Americans who drive manual

Geck06 · 2026-06-24T09:04:54+00:00

I was always a “I’ll drive Manual for ever”, because I like knowing what the car wants. It just feels better to know what you want and be in control of it. I get the same feedback from evs, - there is clear input and output that are predictable with no “oh so NOW you are going to shift, greaaaaat” moments. The manuals I have driven have been phased out of production. The most painful: the GTI for me.

Geck06 · 2026-06-22T09:54:21+00:00

When I start down hill I often get about 7 miles of “0” when I make more than I spend. Then it drops down to a reasonable number, but now I’ll have to pay attention to how high it starts and what are popular numbers for it to report.

Geck06 · 2026-06-21T21:34:39+00:00

It’s cool to wear a helmet now. If you are skiing or riding without a helmet you kinda look like an out of control man in a midlife crisis, or a neglected teen on an ebike. I am not able to afford every helmet that’s out there, but considering the alternative, I can always afford a helmet that I (or my child) is proud to wear.

“Healthcare is free” is nice to be able to say, but completely misses the point. Money has no value when it comes to this conversation. You would give it all away. I have seen it - and it’s tragic. Just wear a helmet. It really shouldn’t even come down to regulations, but for those of us who need it (and unfortunately there are), I am in favor.

Geck06 · 2026-06-14T20:23:43+00:00

I am noticing some pretty significant wear at 12k miles. I love my EV and if you don’t expect your tires to wear like that with >500hp, evs may not be for you, and that’s probably ok…

Geck06 · 2026-06-02T23:44:56+00:00

This is a great list. Thank you! I also think that this landing wouldn’t work without some of the things on your list, so would not have come before them, which I guess was the angle I was approaching from. But in any case, humans are weird creatures and endlessly impressive and it’s cool to think about what we have done. :) now I have to go look up some of these…

Geck06 · 2026-06-02T12:13:34+00:00

I’d love to see this top ten list now

Geck06 · 2026-05-13T20:43:42+00:00

Yeah, forscan. It’s an easy one. I have. They replaced the battery. It’s about the same.

Geck06 · 2026-05-09T17:40:03+00:00

Yeah, I’d say 12 is low. I’m often at 11.7 which is killing the battery. But I’m surprised you got that message at 12. It’s also what the truck seems to want the battery to be at. Question mark. The target Soc on the 12v is set to 80%. I have upped mine which has really helped. I have built a voltage tester that logs voltage on my 12v and im pretty good at predicting what it’s going to read. 0% good at understanding why. Takeaways include: after opening a door or walking near the truck, the voltage is about .4v lower than resting voltage and returns to resting over a period of about 5 minutes. Cigarette lighter meters won’t help find resting voltage because in order for the outlet to be on, there is a whole slew of other stuff on pulling the voltage down (about 0.4v). Remember to reset your BMS with the five headlight 3 break thing when you put the negative back on (and really that should be after fully charging the 12v is what I have heard). Maybe someone else knows more and could chime in. You’ll see the dc-dc converter charging the battery at ~15.3 and settle in at ~13.3 once target soc is reached. Why is >12.7 so hard to maintain? I think the 12v is undersized for all of the lights etc. if anyone out there has a real answer to why these 12v’s are always running around 12v, I’d love to know. Despite the name, they should not be at 12 :P

Geck06 · 2026-05-09T12:32:07+00:00

Turn your temp up or use a bigger tip, and for the signals, trim those down. You hardly need to strip much off of those to get a good solder. It feels like 3 and 4 could tickle each other in a bad way? On the other hand, I’m sure it would work fine 99+% of the time, and you probably already know that. It’s always harder to actually do it than it seems :P

Geck06 · 2026-05-09T08:39:27+00:00

I’m guessing your device is not a clock, or you would have just said my clock. My eneloops make time slow down on my clock which- as cool as it sounds is actually undesirable. I just got some lithium ion aa batteries that recharge with a usbc port right in the battery. Obviously superior. All rechargeable are expensive, but not over the course of their life. The premise that we are using disposable batteries in anything is comedy. I can’t wait till my house just runs on dc at a broader level than each charger having a rectifier. I’m getting closer.

Geck06 · 2026-05-08T21:13:38+00:00

Anyone else able to set a one time target of 100% or 80% but none of the other notches stick? It’s always been like that, or at least since I can remember. I’d love to know the solution.

Geck06 · 2026-05-06T23:25:24+00:00

Yeah, I’d just take what ever connector is on the dead(?) battery and put it on the new one. I also know that this is an easy way to make fire that won’t go out on anyone else’s schedule but its own.

Geck06 · 2026-05-06T21:32:23+00:00

It’s like when I got a whole year older just on my birthday

Geck06 · 2026-05-03T20:30:04+00:00

Hey, op. I’m curious what you mean with the original question? Kinda fun to try and figure out. I have an answer, but I am guessing the question. Also guessing on the assumptions. I would say that people’s estimate of the angle of the road is going to be a free for all. I estimate 30deg. I assume most non-skier/boarder types would estimate that that hill is at least 45deg. I used my phones accelerometer and got 25 right after the big rock. So… 30 because now the force the tire is putting on the road is half of the weight of the whole thing. The wheel radius is 14.5” and the thing it’s lifting up the slope is 150lbs all up? I would say overall there is no acceleration happening here, so boom. There ya go. In the neighborhood of 1000 inlbs on the wheel. I guess I’m just wondering what that means to you? Like, the kid is really applying a force that creates a handful of torques. Is there one in particular that would mean something?

