Learning stick

One thing I can't quite grasp is stopping. When driving at say 50mph in what Im assuming is 4th or 5th gear and you need to stop relatively soon. Do you just brake normally at that gear and switch to 1st gear right before the car stops, or do you go into neutral and then start braking. Ive read about engine braking but thats more of a nuanced thing.

In normal conditions you brake like you would in an auto then once the revs get down to around where idle is go to neutral. There is pretty much never a reason to go back to 1st if you are already moving

Driving a stick shift isn't that hard, You just need to remember to put the clutch in and shift gears in order

>I dont have a car to practice with.
Then get one.

i did

>Get shit manual shitbox for $hit
>???
have fun, fwd is more forgiving.

people will tell you to shift down through all the gears

i usually just put it in neutral and coast fuck the police

This. Buy a manual so you have no choice but to learn. Something with a torquey engine will help with learning how to start in first. I bought a 5 speed Ranger with the 3.0L to learn on. Fucking loved that truck.

There are still threads about this exact thing - for me, while driving on the street, if I see a red light or stop sign up ahead and I've got the speed, I just slip it into neutral and coast/brake to a stop. Brakes are cheaper than clutches so downshifting into every gear as you slow down is unneccesary IMO. Some would say not using engine braking at every opportunity is dumb, and sometimes I downshift while braking just to heel/toe and feel like a boi racer and hear the revs but unless you're on the track it's just uncessary work and wear.

It's easy as shit to learn the basics dude. I learned from a car salesman that had the exact car I was looking for except in manual and he wanted to make the sale. 30 minutes in the parking lot next door to the dealership and I was able to drive it 30 miles home. Doing is way more productive than reading theory

its tax season. Im not getting a car from a dealership.

this, 1st gear in most cars is literally to come off of a full stop. Even creeping in parking lots I'm usually in second gear (my car has really close gearing though)

This. The only reason to be in 1st gear is to start from a dead stop

So in coming to a full stop you dont go into first. You just brake and go into neutral when the car is near idle. Dont you have to use the ebrake for neutral though.

No dude if you're say coming to a red light and you have the inertial force just clutch in, out of gear, start applying brake, clutch out, and just coast to the stop. When you're ready to start again back into 1st

e-brake is the parking brake. Neutral will allow your car to idle without needing to press the clutch in until you're ready to shift into 1st and start going again. You can also sit in 1st with the clutch depressed if you'd like but that might trigger some of the autists around here. Hold the brake pedal like you normally would in an auto while sitting at a light (if it's totally flat road you don't even have to do that)

IT TRIGGERS AUTISTS BECAUSE IT FUCKS YOUR THROW OUT BEARING

go ahead and be retard tho

Ok, that's true, sorry brah

>tfw been driving manual for 3 months
I still hate hills, fuck that noise (still haven't had much practice with'em, fuck)
And my only other difficulty is smoothly shifting into 2nd from a higher gear to do a 90 degree turn.
No heel and toe'ing (pedals seem hard to do in a mustang or I'm an idiot), but I do revmatch downshift at least.
10/10, manual is fun.

Ive read you dont need to clutch unless you are shifting gears, not going into neutral. Also this is kinda the opposite of what the the guy said where you brake first and go into neutral after the car revs almost idle.
So basically dont go be in gear unless you are rolling.

Argued til the end of time. I personally slow down / brake in whatever gear I'm in (usually 4th or 3rd) until about 1000 revs, and then pop it into neutral and continue braking.

Whenever I do this, it's because the light is stale red and I'm too lazy to do the whole neutral ->1st thing. If it just turned red I'll go into neutral though. Overall you're correct but the throw out bearing and clutch fingers etc are built well enough to handle this occasionally.

Yes press the clutch to go into neutral, it's just good practice and probably (I don't know exactly what or why) saves wear on your trans. You don't need to wait for revs to drop down while in gear unless you want that little bit of engine braking. Either way is correct.

