From HJs News
www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/item.htm?id=35709
Do you recognise these types ?
Are there other types?
|
|
KF missed me out, I use anticipation and observation to minimise brake use. And KF won't get near my brakes anyway.
Edited by Old Navy on 20/12/2009 at 17:50
|
Likewise, anticipation and little use of the brakes in normal driving.
However, sunny country lanes, with the top down, can provoke a lead foot on both pedals and induce smiles.
|
By the book brakers - Or at least i think i am.
Do use gears down hills rather than have those anoying brake lights on all the way down like some.
|
|
|
|
|
Anticipation, planning, observation, second guesswork and brake by the book if necessary.
|
|
my missus reckons I don't brake enough....
|
my missus reckons I don't brake enough....
She's right you know...
|
As little as possible.
When it is necessary, in good time but not ridiculously early, gently but not ridiculously gently, and feathering the brake foot usually to avoid any jerk on stopping.
And of course when necessary very hard. But one has to try to avoid that even more than usual in the present road conditions.
|
|
|
She's right you know...
Have you been talking to her?
When I first met her and we'd be doing a m/way journey, she'd shout BRAKE and start holding the dashboard when i didn't react to brake lights form the car in front...and didn't believe me when I stated i'd be looking 5 or 6 cars ahead (or more), so when someone dabbed their brakes just to re-adjust their position slightly, I wouldn't bother and would just throttle off.
Same thing with roundabouts when someone in front chose to stop unnecessarily at the Give Way...she wouldn't believe me when I said i'd already decided i wasn't going to stop at all and would overtake them if necessary.
She's got used to it now..sort of...;-)
|
|
|
|
Anticipation, Engine braking, light application of brakes
Get 45K+ out of front pads, rears usually replaced due to uneven wear/rusty rear disks needing replaced and new pads fitted at same time.
Another benefit is longer tyre life 25K+ on the front, almost infinite on back but then they go on the front.
|
|
Dunno really but I do childish things including trying to see how far I can go without using the brakes at all. Pointless excercise of course but that can be said of so many things in life.
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 20/12/2009 at 18:43
|
Braker, braker 1 9 this ere's Rubber Duck (sorry about that!) I suppose I may be a tad annoying to the vehicle behind because when I am slowing down to a stop at a red light etc., I'll slow right down to a stop (almost) then lift off the brakes slightly and continue for a few more ft. (cm)
This is with auto trans of course.
|
Oh dear another confession time, when driving home from work in the ancient auto MB, i try very hard not to use my brakes at all, this is because the snake in front tied together at 10/20ft intervals spend most of the journey on the brakes resulting in the effect that they were connected by bungee straps.
I particularly enjoy the downhill descent into the 30 limit past the speed camera, i can approach in top gear until some 200 yds from the camera and when my speed drops to 40 i select 3rd, and using engine braking go past the camera at exactly 30...childish yes, i especially enjoy seeing the nose of the car behind dipping as he has to brake to maintain the 10ft gap...can't see his headlights always because he's usually too close.
Do give the brakes a work out periodically though, couple of stops from lotsmph to clean them up.
Had to think about this, apart from the unexpected or lights that caught me out i seldom brake other than gently.
|
Aged 16yrs I had a Bond minicar three wheeler with a soft top. It was ancient (as mentioned) and had cable operated brakes operating through a bell crank. These were very difficult to adjust so that it braked in a straight line and there was always a slight bias, one way or another.
Anyway, there I was , in the stockbroker belt, hood down and pop popping along in that two stroke way and wearing a trendy tweed flat cap. (yes really) spotty faced with a ready eye for beauty.
At this point I was approaching a zebra crossing upon which stood a very smart looking young woman in her twenties. She fixed me with eye contact and then stepped out into the road - no doubt putting me in my place - in the social class division of things.
I hit the brakes and it went almost sideways - like a crab on it`s balding tyres, without really slowing, as only one brake seemed to be working at the rear.
She gave a little leap forwards at the last second and I got an almost eye level flash of her leg and high heel as she lept for her life. Stationary, sideways now, beyond the crossing I looked back. She was walking off, head held high in superiority. Bet she remembered that though.... the Bond.
|
I try and anticipate wherever possible, so that I don't actually have to apply the brakes.
I'll need a change of pads on the car at 65 thousand miles, according to the garage. I don't know if this is good, bad or average.
My old Nissan had really great brakes - totally progressive in operation. All the new cars that I've tried since seem to have snatchy brakes. Are they set up that way to give the illusion that they are super-powerful, I wonder?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm a "by the book" braker, especially after reading an article which said that this is the way chauffeurs are taught to brake because it gives their passengers (who are often their employers!) a more comfortable ride.
Edited by L'escargot on 21/12/2009 at 07:28
|
|
Kwik Fit do have a vested interest in selling brake pads, which must be why they have left out the most sensible type of all - anticipate and use as little as possible.
|
Sounds about right, Cliff.
However, I sometimes brake reasonably hard initially - to get a feel for what conditions are like 'under tyre', particularly in the current weather conditions.
One gripe I do have is with drivers who can't 'feather off' their braking in the last few feet to avoid unseemly 'bonnet rebound' on coming to a stop.
A few weeks ago I drove from Durham to Peterborough down the A1 (mid-morning) without using the brakes once. The last set of front pads in the S80 did 87,000 miles.....