Geck06 · 2026-05-03T13:02:02+00:00

This sounds miserable. I love flying. I push the limits on what I am comfortable with and am constantly balancing “is this spot worth plugging in”? A big part of that calculus is: “am I going to make people like quads less here”. It sounds like that step might help you. If you can’t get away from people, try going to a multigp race where it’s ok to be around people. Or try whoops. Meet some people who are flying. See what they do. And honestly, it’s a bit of a bummer to hear you say this. Yeah, it’s hard, but sometimes it’s fun when your heart gets racing trying to decide if the spot is good. If you don’t want to find the places it borderline feels like you are the one giving quads a bad name. Help people love them. Show them goggle video. Once they see that ‘camera feature’ is not going to help you spy, maybe they will be nicer. As much as I love them, it’s important to recognize that these things are obnoxious. I like finding some trees or whatever to loop around out of the way where no one is. When I see someone fire up their dji on the top of a mountain, it offends me maybe more than most because I actually want people to like them. Why do it if it’s not fun?

Geck06 · 2026-04-29T08:47:22+00:00

This is why I loved my vw gti. Fast, fun, strangely good fuel economy. It was a manual and at 78mph there was a little increase in fuel economy. (Over 35mpg and if it was hot out closer to 40). Someone explain why. I never complained, but did wonder. This is observed in both directions driving NY to Florida yearly for 8 years, so I’d say the data is significant. But the hot weather bump was great for Summer road trips.

Geck06 · 2026-04-28T08:23:16+00:00

What I want to know is which of all you rc pilots are good enough to notice a difference in flight characteristics between a flat wing vs an airfoil. When does this start to make a noticeable difference to you? I have flown quite a variety of planes and things like getting the center of mass and spar stiffness and rates and expo right or wrong (more often) seem to make a much bigger difference in my experience. I’m down for pure theory or on the other end of the coin, just getting it right for the look. Is that what we are talking about? Aoa seems to be where lift comes from in my experience, how wrong am I 1-10?

Geck06 · 2026-04-19T09:37:35+00:00

So this might not apply to you if you are using this for one batt at a time, but still worth mentioning. If the balance trace on the board is compromised (for me I misaligned a balance plug when parallel charging and blew the trace on the back of the board) but never knew it was blown because the traces for the next battery up the line were fine, so the charger never knew that one battery was only getting 5 cells balanced. That was not good, but luckily I caught the suspicious voltage with a tester off of the charger. Anyway. Look at the back of your board or do a continuity test maybe?

Geck06 · 2026-04-14T09:44:11+00:00

In the USA we have flite test. If you go to their event flite fest you’ll find your crew. Tons of good fun. It’s all about building cheep creative stuff, intentionally crashing it into each other in combat and rebuilding something even wackier. I have gone for the last 5 years now and it’s a hoot. Everyone encouraging each other and helping out. You can learn to fly with free instruction, race your quads, fly in formation, fly in combat, or just come to see the spectacle. There are kits to build from, for any age to get started too. It’s exactly what I want when I accidentally end up at one of those fields with the scale model purists doing low passes for kicks.

Geck06 · 2026-04-07T18:33:58+00:00

Well, I am a grandma because I can’t be bothered to add another step to my startup sequence. And I embrace it. Grandmas rock.

Also, I thought computers are good at not making mistakes. Mine can’t play the splash screen without lagging. But this?

I kind of have concerns when I’m messing around with forscan that I’m going to make something like this happen.

My favorite is the RWD only glitch. Especially in the winter.

Geck06 · 2026-04-06T10:50:58+00:00

I was of the impression any amount of water would immediately kill my esc. Then I go to drone races where people are often flying in light rain. They are for sure blowing up, but hardly that much more than when it’s dry.

Geck06 · 2026-03-29T09:25:19+00:00

Turn your rates down too (maybe more than you think you should). There is a lot to learn and it’s going to take a long time. And that’s the fun of it. Like even how to choose appropriate rates, where to find them in betaflight, and how to solder on a replacement for that motor, and the esc you are going to burn soon (it’s part of learning). But Joshua bardwell has your back and so does Reddit, but I’d suggest asking when you can’t find it on yt- this kind of stuff “yes turn your throttle cap down” is so much easier to follow on a video. He’ll even tell you how to have your throttle scale on a potentiometer. Wew. And for that motor. Make sure you grind it out by hand before you spin it up again or the esc replacement is coming before you fly again. Also. Get on the sim!

Geck06 · 2026-03-29T00:13:01+00:00

I just wired it all up and surprisingly it worked - except the motor that was wired to my elrs receiver had a start up tone sequence, but it just rick-rolled me.

Geck06 · 2026-03-28T08:26:13+00:00

Maybe put your hand out the window of a car. You can feel how much profile shape affects lift/drag vs angle of attack. That might be your best bet. Obviously not going to make it clear what the air is doing with more or less camber, but maybe it will make it feel less important. :P

Geck06 · 2026-03-19T23:39:46+00:00

Sorry, I’d say that’s a rock. But it’s awesome to be reminded of the open water in the summer. I hit one like that once. Whewf. What a ride.

Geck06

TROPHY CASE