Quote:
Originally Posted by strat61caster
Heel toe, skipping gears, and double clutching have nothing to do with what the OP is looking for: smooth gear changes. It takes finesse and practice and there's no right way to do it, find your own rhythm, watch a couple videos and don't worry about wannabe racecar drivers. Practice, everybody learns in time and the above whinging and ego stroking trying to show off your technique is inconsequential to seat time. KISS: Keep it simple stupid.
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Good point... got a little OT and distracted answering cantaloupe and DoomsdayJesus's questions. Really not trying to ego stroke or racecar wannabe so sorry if if the following seems like "showing off my technique"... just trying to pay it forward and do what was done for me in the past by passing on a bit of what I've figured out over the years. Yes, seat time is invaluable but everyone has different learning styles and I know I've certainly had my fair share of "ah hah" moments after reading or watching a well worded description or two. What sounds like gibberish nonsense to you might be exactly what someone else needed to hear in order for it to all click with them.
Rev matching during a downshift
is an effective method of keeping those gear changes smooth on the way down. It is out of a desire for smoothness and the implied reduction in clutch wear that I even bother with all the effort of doing it so I can relate to the OP's want for smooth shifts.
So yes, twoodcc, as strat61caster said here... it takes finesse and practice so keep at it and honestly after 10 years of driving with 7+ years exclusively on manual transmissions I never actually knew how to rev match
correctly (and very well might STILL be doing it incorrectly) until I got my FR-S and realized that I'd been doing something wrong all along since my downshifts in the FR-S were so harsh and one of my coworkers made a comment about me "just dropping the clutch". I wound up googling "how to rev match" and watching some videos on YouTube that night and it helped me a lot.
It turns out I'd always been trying to finesse the pedal and hold the RPM at the desired frequency during my shift or trying to do the "launch technique" type of pedal movement ie a "trading one pedal for another" type of movement where I would get back onto the gas at the same rate as I was letting off the clutch. That had worked just fine with my Honda transmissions which are like a sexy lady made of butter and covered with KY jelly for how slippy and smooth they are.
It turns out that the proper technique is more of a quick kick of the gas pedal RIGHT as you begin letting out the clutch (you gotta do it fast and smooth though) and now I've even found that if I downshift right at at a certain engine note each time I can pull off the rev match by simply whacking the pedal to the floor and letting off of it as fast as I can so I've taken all the guess work out of it as long as I do the shift at exactly the right engine RPM. The motion becomes: onto clutch, move lever, whack gas and off of clutch at the same moment... works like a charm every time if I do it right about when the engine note hits B sharp minor 5th
Now it's something I do every time because it's just so darn satisfying to pull off a completely undetectable downshift as far as body-lurching goes (obviously you can still hear the RPM change) and it's not something I get right every time which makes it all the more satisfying and glorious when I do pull it off right.
Regarding shifting on the way up like you were asking about in the OP, I know exactly what you're talking about with the "holding it in the sweet spot for a second" thing and I still find myself doing that if I'm being lazy or haven't gotten into the right shifting rhythm for the day. For me I always feel like the motion my foot makes when I
do manage to get an upshift that turns out perfectly smooth is like a slow-motion version of a rubber ball bouncing: one continuous motion of the foot that is quick on the way down, ramping up in movement speed as I approach bottoming, with a little pause at the bottom and then releasing a bit slower than I went on the way down, ramping down in speed until I'm completely off the pedal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by twoodcc
all i do to change gears is - let off gas, push in clutch, change gear, as i'm letting out clutch, i push on the gas, sometime hold the clutch in the sweet spot for half a sec, and then let all the way out.
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Sounds to me like you're 90% there... you just need to push on the gas LESS at this point in time. At least I know that whenever I do the "hold it in the sweet spot" thing and slip the clutch it's usually because I'm giving too much gas too early and subconsciously I know that if I fully let out the clutch it'll chirp the wheels and/or just be a rough shift so my body forces me to hold the clutch there for a bit while the wheels catch up to the engine.
You mentioned that it happens to you more at high RPM which is the same for me when I'm not in the zone... I usually attribute it to the fact that at low RPM I'm not feeling the need to jump forward like a jackrabbit as much so the moment of no acceleration during shifting isn't as noticeable and I'm more patient and deliberate with the getting back on the gas. When I'm at high RPM on the other hand that moment of no acceleration during the shift is much more noticeable so I find myself getting impatient with my back-on-the-gassyness so I start to give too much gas too early and then the above mentioned subconscious urge to avoid wheel chirping and rough shifting kicks in and makes me do the "hold it in the sweet spot" thing.
If that made any sense at all to you then cool I hope it helps... if not sorry to waste your time, just go drive more and figure out what works for you.