Ok... So I know how to ride a motorcycle...

[annguyen1981]

...but I've never driven a standard car.  Always owned an automatic.

What do you guys think the transition will be like?  Obviously, I know about shifting. And stalling if you don't shift right.

[pantablo]

you will suck.

[yamahonkawazuki]

practice if you can in a gravel parking area or something like that, worst case scenario, is you stall it, second you peel and sling rocks. on concrete if you fug up, worst is you stall. second it the car does the bucking bronco maneuver

[annguyen1981]

I think I'd be ok if I just set my goals to peel out everytime I start from a stop.

[Chilly Willy]

Yeah, the bucking bronco thing really sucks.  When I was 23, I bought a stick shift and learned how to drive it.  I felt like a dorky 15 year old again for about a week until I got the shifting down.

One of the hardest parts is having the clutch under your foot rather than your hand.  For me, getting the "feel" of the clutch was difficult at first--not like riding a  motorcycle at all.

Also, unlike a bike, a car doesn't have a wet clutch.  If you ride the clutch in a car, you will burn it out.  On a positive note, being on your motorcycle has probably taught you a lot about downshifting, listening for the shift, using your tachometer (much lower rpms in a car, though), etc.

I would start learning before it begins to snow.  Yamahonkawazuki talked about practicing on gravel.  I would also find some hills to practice on too.  Once you can take off from stop while facing uphill and not rolling back--you've pretty much got it mastered.

Good luck!

El Noobo  

[roguegeek]

you will suck.

+1

[blue05twin]

It's not hard at all, when I first learned how to drive it was a stick.  Just like everyone said practice espically on a the hills.

[Wrecent_Wryder]

3d

[annguyen1981]

Also, unlike a bike, a car doesn't have a wet clutch.

So you have to release the clutch a lot quicker in a cage?

[Wrecent_Wryder]

[4

[GeeP]

It's not that difficult.  Let out the clutch into the friction zone as you add a little gas to keep the engine from stalling.  Don't add a lot of gas, you'll burn the clutch over time.  As you start moving, eeease out the clutch fully.  When it's all the way out, tromp on the gas as needed. 

On a hill you do the same thing.  Clutch out until you feel the car squat a little (friction zone), foot off the brake and on the gas, add gas as you let the clutch out the rest of the way.

Supposedly you can clutchlessly shift a car, but I've never tried it other than a wide ratio chevy 1-ton which liked the 1-2 and 2-3 transistion, but not the 3-4.  I don't like the feel of the synchros, and car clutches are so light anyhow.

It could be much, much worse:

http://fords.kilonet.org/freightrain/bmodel.wmv

That pedal on the left is for use only at stoplights.   

Oh, what kind of car did you buy?  PICS needed if it's fast.   

[RVertigo]

you will suck.

+1

++

[annguyen1981]

Oh, what kind of car did you buy?  PICS needed if it's fast.   

So car yet.  I wanna get rid of my '00 Chrysler Cirrus (which btw has been VERY good to me, very little money put into her).  I basically miss having a truck.  I actually miss my 2-door S10 Blazers.   Unfortunately, they don't make 'em anymore.  They have that crap TRAILBLAZER to replace the SUV, and the COLORADO to replace the S10 Pick Up.

[CirclesCenter]

Do like I did.

Setting San Francisco, in a 1986 manual MR2:

Uncle: Ok now you drive.
Me: WTF
Uncle: I'm teaching you how to drive stick, now get in.
Me: *paralyzed fear*

And on those hills in that traffic I learned to drive stick.

[pandy]

We had SF-type hills in the Hollywood Hills, where I grew up. My mom's car was a 914, and it had the most persnickety (sp?) clutch in existence, and her baby car did NOT like anyone driving her but my mom. That's how I learned, too....

I never had anything but a manual transmission until I got my new car a couple of years ago. Now I'm stylin' with an automatic transmission....my other half had to actually talk me into getting the automatic, and I'm soooooo glad he was successful! I'm such a lazy bum while caging it now! 

[pantablo]

An, you'll be fine. you will suck at first but its easy and you'll get it soon enough. the principles are the same as on a motorcycle-find the friction zone and use it to get rolling. Just dont try clutchless shifting...

We had SF-type hills in the Hollywood Hills, where I grew up.

rearry? where exactly?

[zukiGS500]

Do like I did.

Setting San Francisco, in a 1986 manual MR2:

Uncle: Ok now you drive.
Me: WTF
Uncle: I'm teaching you how to drive stick, now get in.
Me: *paralyzed fear*

And on those hills in that traffic I learned to drive stick.

I had a somewhat similar experience. I was 14, out for a ride in the county with my dad

he pulls over.

Dad: Get In
Me: I am in.
Dad: In the driver seat
Me: 





Cause this is what we were driving.
No, not the pink one, the blue one.



After learning to drive stick on that car though, every other standard car i have driven was cake

[pandy]

We had SF-type hills in the Hollywood Hills, where I grew up.

rearry? where exactly?

The hills above Hollywood & Vine. We were surrounded by Vine St, Franklin, Cheremoya, the Hollywood bowl, the reservoir. I went to HS at the corner of Franklin and Los Feliz/Western. I worked for a summer at the Pantages.... I knew Zuma beach well.... San Diego or Westwood on weekends... ahhhh....memories... I would have killed myself on a moto on PCH as a teen... Wait...what was the topic again...oh yeah... Learning to drive on those hills and blind corners on a stick at 15 really sucked...  ...but I did it! 

[pandy]

Oh man....that is one HOT car!!! I amazed your dad let you drive it!!! 

Cause this is what we were driving.
No, not the pink one, the blue one.



After learning to drive stick on that car though, every other standard car i have driven was cake

[zukiGS500]

Oh man....that is one HOT car!!! I amazed your dad let you drive it!!! 

No one was more amazed than i was