Braking and gears and big roundabouts
Discussion
OK, so I'm in the "has bought Roadcraft and How To Pass Your Advanced Driving Test, has read them, but is still procrastinating about actually coughing up £85 and getting started" phase of "trying to stop driving like a muppet".
I try to drive to as much of The System as I can remember, and I try to plan ahead, and do good observations, and separate braking and gears, and all that. COAST, IPSG, etc.
On my commute to work there are a couple of very large roundabouts at which one is likely to come to a halt at. Now, I always try to be in the right gear before steering, so no changing down as I go round corners or anything like that. But on these big roundabouts, I'm turning right and, because of the distance (I think one of them takes me about 400 metres before my exit) often change up to 2nd and even 3rd on the way round.
Is this right? Am I compromising the car's balance by doing this? What do the professionals do?
I try to drive to as much of The System as I can remember, and I try to plan ahead, and do good observations, and separate braking and gears, and all that. COAST, IPSG, etc.
On my commute to work there are a couple of very large roundabouts at which one is likely to come to a halt at. Now, I always try to be in the right gear before steering, so no changing down as I go round corners or anything like that. But on these big roundabouts, I'm turning right and, because of the distance (I think one of them takes me about 400 metres before my exit) often change up to 2nd and even 3rd on the way round.
Is this right? Am I compromising the car's balance by doing this? What do the professionals do?
CommanderJameson said:
OK, so I'm in the "has bought Roadcraft and How To Pass Your Advanced Driving Test, has read them, but is still procrastinating about actually coughing up £85 and getting started" phase of "trying to stop driving like a muppet".
I try to drive to as much of The System as I can remember, and I try to plan ahead, and do good observations, and separate braking and gears, and all that. COAST, IPSG, etc.
On my commute to work there are a couple of very large roundabouts at which one is likely to come to a halt at. Now, I always try to be in the right gear before steering, so no changing down as I go round corners or anything like that. But on these big roundabouts, I'm turning right and, because of the distance (I think one of them takes me about 400 metres before my exit) often change up to 2nd and even 3rd on the way round.
Is this right? Am I compromising the car's balance by doing this? What do the professionals do?
I try to drive to as much of The System as I can remember, and I try to plan ahead, and do good observations, and separate braking and gears, and all that. COAST, IPSG, etc.
On my commute to work there are a couple of very large roundabouts at which one is likely to come to a halt at. Now, I always try to be in the right gear before steering, so no changing down as I go round corners or anything like that. But on these big roundabouts, I'm turning right and, because of the distance (I think one of them takes me about 400 metres before my exit) often change up to 2nd and even 3rd on the way round.
Is this right? Am I compromising the car's balance by doing this? What do the professionals do?
There's no problem with what you're doing. Large roundabouts are, in effect, a series of hazards, and can be treated as such. Entering the roundabout is the first hazard, then there's negotiating the roundabout itself, and then leaving the roundabout. If you're driving systematically, then you can consider all five phases on the approach to the roundabout, consider them all again whilst driving around it, and then again as you leave.
On a roundabout such as you've described, I wouldn't expect you to remain in a very low gear, and changing up as you drive around it is fine. You'll only start to unsettle the car by changing up mid-bend if you're cornering at high speed, which under normal circunstances, shouldn't be the case.
Your approach sounds fine to me.
I think about this:-
If it's a nasty hazard then you aren't going to be significantly accelerating throughout it, so the single gear is going to be fine. If it's not that bad as a hazard, then you are able to accelerate and it's just curved road, not a significant hazard -- you'll be fine changing smoothly up through the gears.
If it's a nasty hazard then you aren't going to be significantly accelerating throughout it, so the single gear is going to be fine. If it's not that bad as a hazard, then you are able to accelerate and it's just curved road, not a significant hazard -- you'll be fine changing smoothly up through the gears.
I don't see any reason not to change gear while steering, braking or accelerating, as long as it fits into the driver's workload and is done without disturbing the car. That holds true whether you're wafting round a big roundabout at 15 mph, or madly opposite-locking out of a chicane on the way to a chequered flag.
GreenV8S said:
I don't see any reason not to change gear while steering, braking or accelerating...without disturbing the car.
That's the point, isn't it. Changing gear necessarily removes the drive, which - if the car is accelerating hard or cornering under power, shifts the weight forward.
Changing up on a roundabout, I try to fit in my gear changes at a point where I am not having to turn the steering wheel - so I sometimes have to delay the first to second change slightly until the clockwise curved path is established. This is to avoid steering one handed - nothing to do with stability.
As to db's concern about destabilising the car, the weight transfer is not so extreme as to be a problem in most situations. I am not a track expert, but I would happily change up on a curve (example familiar to db - 3rd to 4th on the right-hander onto the main straight at Bruntingthorpe), and I think it would be standard racing practise to do so. You would not change up early on a track to avoid running out of revs in the curve - I don't think. I am interested in others' views.
As to db's concern about destabilising the car, the weight transfer is not so extreme as to be a problem in most situations. I am not a track expert, but I would happily change up on a curve (example familiar to db - 3rd to 4th on the right-hander onto the main straight at Bruntingthorpe), and I think it would be standard racing practise to do so. You would not change up early on a track to avoid running out of revs in the curve - I don't think. I am interested in others' views.
7db said:
That's the point, isn't it. Changing gear necessarily removes the drive, which - if the car is accelerating hard or cornering under power, shifts the weight forward.
It does obviously remove the drive (assume you're talking manual box, as I am) but that doesn't mean it has to upset the balance of the car. Plenty of scope to upset it if you get it wrong, of course.
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