Driving techniques

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Do you use the foot brake or hand brake at traffic lights on flat?

Poll ended at 20 Jul 2015, 22:37

Foot brake
3
11%
Hand brake
20
74%
Stopping at traffic lights? you'll get shot or worse for doing that around here!
4
15%
 
Total votes: 27

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Re: Driving techniques

Post by andmcit »

May as well go for the a Traction and Ami too!
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Re: Driving techniques

Post by Citroenmad »

Where is the poll option for sitting at traffic lights riding the clutch then?
This seems a popular option for a lot of people!
I was stick in crawling traffic on Monday morning for two hours, loads of cars awround me were being held on the clutch, the smeel of clutches is not a pleasant one. No doubt it will be the same this morning :twisted:

I guess I'm lazy, I only use the handbrake if im going to be stopped for a few minutes, if not then I'll hold the footbrake. Though I have to say that I don't find brake lights that dazzling, unless it of the new Audi persuasion and they are stupidly bright LEDs.

I recenty passed an advanced driving test, they were very keen for the handbrake be be used if stopped for a minute or more. So thats what I do. However there are advantages with holding the footbrake, as it warns people coming up behind that your stopped/slowing. I also keep T&T (tyres and tarmac) too.
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Re: Re:

Post by citronut »

CitroJim wrote:
Rattiva_Mike wrote: <rubs crystal ball>

I see a DS in your future..
Now that's what I like to hear Mike :-D I guess I'll have to progress to one via a CX first though... I've started by getting into XMs :wink:
you have to start off in a dersh ( 2CV ) Jim not column change but dash change, so its a natural progression from floor to column,
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Re: Driving techniques

Post by uhn113x »

I always use the handbrake for the reasons mentioned above. If it's a known longish stop I engage neutral as well; saves wear on the clutch.

Same about leaving space - there are very few folk who do that so maybe instructors don't teach it any more?

There's nothing worse than seeing the car in front on an upward slope supposedly stopped but in fact moving a few inches back and forth accompanied by clutch lining smell.

I once saw what happened when the driver behind insisted on leaving a few mm space behind the wobbling Audi in front. They might have been playing with their various bits of essential iJunk; so much for safety ratings. :?

I've always liked column changes. Used to have a Ford Consul and a Humber Hawk and they worked perfectly. My DS was a semi-auto so that doesn't really apply.
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Re: Re:

Post by CitroJim »

citronut wrote:
you have to start off in a dersh ( 2CV )
I have a dispensation to avoid the necessity of going through 2CV ownership as I've owned a Renault 4 in the past which too had a dash change. And very good they were too. Car and gearchange :-D

So, can I start with a GS instead? :)

Mike, my choice of DS would definitely be a semi-auto. I guess strictly that still counts as a column change...
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Re: Driving techniques

Post by Sam KS »

well, I'm not much of a hand brake user. I don't even use it when parking unless in a manual on a slope. but do always turn the wheels. But i did learn how to drive in my 1st car, a Valiant VH Hard Top (one of these http://www.nzmoparregistry.com/assets/j ... regal1.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) and Valiant's are known for having useless hand brakes. then moved on to Ford LTD (http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn10 ... sLTDD2.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) which made the Valiant hand brake look good.

I have always left room in front of me at lights to be able to pull around the car in front. I started doing this after some one running but the back of me at a set of lights while i was on a motorbike. but this wouldn't have saved me as i was the only one at the lights.
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Re: Re:

Post by citronut »

CitroJim wrote:
citronut wrote:
you have to start off in a dersh ( 2CV )
So, can I start with a GS instead? :)
your itching to do some welding then Jim :-D :wink:
Regards, malcolm.

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Re: Re:

Post by CitroJim »

citronut wrote: your itching to do some welding then Jim :-D :wink:
No but maybe. I have an XM remember :lol: :roll:

Actually yes, I did a bit over the weekend, I'm out of practice and remembered how much I actually enjoy welding...

One day maybe I can do a bit of a refurbish of a GS. Who knows. Immensely satisfying. I'm really pleased Kev has picked up the gauntlet (no pun intended :roll: )...
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Re: Driving techniques

Post by Spaces »

Handbrakes are crazy things, when a bit of compressed air and a spring work operated by the 'cherry on a stick' work so beautifully on HGVs. Not sure I like the look of the latest electric handbrakes, though.

