The New And Improved Unofficial R65 Forum V2
General Category => Totally Off-Topic Discussions, Rants, Tire & Oil Threads, Etc. => Topic started by: Bob_Roller on January 24, 2010, 10:03:44 AM
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There's a large construction project to add a 'people mover' system at the airport where I work ( Phoenix Skyharbor Airport) .
This involves putting up concrete 'piers', or pilings to support the concrete bed for the transportation system .
The construction company just placed cones with signs stating that any vehicle remaining in the cordoned off area of our parking lot after 1500, will be towed at owners expense .
A couple of mechanics asked co-workers to move their vehicles, as they will be here until 2300 tonight, and are involved with a project, that they can't leave .
Anyway, two vehicles have manual transmissions, and no one here other than the vehicle owners knows how to drive a manual transmission vehicle !!!!!
I just thought that this was amazing, I've never owned a vehicle with an automatic transmission, I guess I'm the oddity here !!!!
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Good Lord! My late father made it mandatory that little brother and I knew how to stir a gearbox before he would permit us to exercise the rights of our newly earned drivers licenses. This ties into another thread discussing dear ol' Dad's "car period".
Back in the day, I took driver's ed in a VW Bug. Of course it was manual transmission! That far back, all Bugs were. The instructor was so impressed with both mine and my car stealin' buddy's shifting skills that he would tell us to, "Drive for a couple hours and then wake me up." By the second day, he would smoke a cigarette, then sleep the entire time we were out cruising.
My wife's father had her prove to him that she could completely change a flat tire before she was permitted to drive. Her manual transmission skills were developed while driving the family farm's manure spreader. And she has the nerve to tell me that I spread it around... ;D
Monte
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I went to look at a '94 BMW R100R 'Mystic' a few years ago, at a local Chevrolet dealer about three miles from the house .
After looking at the bike, was leaving, and noticed the Mercedes Benz dealer, I've never been in an MB dealer before, so I rode the R65 over there and went inside .
The sales manager was obviously 'annoyed' with my presence in his showroom .
He approached me, and asked if he could help me, I asked if this particular model was available with a manual transmission, the response I got was , " sir, Mercedes Benz makes luxury automobiles, not farm implements' .
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That far back, all Bugs were.
Must have been really far back, Monte! ;D In the 60s, VW made a Bug (both US and (their) domestic versions, I think) with a "semi-automatic" clutch. I seem to recall that the shifter knob was touch-sensitive. After using the clutch to start off in G1, the driver shifted gears without the clutch, not depressing the clutch pedal again until stopping. I drove one a few times in Deutschland. It drove me—crazy—for at the time I had the bad habit of absentmindedly resting my hand on the shifter knob. (I kicked the habit after being told, years later, that even light constant pressure on a shifter lever causes premature wear.)
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"Must have been really far back, Monte!" –Altritter
It was. It truly was. I work for the local school district as a kinda sorta retirement gig... health insurance comes with the job, dig? Anyway, drivers ed these days is done in automatic trans and air conditioned cars. Wimps.
8-) Monte
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The sales manager was obviously 'annoyed' with my presence in his showroom .
He approached me, and asked if he could help me, I asked if this particular model was available with a manual transmission, the response I got was , " sir, Mercedes Benz makes luxury automobiles, not farm implements' .
I hope you told him where to stick it.......the only thing any good on my merc was the manual gearbox the rest was a complete disappointment.
Lou
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I made a smart a$$ comment to him : 'that's the same comment that Adolph Hitler made about BMW motorcycles in WWII', as in BMW motorcycles, were referred to as 'farm implements' .
He had no comeback for that, and just walked away .
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Me and George put a toyota 5 speed in this old Merc. It didn't get a good responce from the Mercedes dealer. I grew up in South Dakota and people always called Harley's, John Deere's. Never made sense because every year during sturgis week the highways were littered with Harley's broken down on the shoulders. and I can't remember a John Deere that didn't always run.
Its an old picture from the 80's, Its George in the picture. My retired neighbor back then. He had a full machine shop in the garage and I had a welding shop in mine next door. So we came up with silly prototypes all the time like some of the first suspension Mt. Bikes. I think we did 25 different suspension designs. This one wasn't a real good one. But was the first full suspension bike racing the Nationals. One of our funnest projects was putting a retractable parachute on the white bike. I was complaining about not being able to stop once i got my speed up coming down the ski slope. and George had once owned a parachute mfg. company. We actually got it working.
George was one of the machinist that built the first H-bomb on some little Atol in the pacific. Told good stories
My 12 yr old is learning to drive my manual 3/4 ton truck. but she's had a dirt bike since she was 7, so the clutch is all she knows
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That MB SL behind George looks like some kind of 4WD version. MB's are a highly over rated vehicle in my opinion and my wife's recent experience with a $300 replacement key merely reinforces that belief. We'd ditch the car in a heart beat except it's paid for and does run reasonable well.