The far left pedal uncouples the engine from the transmission when you press it

The little lever bangs gears together, but not really, there are little spinning brass cones to synchronize the speeds of the gears before they bang together

It's easier to bang gears together if you uncouple the engine from the transmission

before you recouple the engine from the transmission, the engine should be rotating as fast as it would if it were coupled. you'll figure out how fast this needs to be for each gear eventually.

Try to get used to FAST AS ALL FUCK reverse or you'll start smelling burnt clutch. It's like a really terrible fart, fyi.

You are now a car god

Ok OP your thread has drilled into even the minutae of driving manual - time for you to find one and actually learn it. It's really not hard so don't psyche yourself out. It's "standard" for a reason and is designed literally so that anyone can use it. You don't need to be perfect, that comes with time and practice. I've only owned manual cars since I was 16 and I'm still getting better at being smooth/revmatching etc and I'm 25 now.

What do people use to tell when to shift. You do just feel it out. Like Ive read one thing that said when your car hits 3000 rpm its time to gear up. Then theres changing gears at different speeds. switching to 2nd at 15 mph switching to 3rd at 30 mph. 4 around 50 mph.

I dont mind, the braking thing was really unclear from what Ive read and reading debates in the comment section never helped. Talking to people here feels better.

Well you definitely don't want to be redlining it, but it comes down to the gearing of the car, the power curve, and when you're comfortable with it. I had a '94 Saab 9000 Aero that had a 5-spd with tall as fuck gears and 2nd 3rd 4th etc basically corresponded with 20/30/40 mph at about 2k rpm so I'd short shift 1st then just shift up at 25/35/45 because the torque peaked at 1850rpm in that car and going over 3k rpm was unnecessary. Now, in my Fiesta ST, itms a much closer-geared 6-spd with the torque coming higher up in the rpms, so I tend to shift more at around 3-3.5k rpm. Generally if you're going over 4k rpm as normal shift point you're doing it wrong but really it depends on the car and how much power you need for acceleration. It's fun to crank 2nd out to redline after a green light then bump it into 6th to maintain a cruise.

I get you dude, and I'll try and help all night but 10 minutes in the driver's seat is worth an hour here reading posts, or more...

You guys need to swallow your pride and just book a lesson with a local driving school. Some driving schools (you know, the ones with signs on the roof like "AAA Driving School") offer lessons on manual cars. If you already have your license, they'll give lessons on how to drive stick. One lesson, a hundred bucks, and you're done.

this, also by the time youre comfy with shifting your ears are trained to know the sound of "too many revs" and you wont even need the tach or speedo to look at

>first time driving stick
>borrow brothers truck
>stall pulling out of driveway
>get it to move
>drive to work to pick up some shit
>go home to drop off my shit
>drive back to my brother's to drop off his shit
>dont stall once
>5 years later buy manual car
>stall for over 30 fucking minutes
I don't know how I did it the first time. What was hilarious is after about a year I would still stall randomly for no reason. The last time was at 3 am on an empty street. At least no one saw

>stall randomly

yep; fuck it's embarassing. I usually jump the clutch a little too fast or forget to go into neutral while rolling to a stop in 5th gear or something, but every time I kick myself

Maybe the truck had higher torque and a wider biting point

IDK it was a 2001 Tacoma, I drove it for like 40 mins in heavy traffic and never touched it again. I did do a slight spin out at some point which was pretty funny, I gave it too much gas.

I also have trouble with the truck at work, I've never stalled it but sometimes it feels like I have to almost floor it to get the piece of crap moving.

kind of OT: what do you do if your GF refuses to learn stick no matter how long you wait in between asking again and even having her try it once

nothing?
it's not worth dying on the hill over it

Well I can turn on Hill Assist for that but even then

since everyone on here's a faggot i guess it's up to me to help out.
pic from a similar thread a week or two ago

How the fuck do you parallel park in a manual?
Hard mode: on a hill