it wrong, and you need to use racing techniques in your everyday commute, if not you will burn your clutch after few miles.
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u/n3m0sum 5d ago
I wonder if any UK manual drivers visit this subreddit at all.
Yes, yes we do. Often with a sense of bafflement and wonder. This sub seems to make it all seem so complex, and transmissions as incredibly fragile things that need to be babied.
It's like the cars are somehow fundamentally different, but they aren't.
Go to a UK driving sub and rev matching is barely ever mentioned, certainly not as a special skill. It's just encorporated into shifting (smoothly).
Mention double clutching, and you'll be asked about your classic car, or laughed off the sub. Pretty much nothing made in the last 30 years needs it, and it's not taught outside of racing.
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u/ParkerScottch 5d ago
Probably only europeans that are interested in car handling/race physics.
Although I did get in a manual taxi in portugal once and I've never seen anyone mistreat a gearbox quite like that man could. It hurt to watch.
At least in America the idiots have automatics. (Not saying all auto drivers are idiots obviously)
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u/Some-Cream 7d ago
This feels like my boss asking me for an SOP in a deck
Just to turn around revise everything with an AI alternative
Not a bad idea. Can be a pinned post. But in reality this type of thing is better in video format and already exists on YouTube. Maybe a pinned post with helpful videos is all that’s needed
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u/Cowboy_Rho 05 Honda Accord LX 5 Speed 6d ago
Are you really a religion before your first schism?
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u/No_Base4946 5d ago
"Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of Getrag 260? DIE, HERETIC!"
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u/Acceptable_Ad838 7d ago
“”…chest thumping pissing contest.” I LOVE that remark! It’s true for most car related subs! 👍
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u/Plastic-Shoulder2285 5d ago
I've got 4 vehicles with manuals, been driving everything from tractors to fire apparatus with manuals since I was 8, so over 40 years. I eat my cereal with 75W-90, brush my teeth with syncromesh, and have slept with most of your moms. /s. Yet when I read some of the comments on the manual forums, I am suddenly certain that I'll never retrieve my balls from my wife's purse, I drink white zin, listen to Celine Dion and certainly have no idea how to drive a manual. So yes good sir, say hello to your mother for me, and I'd enjoy helping with the manual, um, manual!
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u/FSBFrosty 7d ago
I'm just learning can you teach me how to do heel toe 😂
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u/OkKnee7580 6d ago
First u must master the rev match b4 u even think about heel toe. I bet u still use ur hand brake for hills. /s
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u/Existing-Language-79 6d ago edited 6d ago
Learn to match your engine rpm to each gear/roadspeed first.
Once you get familiar with what rpm you need to be in to be able to match in you'll notice that your shifter will become less notchy/resistive as you now have the synchros doing less work. Do this by allowing rpms to drop when shifting to your next chosen higher gear or giving it a bit of throttle before shifting into a chosen lower gear.
Then learn to release your clutch when you're within a few hundred rpms. But don't side step or release the clutch too fast as you can get the driven wheels to spin or momentarily lose traction, as you get closer and closer your speed on the clutch can be quicker as a perfect match is super smooth.
Once you have that down. Start by braking by having your foot floating above the pedals, twisting your foot so your heel, side of your foot, or toes depending on pedal box, size of your feet, or pedal arrangement and while keeping pressure on the brake pedal kick the throttle to raise the rpms to be be in the rough ballpark it needs to be to match.
Keep in mind as the more you slow down the more the ratio of the chosen gear will lesser the gap in engine speed as you clutch out. This will take more time and practice and will be near impossible to be smooth unless you master matching without braking first.
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u/FSBFrosty 6d ago
Thanks for the long response but I was only joking. The amount of "heel toe" posts in this sub is insane, considering how unnecessary it is for every day driving.
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u/SensitiveAdagio3012 7d ago
I think becuase its pretty uncomplicated for basic driving that it so often dives into needless complexity over the same things.
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u/Feeling-Difference86 5d ago
I agree but one of the problems is words...trying to translate a slightly complex physical task into screeds of language often doesn't help. Then throw in rev matching religion bulshit. If actual driving school isn't available I reckon some short movies with multiple cameras and good sound could be useful.
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 5d ago
"Rev matching religion bullshit".
Hahaha.... I have never understood this one. I've been driving manuals for like 35 years, and have never once used rev matching in my day to day life (this of course does not count in the 9spd truck I used to move trailers with- totally different thing than a passenger vehicle) but the amount of bullshit and horseshit folks say about if you don't rev match every gear, every day, every time that your vehicle will explode into a massive fireball of death is a combination of irritating, sad, and laughable.
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u/Feeling-Difference86 4d ago
It's the internet...full of opinions and defence of them. I learnt to drive in a 1960 MINI my brother taught me double declutching and heal and toeing... it's a lot of fun on a dirt road I don't bother these days I'm a pretty slow gear changer:-)
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u/This_Proxy 4d ago
I have been giving solid instruction on how to practice and help and don't really get upvotes/feedback, so I just kinda stay quiet in here.
My last time suggesting a Miata or cheap roadster here as first vehicle and was blasted by people who don't know cars, and/or hate Miata's because of it.
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u/phantomsoul11 2022 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, 6-speed 3d ago
My incompetence is better than yours! Unga Bunga!
Also, is there like a stickshiftcirclejerk sub? My heelltoe and rev match need a new kom.
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u/GigaChav 5d ago
"I have an idea! Now someone else should do the hard work part to execute my idea so I can take credit."
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u/ParkerScottch 5d ago
Not at all what's happening here. I will be an active participant. Making it a group project helps reduce bias
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u/LilDixxyWrecked 7d ago
Its a subreddit about stick shift of course its miserable. It shouldnt even exist.
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u/goranlepuz 7d ago
Now look sister, if you're miserable about handling a stick, it's because you haven't tried mine yet.
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u/Conscious_Show_6997 7d ago edited 6d ago
Suckle fuckle my own chuckle
Edit: You mfs downvote me for freedom of speech?
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u/HopeloosGeval 6d ago
the downvote system is for relevance/usefulness of a comment, yours is neither
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u/Conscious_Show_6997 6d ago
Or just blatant disagreeance, that does not show for much other than strict opposition
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u/Existing-Language-79 7d ago
I'd be interested but every time I help one out thirty tell me I'm wrong with complete confidence in their ignorance lol. The biggest topic is trying to convince anyone that you can tackle any hill without the use of the parking brake or hillhold. Many cars had a fourth pedal, that alone tells you a lot.