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Joined: Feb 07, 2006 Posts: 616 Location: Midlothian
Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 11:13 pm Post subject:
DennisN wrote:
Yep, I double de-clutched - my first vehicle was a 1949 Jowett Bradford van with (proper!!!) glass windows in the back and an ex bus seat fixed to the wooden floor using pipe clamps and woodscrews!
Was your left leg wider (more muscular) than your right ? _________________ Tommo...
Joined: Mar 15, 2006 Posts: 3219 Location: Windlesham, Surrey
Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 12:02 am Post subject:
Lost_Property wrote:
I was also amazed to hear people are no longer taught to use their gears when slowing for red traffic lights, they can stop in any gear. Back then we had to change down to third when approaching them, crossroads and passing a flaming black torch on a white background.
I taught my son to drive, then he had a few lessons with a driving school before his test, and he was told off for changing down to 3rd gear on the approach to a bend and gently accelerating round the bend. He was told he should use his brakes, not his gears. I don't know if that's the accepted way these days, but I certainly feel in better control of the car taking a bend in 3rd. And I find it a much more enjoyable way to drive.
It's the same going downhill. You see so many cars' brake lights on from the top of a hill to the bottom, while I think it's safer to select a lower gear and just touch the brakes gently if the car gathers too much speed. Can anyone confirm what the official line is on gears v brakes? _________________ Anita
TomTom VIA 135 - App 12.075
UK map 1125.12264
Samsung Galaxy S21
Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 14892 Location: Keynsham
Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 12:09 am Post subject:
I'm the oldest person here and I use gears to keep my speed down and myself in control. We're all sad, old-fashioned and still living in the past. My grandma's house had gas lights and grandad got bathed in a tin bath in front of the fire (when he came 'ome from 't pit). _________________ Dennis
Joined: Mar 15, 2006 Posts: 3219 Location: Windlesham, Surrey
Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 12:18 am Post subject:
DennisN wrote:
I'm the oldest person here . . .
But Lost_Property and me are catching you up fast!
DennisN wrote:
We're all sad, old-fashioned and still living in the past.
I'm not sad! I'm happy, old-fashioned and still living in the past! :D _________________ Anita
TomTom VIA 135 - App 12.075
UK map 1125.12264
Samsung Galaxy S21
Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 14892 Location: Keynsham
Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 12:21 am Post subject:
Closest thing I can find to gears for braking/control is ...
"Highway Code, Para. 102. Coasting.
This term describes a vehicle travelling in neutral or with the clutch pressed down. Do not coast, whatever the driving conditions. It reduces driver control because ...
engine braking is eliminated"
It gives further reasons for not coasting, but this one infers braking can be achieved by gears?
I know I was told ALWAYS change down for (noticeable) bends/corners _________________ Dennis
Joined: Mar 15, 2006 Posts: 3219 Location: Windlesham, Surrey
Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 12:27 am Post subject:
No, I've finished stripping. Now awaiting the quote from the plasterer for removing and replacing the plaster that's cracked or 'blown' and skimming all the walls to make them fit for painting! _________________ Anita
TomTom VIA 135 - App 12.075
UK map 1125.12264
Samsung Galaxy S21
Joined: Feb 01, 2006 Posts: 2543 Location: Rainham, Kent. England.
Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 12:47 am Post subject:
Anita's my kind of 'girl'.
I'm not sure when the changeover came from using gears to slow to using brakes. When we started and pDennisN, we had the old drum brakes, which were usless after descending a steep hill so needed the added engine braking, and hand brake and a change of underwear when the brakes faded half way down. :P but with modern disc front/drum rear or disc all round maybe that's why things changed.
I'm not sure if the police still do it but many years ago I was told, when chatting to a police officer, they used 3rd gear when chasing criminals, as it gave them better acceleration and added braking without having to keep going up and down the gears.
Quote:
I certainly feel in better control of the car taking a bend in 3rd. And I find it a much more enjoyable way to drive.
It's the same going downhill. You see so many cars' brake lights on from the top of a hill to the bottom, while I think it's safer to select a lower gear and just touch the brakes gently if the car gathers too much speed.
Because you can drive properly and know how to control your vehicle.
It amazes me when I see a red traffic light a few hundred yards ahead and as I ease off gently adjusting speed and go down a gear at a time, if necessary, people go 'flying' past and then have to brake hard. Then there's those who approach a steep hill and stay in top until the engine labours and then lose more speed while changing down one.
Quote:
Can anyone confirm what the official line is on gears v brakes?
It seems to me that manufacturers tell you to be in the appropriate gear for the speed you are travelling, don't over rev and don't labour the engine. So to me, stopping in 5th gear, and probably with the clutch down, i.e. coasting, is the wrong way. _________________ Formerly known as Lost_Property
And NO that's NOT me in the Avatar.