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I keep a '66 Volvo just so my 13 year old can learn the clutch when the time comes...all too soon I'm afraid.
<sigh>
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MB's are a highly over rated vehicle in my opinion
how old is your wife's car Bengt ?
I agree anything from the early 90's onwards is no more reliable than any other modern car and maybe worse which is pretty poor given the price of the them.
If my 89 190E is anything to go by earlier Mercs are properly engineered and much simpler a bit like airheads. I keep mine because it just never goes wrong. Only downside is fuel economy at least at our prices but this is now offset by zero depreciation. My biggest worry is what am I going to replace it with.
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how old is your wife's car Bengt ?
It's a 99 C280. Power seats don't work, right rear taillight keeps shorting out no matter how well I fix it (must be the fixture) and the A/C is intermittent in the heat of the summer. All of these items are repairable but the local MB rapist wants a couple of hundred just to pop the hood without even doing anything. Looking for a good aftermarket shop.
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In the 60s, VW made a Bug (both US and (their) domestic versions, I think) with a "semi-automatic" clutch.
Update on my earlier post: For all you obsessive-compulsives who must research these things—VW's official marketing name for this semi-automatic drive train was a "Stick Automatic." I couldn't remember the correct name when I wrote this bit.
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In the UK most people drive manual shift.
If you try and take a driving test with an automatic, you will not be able to drive a manual until you have taken another test with a manual shifting car.
People do not want to take two driving tests,so everyone learns a manual and then you can drive an auto as well.
As a result there is almost a stigma against Auto's. As many feel, the only people driving an Auto, are those that never managed cope with a manual. The very same people, it could be argued, should not be allowed to be put in charge of car in the first place.
Historically, you always get better mileage from a manual as they always had more gears that the Auto equivalent. And you were in charge of when the gear change happened. This may not be the case with moder Auto boxes, but who cares - you will never catch me driving and Auto of any kind given the choice.
Steve Hawkins (UK)
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My kids learned on their Mother's '85 190E five speed. She had stick shift cars all her life until buying her current Accord V6. Both daughter & son had to show me they could change their own flat before I'd sign off on them getting a car.
Being an old fart, it was many years before I switched to automatic. Son still drives a six speed V6 Accord, but the rest of the family have come over to the "Dark Side" with me. I kind of like having Air Conditioning and an automatic in the hot bumper-to-bumper summer traffic. Even the seven and a half liter GTO now has A/C and a three speed "Dual Gate" automatic. Not quite the performance of the four speed manual models, but I can live with it.
;)
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I'm happy driving a manual but my 3 year old tiny Renault Clio has a lovely 4-speed automatic.....I'm firmly in the old-fart class but even I think a manual is a bit 19th-century stuff...the Clio's auto is really good, totally smooth changes and even knows when I'm going downhill. But I just love flooring the pedal occasionally and hearing it drop one or two gears while I just relax....still, the R65's manual, or rather footpedal, is a pleasure too. (Far better than my old R60/5, tho not as good as my 40 year old BSA!)
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My last two cars have been autos, only because I am an impatient shopper (it usually happens in the winter when I don't have my alternative transportation).
I'm chomping at the bit to get behind a 5-speed, again.
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In the early '80's I was working in the UAE, training people on how to use oilfield equipment, especially high pressure pumps. some of these pumps had gearboxes ( 15 speed roadranger with deep reduction). Of all the stuents we had, we ALWAYS had to train the US and Arab citizens on how to use a manual box - normally on a Toyota pickup!. I was totally gobsmacked at the time but since having been to the US, everyone, it seems, use automatics - kinda takes the fun out of driving.
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It was not until I visited America that I realised why they all like automatics.
All those stop lights..... Stop.... Start..... Stop.... Start..... Stop.... Start .... Stop.... Start..... Stop.... Start..... Stop.... Start......
A couple of weeks driving round in the Chicago locality soon had me educated about the other side of the coin.......Oh and I was driving an auto......
Hey, ho
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As a kid I loved the manuals, so much more hooning to be had when you can play with gears. First car I drove was a mk2 Ford Cortina with 4 on the floor. Lots of fun in the dirt when Dad didn't know.
John
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As per usual, Mr. Hawkins hit the nail on the head. It's all of the stop lights and whilst on freeways, the stop and go, that puts one in an automatic really fast. The best car I ever owned was a Mazda RX7 w/ 5 speed, but it sure was frustrating in heavy traffic moving about 50 feet per minute. Might as well have been driving my mother's Cadillac Sedan deVille land yacht!
I always encouraged my daughters to learn to drive a standard in their boy friends cars so as not to ruin the clutches in my cars. That worked well.
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I love maunaul shifts and wish I had one. I learned on a 1973 Ford Pinto. ;) We're currently starting to look at some new(er) Volvos - S40 and C30 specifically, and are having a hard time finding a manual... they're all auto!
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Volvo's earned a bad reputation here among motorbike riders in Australia.
To counteract it Volvo put out an ad that said look left, look right, look bike.