Edited by OldSock on 21/12/2009 at 12:49
|
I practise on hard packed snow. fail if ABS kicks in...
|
I try to do it 'by the book' but there are doubtless occasions when I don't!
Mrs-Badwolf-To-Be has some very rummy ideas about braking. She'll often jam the anchors on well in advance of actually having to, but then a mile down the road she'll leave it until the last minute. She also brakes approaching a green traffic light. I can thoroughly understand her rationale here as I do ease off the throttle a little, especially in a PCV but she'll shave 5-10mph off her speed even in a 30mph zone.
I'll bet she's a nightmare to drive behind...
|
The ultimate late braker
There was a bloke who thought himself
The ultimate late braker.
One day he tried it in the wet
And - not long after - briefly met
His disapproving Maker...
|
Very good, Lud! :-)
In the spirit of Ogden Nash.
|
|
A few years ago - well actually probably the early 80's - the AA used to issue a piece of driving advice each year that was supposed to make our roads safer for all concerned. One year the advice was for all drivers to drive in such a way that it was only necessary to apply one's brakes to actually stop the car. My first reaction at the time was that this was another piece of authoritarian stupidity but I decided to give the mantra a chance for a brief testing period. Amazingly it worked for me. I became a much safer driver as a result. I'm not suggesting that the system would work for every driver in every situation, particularly now that all roads are so much busier. But it is a method that would, if practised by all drivers, slow everything down and, hopefully, make our roads just a little bit safer (in my humble opinion, of course!).
|
I was taught to drive on motorways thus:
When joining the motorway allow yourself 10 points, deduct one point every time you have to brake during the journey.
When you leave the motorway, if your points score is less than 10, you have failed. :-)
Edited by Dave_TD {P} on 22/12/2009 at 00:51
|
|
|
|
Jackie Stewart's book Principles of Performance Driving.
Chapter 4
The High Speed Technique.
"On the subject of gear changing techniques, I have always believed that you should take as little out of the car's transmission as possible that obviously means gentle, sympathetic changes when going up through the gears, but also by using the brakes to their maximum when slowing down, often missing gears while changing down through the box. Many people think that racing drivers go all the way down through the gears in a six-speed box like a machine gun. But that means you're taking on a juggling act: steering, operating the pedals, blippingthe throttle and using the gear lever like a madman. I always chose to change down by jumping through gears.
........from sixth to fourth to second. Thet applies to wet or dry conditions, although you need to be careful how you do iy in the wet, perhaps eliminating all the down changes, using the brakes to knock off your speed, and then finally slipping from sixth to first gear right at the end. Remember, you are not going to stop any faster by using the transmission. Brakes are made to stop a car, gears are primarily for acceleration. Deceleration was not part of the gearbox's original purpose: don't abuse it.
|
Let's be sure to make the distinction between selecting a lower gear to slow the vehicle (generally wrong*) and Cliff's anticipation-and-planning method, part of which is using engine braking in the gear you're in. This is crucial to the 30-in-third method and why I think it ought to be universal. Mrs BW, for example, wouldn't need to dab the brakes approaching a green light if merely lifting off would produce the slight drop in speed she needed to make the Stop and Go options equally achievable. It makes such perfect sense - I've yet to drive a manual car it didn't work for - and yet you'll hear the most bizarre objections to it, even among the educated denizens of the BR.
*The one situation I'll occasionally do this is in heavy motorway traffic, where a gap is closing a little too fast for me but I don't want to panic following drivers with a premature show of brake lights. Dropping one gear seems like a reasonable alternative here. Even so, I probably do this no more than once a month.
WdB, 102,000 miles so far on original brake pads and clutch.
|
|
|
|
Jackie Stewart
Chapter 6
The Road Application.
"Somehow many people think that the better the driver you are, the more gear changes you need to make, both up and down, not to mention changing down as many times as possible when you are braking for a stop sign or a round about. Not so! I'd rather use the brakes first because brake pads are cheaper to replace than gear boxes!
Roll into a corner under braking, even in fourth gear, and put it directly into second gear when the time is right, but not when the car is going to nose down and the rear wheels lock up momentarily while the revs shoot off the clock.
So don't rev the engine violently; change gear early and apply the brakes before down-shift smoothly. The braking comes before the gear changing on the way down, never the other way round. And the brake application again should be smooth and progressive. Before you have even so much as touched the brakes you must consider the way in which you come off the power. Don't come off the throtle pedal abruptly, but ease back on it gently.......
The same should apply when you press the brake. Do it gently and progressively and , before you have finished the braking motion, release the brake again very gently and progressivley, so that you don't feel it coming off.
.....a road car is more softly sprung and greater suspension movement , more roll, more dive and more squat. All the movements are exaggerated compared with a competition car."
|
|
|
Gears to go
Brakes to slow
Had an old Sunny that I had a brake problem with. I discovered, the day before driving down from the Isle of Skye that it would stop o.k. but if brakes used too much one could seize on and then had to wait for it to cool down before releasing. I knew that I was scrapping it when I got to Lancashire so decided to risk it. Only had to use the brakes twice; once when I stopped for petrol and then at final destination,
|
"What kind of braker are you?"
CB radio is SO yesterday!
|
I've always been a bit of, anticipation driving, by the book and occasional engine braking on long downhill stretches. With my current car, a Mondeo Mk4 Diesel Auto, I thought I would have to give up the downhill engine braking bit but this electronic box is so clever it automatically holds on to the gears going downhill without kicking down.
.
Keith
|
|
|
|
