Shifting Gears Without the Jerk: Building Smooth Transitions

Now that we’ve conquered the dreaded jerk of the initial start, the next challenge is to change gears without a jerk or grind while the car is moving. The secret to this is not in watching your speedometer to determine when to shift, nor in muscling the shifter into gear. It’s in shifting when the engine tells you to. Go find an open stretch of pavement and accelerate slowly until the engine starts to “tug.” You’ll know it when you feel it. It’s somewhere between 2000 and 2500 rpm in most cars, but it’s more about feeling than hearing. Press in the clutch, ease off the gas a bit, slide the shifter back into second gear, and slowly ease the clutch out while you gently give it some gas. This should be a smooth, seamless process with no jerk. The most common mistake here is that of “popping the clutch” and letting the car jerk into gear.

This happens when you pop the clutch out too quickly after shifting into gear, and it usually results in your car bucking forward or the engine stalling. This typically happens because you’re rushing your footwork while still concentrating on getting the shifter into gear. The cure is to slow down. After shifting into the new gear, wait for about half a second before slowly bringing the clutch out while slowly adding a bit of throttle. Listen for when the engine begins to “drop” as you bring the clutch out, and add just enough gas to steady it. Do this over and over again at low speed until you’ve conquered the jerk.

Do it in a series of short circles, rather than trying a long stretch of road. Find an empty parking lot where you can do a loop that requires four or five shifts up and down. Each time around the loop, come to a stop, shift into first gear, ease out the clutch, and pull away as you did above. Shift into second gear once you’ve gained enough speed, wait a few seconds, then shift into third gear if you have time, and then shift back down to second and first gears while slowing down. Spend about 20 minutes practicing your upshifts. Then stop for a few minutes to stretch and clear your head before doing your downshifts.

The downshift is a bit trickier in that you’re moving faster than the next gear wants you to, so you’ll need to give it a little blip of the gas to help it catch up before easing out the clutch. The alternative is to grind into gear, or to cause the car to jerk violently as the engine “loads up.” Most new drivers simply throw the lever into gear, pop the clutch, and hope for the best. Instead, press the clutch, slow down, shift into gear, give it a little blip of gas to bring the revs up to where they need to be, and slowly ease out the clutch. The rev-match helps the car shift smoothly into gear. If you still find it’s jerky, go back to practicing the “clutch-out” while sitting still: clutch in, shift into gear, rev-match, clutch out. This gets you used to the clutch and gas without having to coordinate with the brake and the motion of the car.

Try to keep your practice sessions to 30 or 40 minutes. You’ll find you start to get distracted toward the end of that time. Concentrate on each shift, and think about whether it was smoother than the last one. Could you hear the engine protesting a bit, or was it smooth and quiet? With short practice sessions, you’ll find that you get quite good at shifting gears in a short amount of time. Practice in the same place each time so you can judge your improvement. Soon you’ll be shifting like a pro, and you won’t even think about it as you drive around.