Jim, the GS handbrake is notoriously poor and easy to leave on by accident, no warning light - just a pair of discs with h'brake pad-sized grooves in. Had an ex who drove the length of the country with it on, was stopped by the police at well over 100mph (she got off, as women do) and denied all knowledge of a handbrake existing (which it didn't, by then.) Bugger of a job, but nothing like as bad as some jobs on modern stuff!
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Re: Driving techniques

Post by citronut »

topic drift :shock: :-D :wink:

the knack of a well adjusted G hand brake the type with an eccentric and lock bolt to adjust each of the 4 hand brake pads,
with the wheels of the ground, hand brake of slacken the lock bolt on each adjuster, rotate the eccentric the opposite direction to the lock bolt tightens, till each pad in turn locks that wheel, then tighten the lock bolt whilst holding the adjuster hust to the point the lock bolt comes near the fully tight position,
and let the eccentric go with the lock bolt on the very last bit of tightening it,

same idea for the dersh ( 2CV ),

then on late G's and all GSA's they modified the adjuster, which was a length of 8mm hexagonal rod with a thread on the lower section were it enters the adjuster and runs against the back of a cam, as you wind the 8mm hex rod down it push's the cam against the hand brake pad,
across the top of both 8mm hex rods there is a loop of stiff spring, adjust the brakes so they are just locking, then back each one off till a flat of the hex is against the spring, job done,
i fitted these adjusters to my daughter dersh ( 2CV )

whoooops should have posted this in the G S*P*O*T
Regards, malcolm.

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Re: Driving techniques

Post by C5Alan »

I use a mix of all three clutch, foot brake, hand brake depending on where I am or if I am working find clutch when at the front of the lights when delivering pizza means you get away quicker.

the tires and tarmac thing normally do this but does the missus' nut in she only past a couple years back and insists on parking inches from the car in front. She really cracks up when I do it to a cop car 'they must think your up to something parking so far back.' My thinking is I have a tow bar so that saves the back end and has many of time in the past cracked bumpers number plates but just a spot of missing grease on the towbar damn you lol but if I am too close to the car in front means my car is more likely to get damaged.
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Re: Re:

Post by uhn113x »

CitroJim wrote:
Mike, my choice of DS would definitely be a semi-auto. I guess strictly that still counts as a column change...
Indeed, Jim, they were the original idea before they went manual. I really liked the semi-auto; a well-thought out idea that nobody has ever copied (AFAIK).
You can change gear with your little finger and everything is adjustable.

I have never found the handbrake on my GSA or Dyanes (disc or drum) to have a poor handbrake; if properly adjusted they are as good as any.
When I undid the driveshaft nut to do my kingpin mod on our Dyane when I got it, I normally have to ask someone to stand on the footbrake to do this; merely pulling the handbrake on tight did the job!

As Malcolm says, they have to be adjusted properly and the GSA version is easy to do.
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Re: Re:

Post by CitroJim »

uhn113x wrote:I really liked the semi-auto; a well-thought out idea that nobody has ever copied (AFAIK).
You can change gear with your little finger and everything is adjustable.
I believe the nearest to it Mike, might be those 'flappy paddle' boxes on some moderns. They can be a semi or a full auto depending on how you want to play with it...

Just shows again that Citroen were there first although true pre-selector gearboxes pre-date even Citroen. Dad has told me of pre-war cars that had them but I can't recall the models now. I think it might have been an old Riley...
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Post by addo »

Alfa's Sillyspeed was very close to the Ctroën system. HP pump, accumulator spheres, hydraulic clutch and hydraulic shifts for the gears; it just used electronics where the Dee had mechanical regulation of clutch bite and carb butterfly.
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Re: Re:

Post by uhn113x »

CitroJim wrote: Just shows again that Citroen were there first although true pre-selector gearboxes pre-date even Citroen. Dad has told me of pre-war cars that had them but I can't recall the models now. I think it might have been an old Riley...
Riley Kestrel, Jim. It used a centrifugal clutch as well.
The 1934 Lanchester I had years ago had a Wilson pre-selector 'box as did the Riley, but used a fluid flywheel. I think they were the first ones of their kind and used four epicyclic trains plus a cone clutch for 4th.

They were housed in drums and had brake bands like a modern auto.
Each band had a "finger" which rested on a camshaft for the actual selection - each selected gear was engaged by a gymormous spring on the band to close it.

Lanchester were the first British production car but amalgamated with Daimler who still had the Wilson 'box.

London AEC buses were preselector as well.

The epi trains were straight-cut gears with needle rollers on the planet gears, and made a lovely banshee humming idling in neutral, one of the best car noises except maybe an A-Series with a trafficlutch when you give it a rev before switching off. Best when there are bystanders around!
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