u/drivestickshift

I think beginners worry way too much about the exact RPM for shifting

One thing I've noticed teaching stick is how quickly people start looking for an exact number: What RPM should I upshift? What speed should I be starting off with? When exactly should I downshift?

I give beginners some basic guidelines, but overall I want them listening to the car, as thought its tell them what it wants. One of the easiest indicators is actually the gas pedal.

Give it gas and the car responds normally? You're probably in the right gear. Give it gas and the car barely accelerates, feels like its limping, or feels like it's struggling? You're probably in too high of a gear and should down shift.

Hit the gas pedal and the car accelerate aggressively, feels jerky when you release the gas pedal? Probably time to go up a gear.

Obviously acceleration, hills, engine braking, surface grade and conditions among other things, can change things, but for normal driving I've found this much more useful than memorizing a speed/RPM chart. that sort of metric will change from car to car, as gear ratios and displacement and vehicle weight vary. So if you're learning to drive stick, get used to understand how to interpret your tachometer by sound, not by sight. I would even recommend blocking it the tachometer with a piece of paper in the beginning so you are not tempted to sneak peeks of it.

A completely empty parking lot isn't always the best place to learn stick shift

I've taught manual transmission in NYC for years and tried quite a few different environments for beginner lessons.

One mistake I see is assuming the emptiest, most secluded parking lot must be the best place to learn. I get the logic but have to disagree.

It's useful for your first few starts and stops, but there's a problem, most empty lots are small. You touch off, get into first gear, and almost immediately have to stop again. You never develop any actual driving flow, understanding how to clutch and row with traffic, red lights, pedestrians (all the stuff that makes it hard).

Once someone can reliably get the car moving, I prefer a quiet residential neighborhood with wide streets, little or no commercial activity and minimal bus or public transit.

You still get a relatively docile environment, but now you can actually drive. First to second, second to third, slowing down, downshifting, approaching intersections, stopping and starting again.

Eventually you need to learn how all of these individual skills connect.

You don't need chaos to learn stick shift. But you do eventually need a road.

Stop obsessing over what RPM to shift @

Stop learning manual in tiny parking lots

Stalling isn't nearly as bad as new manual drivers think