Irritations The Next Generation May Never Know
April 26, 2012 - 3:59 pm
Irradiated by LabRat
Irradiated by LabRat
Moderately heavy traffic whose speed fluctuates constantly between the upper end of where your car is happy in fourth gear and the lower end of where your car is happy in fifth gear.
April 26th, 2012 at 11:31 pm
Gah… I HATED that when I had my last 4 speed… You feel like you’re ROWING the damn car down the road…
April 27th, 2012 at 5:15 am
…at least you’re getting some speed! i always ended up stuck between second and third, and with my cranky-ass Subaru that was a bad place to be. lots of shuddering.
April 27th, 2012 at 7:22 am
I cannot think of how many times I prayed for a second and a half gear in my old 4-speed Civic in traffic.
Oddly, it’s much less of a problem in the 6-speed Vette. Something about adequate torque, I think.
April 27th, 2012 at 7:24 am
Ugh, for me it’s always between 3rd and 4th. Even on normal roads in Vegas. 35 MPH always seemed too fast for 3rd (car felt like it was straining), but too slow for 4th. My mom’s car can take up to, like, 65 on 4th gear before switching to 5th, so 4th-5th was never a problem.
April 27th, 2012 at 10:49 am
My car’s a six speed, but fifth is the Irritable Gear. Third and fourth have generous overlap that rarely gives me any grief even in slower heavy traffic, but fifth is the resentful middle child between fourth and sixth.
April 27th, 2012 at 11:36 am
There are places where automatic transmissions are superior.
Rush hour traffic is one of them.
April 27th, 2012 at 1:43 pm
I dunno, motorcycles are likely to continue to be manual transmissions for a good long while, I’d think. So the kiddies that end up on two wheels will still get to know that aggravation.
April 27th, 2012 at 3:06 pm
There are few automotive tortures more exquisite than being caught in miles of no-passing 2-lane behind some guy traveling at a cruise-control set rate of speed that is exactly right to cause a slushbox to “hunt” back and forth between gears.
One thing I like about the Zed Drei is that, despite the engine being no monster big block, the 2.8 straight six has more than enough torque to make even fifth gear usable anywhere above ~30mph.
April 27th, 2012 at 6:10 pm
I’ve spent the past week re-learning the joys of a manual transmission - I swapped the Dodge for a ’98 Chevy Silverado w/ a six cylinder and 5-speed trans. Probably won’t tow all that much, but I don’t even have a trailer yet (nor a motorcycle to house inside it either) so not a pressing issue.
I don’t recall having to contend with speed bumps back when … there’s just no “easing” your way over one of those while remaining in gear with the clutch out. The seemingly endless number of them in my apartment complex’s driveways make this a regular aggravation too.
Other than that, I guess I lucked out as far as the gear ratio/overlap is concerned; I haven’t experienced any of the other annoyances noted by others here. 35 is in the upper power band of 3rd gear and 40 is the bottom of the 4th gear cruise zone. I’ve got to get out of the town/city to get over 55 and really need 5th gear.
Got really lucky with my “new” truck, I think.
April 28th, 2012 at 5:21 am
5th is the unloved step child in my car. 1-4 are good for just about any speed until you can do steady state cruise, then I just skip to 6th.
Every once a while puttering at 35 or so, I can use 5th.
April 28th, 2012 at 9:10 am
@perlhaqr
Don’t be so sure about that. It seems that CVT’s, traditionally the sole province of ‘scooters’, are making inroads on the true ‘motorcycle’ platform.
See also: http://motorcycleinfo.org/2008/11/automatic-motorcycles/
April 28th, 2012 at 11:53 am
Thankfully, the assault sedan has enough torque that it doesn’t get to cranky in 5th (or even 6th) as long as your doing over 30. And you can be certain that at least the teenbot will learn such frustrations
April 30th, 2012 at 7:45 am
@perl,
motorcycles typically have a broad RPM range to work in, so that most speeds can be done in one of two gears without any undue stress on the system.
At least, the bikes I’m familiar with have that trait. My current ride idles on clutch at 1500 RPM, but wants at least 3000 RPM when in gear and rolling. Thankfully, it tops out at 9000. As an example of what this allows: I can attain highway speeds at the top of 3rd gear; while I can cruise at 45mph at the bottom of 5th gear.
April 30th, 2012 at 11:30 am
@karrde:
Is that not just a constant multiplier? My last manual transmission car (89 Escort) idled around 800, liked 1800 while in gear, and I think the redline was 5250 if I recall correctly. So multiply by about a factor of two and the difference isn’t all that great.
(I don’t recall it having any “gaps” between gears, though I remember that 3rd to 5th and 5th to 3rd were very common situations.)
April 30th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
The transmission is going to become irrelevant when machine-assisted speed control is ubiquitous and your car negotiates with all the other cars to decide what speed you travel at.
April 30th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
Kristopher said: There are places where automatic transmissions are superior.
Rush hour traffic is one of them.
True, but my automatics have speeds they’re happier at at a given load and incline, and the same annoyance occurs… you just don’t have to manage it with a clutch.
May 3rd, 2012 at 12:59 pm
I dunno - manual transmissions may be in for a long-lasting resurgence. All you have to do is say the following line as advertising to the target market: “It is impossible for your teen to text and drive a stick shift at the same time.”