And "I'm a bike aware driver".
The bike clubs then put out stickers that read "I'm a Volvo aware rider"
See this web page for a selection of some stickers available from Motorcycle Riders Association Queensland, including
http://www.cutgrafix.com/MRAQ.htm
;)
John
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We don't have any vehicles that are automatic transmission in our household... but wait, actually my TRACTOR is (which comes in very handy, actually, with frequent forward/reverse/forward/reverse involved with it and loading dirt, plowing, etc.
They are more of a nusiance when in a traffic jam in the cities, which we try to avoid when possible.
My father and my wife's father both made sure that we had learned to drive manual transmission vehicles before automatics. Of course, riding motorbikes since I was 15 didn't hurt either.
Nothing puts the fear of impending chaos into me like seeing a Volvo station wagon in the lane next to me on the interstate highways...
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Volvo's have had a similar reputation for many years here in the UK. I had no idea that myopic Volvo drivers were the same the world over.
Actually we should worry about any vehicle driver who feels the need to buy into a "feeling of safety" Huge 4WD's used by mums on the school run are pretty scary on our narrow roads too.
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...If you try and take a driving test with an automatic, you will not be able to drive a manual until you have taken another test with a manual shifting car.
People do not want to take two driving tests,so everyone learns a manual and then you can drive an auto as well... Steve Hawkins (UK)
That's much like the Texas Concealed Handgun License range test. My wife prefers her wheel guns but tested with one of my 9mm semiautos. To legally carry a semiauto, your CHL must state "SA". With the "SA" endorsement, you may carry either style weapon.
Monte
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My wife prefers her wheel guns but tested with one of my 9mm semiautos
I taunt my wife all the time, all in the name of love. Things like comparing the age of my 1962 Valiant and the amount of panel beating needed, But if I knew she was able to carry a concealed handgun.......
It would be a very quiet household. :-X
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I've owned only one automatic in my life - and that was the one car that I had problem with my transmission! I learned to drive in my Dad's '64 Austin Healey Sprite. I wanted that car BAD, but when my mom got rid of it I had no place to keep it. I was living in an apt complex that didn't allow non-runners, and it hadn't been run in a few years. I didn't care, that was my favorite car! My Dad also made us change the tire completely by ourselves before we were allowed to drive.
Like nhmaf, the only automatic we own is the lawn tractor. All 3 cars and 6 bikes are manuals. It's getting tough finding a new car with manual drive these days. ::)
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My brother and sister-in-law both drive Volvos. Lil Bubba sez they like them because, "They are so safe."
I counter with, "Being built in a country with such an astronomical per capita suicide rate, corporate Volvo wants you to off yourself in some other fashion less they get sued too often."
Monte
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The answer to the American obsession with automatics is laziness. Americans in general are amazing multi-taskers but try shifting while texting, drinking a cup of $7 burnt coffee, and either tying a tie or putting on make up and hell we would have the highest auto accident rate in the world....oh wait. I am 26 and up until recently only owned manual vehicles like my mini and my jeep but now try and find a resonably priced car with a stick good luck. My little brother is getting a car next Jan and Ill be damned if he cant drive a stick before then. Oh and Steve I totally agree about the stop go thing but americans would never be able to handle the amount of roundabouts yall have. If you get the oppurtunity come to New Braunfels, tx and Ill show you what I mean.
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Perhaps all the Auto's are being dumped in the good old U S of A, as they cannot sell anywhere else?
Its a control thing - stop lights take the decison away from the driver...We used to have roundabouts and 'give way junctions' to keep the traffic moving......but traffic lights are getting more common over here now...And they are putting them on roundabouts as well >:(
Ever sat an a stop light for a minute or two when it is on Red....And you are the only motorist to be seen in any direction?
Noooooo!
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The Danish military recieved under the Marshall help in the fifties a lot of surplus American gear including GMC lorries from wwII. When I served in 1970-72 I learned to drive the GMC which had a manual non-synchronized H-shift. It was a heavy car to drive with no powersteering and I almost toppled over once driving up a slippery hill. My instructor left the car in a hurry and did not seem very pleased afterwards.
So I am trained in the noble art of double-d-clutch.
greetings from a still freezing and white north (the ground and roads have been snow covered since December 19 last year)
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Traffic lights on roundebouts? That's just crazy. No, I bet it generates revenue, doesn't it? Do they have those evil red light cameras on them?
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Ever sat an a stop light for a minute or two when it is on Red....And you are the only motorist to be seen in any direction?
Noooooo!
Most of the traffic signals here are magnetically triggered by wire. Unfortunately every motorcycle I own does not have enough ferrous metal to trip the light so it's very common to sit through several cycles of the light - assuming one doesn't get frustrated and just go when there are no cars about. It's like those "Walk - Don't Walk" signals. My common sense tells me that it's cross traffic and not red lights that kill pedestrians. Just don't ever think of jaywalking in downtown Dallas though. You'll get a $200 ticket! [smiley=thud.gif]