Joined: Feb 01, 2006 Posts: 2543 Location: Rainham, Kent. England.
Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 12:49 am Post subject:
Quote:
No, I've finished stripping. Now awaiting the quote from the plasterer for removing and replacing the plaster that's cracked or 'blown' and skimming all the walls to make them fit for painting!
Hope he's doesn't intend using Polyfilla, I've purchased every last packet to get mine done. :P _________________ Formerly known as Lost_Property
And NO that's NOT me in the Avatar.
Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 14892 Location: Keynsham
Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 7:26 am Post subject:
Oldboy wrote:
Back to cars. Can you remember the Vacuum driven Windscreen Wipers?
Not many years ago when I was a highways mandarin in a depot, we got some new gritter lorries which were conversions of old mothballed WW11 army lorries - Bedford 3 tonners. They still had the removable circular cab roof panel for fitting a Bren gun to shoot baddies with.
They had that type of wiper - they worked fine until you got bad weather (when else would you use a gritter lorry?), then as soon as you put your foot on the accelerator - Phutt! I still try to look at Econ gritters to see how many are the same.
My first house (£645) had two up and two down, no bathroom and just one electric light bulb in each room - cost us £8 to have the electric board put us a socket in the front room. Toilet out the back in a yard exactly like the opening credits of Coronation Street - wooden plank door like a stable - after a bout of mid winter night runs I did my first thing with wood to try to cover the one foot gaps top and bottom of the door. We had just a single water tap and a single gas ring.
It reminds me of the days when women stripped at midnight then waited around for a passing plasterer.
Back to cars - when he retired, my dad and mum joined the YHA and tandemed 5,000 miles a year, including Scotland every year. _________________ Dennis
Joined: Jan 04, 2007 Posts: 2789 Location: Hampshire, UK
Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 7:32 am Post subject:
DennisN wrote:
I'm the oldest person here
I'd keep quiet about that if I were you
Did you not see 'Driving Me Crazy' on ITV1, Tuesday evening, 9pm (2100hrs if you prefer)?
It was a 'debate', or illustration by Jo Brand about why older people shouldn't automatically have the right to keep their driving licences, but that they (or all of us) should have to sit tests.
There was some scary stuff on there.
I won't go on too much because it included a young (43 yr old) motorcyclist who had his kneck broken after being knocked off his motorbike by an elderly motorist suddenly doing a U-turn across his path....and I know this guy. Police say that the motorcyclist would have had to have been travelling at 200mph for the driver not to be able to see him and, apart from anything else, his model of bike wasn't even capable of speeds even close to that. _________________ Andy
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Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 14892 Location: Keynsham
Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 8:04 am Post subject:
GPS_fan wrote:
Did you not see 'Driving Me Crazy' on ITV1, Tuesday evening, 9pm (2100hrs if you prefer)?
No I didn't, unfortunately. But it sounds like it confirms that young motorcyclists have loads of accidents. That's sick and I don't mean it for a minute. I meant to watch, but got distracted away to something else. I was rather interested because my next van change (March 08 ) will give me a van with a (two year) warranty lasting longer than my licence - conundrum. _________________ Dennis
Can anyone confirm what the official line is on gears v brakes?
From the IAM the veiw is you shouldn't change down through your gears during breaking. Theory being if you can skid your tyres by just using your breaks alone then why would you need extra breaking power. Makes sense, but I still like to be in third whilest slowing. The only time it is acceptable to use gears to slow is on a hill decent where there is a real possability of break fade, and breaks heating up.
I'm a young old fasioned kinda guy, but even I am having some trouble with some of the changes in the highway code. I just got my latest copy and it seems that you need writen authority to do almost any thing on public roads.
Warning of changes soon to take place in the highway code. The will be no such thing as an accident as there is always someone to blame, and to now be refered to as an incident! And politically correct changes like there are no such things as Old People. (yippee)
I think Slightly Slow People was the words used. _________________ Dom
HERE LIES PND May it rest in peace.
Navigon 7310/iPhone Navigon&Copilot
Joined: Mar 15, 2006 Posts: 3219 Location: Windlesham, Surrey
Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 8:50 am Post subject:
mostdom wrote:
Anita wrote:
Can anyone confirm what the official line is on gears v brakes?
From the IAM the veiw is you shouldn't change down through your gears during breaking. Theory being if you can skid your tyres by just using your breaks alone then why would you need extra breaking power.
But I was talking about changing down instead of or before braking, not during braking. _________________ Anita
TomTom VIA 135 - App 12.075
UK map 1125.12264
Samsung Galaxy S21
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