How To: Accelerate?

[Fat Charlie]

The lane blockers are predictable and can be worked. I've got some horribly concealed on ramps to deal with- you don't know if someone's coming up them until they're right there because of hills and curves. If I'm not in traffic there's no problem and I can move left as needed. If I'm in traffic I move left no matter what- it's safer to leave room just in case than to not be able to leave room and find out you have to.

I have a set point in the road where I want to be in the left, and I'm watching for a gap coming up as I approach my point. If the gap comes early and there won't be another one, I move left early. What's really funny is that the lane blockers aren't expecting that move until we're on top of the on ramp, so moving over is easier when they're not ready to block.

Despite their desire to pin people in the right lane, most of them seem to agree that it's unsafe to approach those on ramps in the right lane because they almost never cut into the right to pass me.

[TheManVan]

Cool so in other words you can pull hard up to 2500 in each gear?

[Fat Charlie]

Depending on the slope, traffic and cargo, I pull hard until I think I can upshift and hit the next gear with enough revs to keep accelerating. It's more of a seat of the pants feeling than a set number.

[PaleMelanesian]

Agreed. It's easier to say, "shift at x rpm", but the better approach is to shift when you'll land at the right rpm in the next gear. That varies with each shift, though.

[serialk11r]

One thing to remember is that spinning up the stock flywheel is like accelerating a 150-200lb mass in 1st gear, and that adds up! So shift out of 1st earlier if you can so the drop in rpm doesn't represent as much lost energy. In the rest of the gears I push the engine to 2500-3000 depending on situation.

@PaleMelanesian, Honda's "poorly chosen gearing" is still a lot better than Toyota's poorly chosen gearing. 2200rpm is 40mph flat for me :P I think I say this every time though lol, and how you get such good mpg with the 5 speed transmission that the penny pinchers at Honda gave you is beyond impressive.

[PaleMelanesian]

One, I have a commute that doesn't require sustained high speeds.
Two, I'm stupidly dedicated and refuse to give up.

[ever_green]

With my subaru and it's rather short gears it's fairly impossible to short shift. As soon as I get on the throttle a bit in first gear the RPMs hit 2000-2500.

However I noticed how I accelerate has far less effect on my daily consumption than how I decelerate. I just don't use brakes. The whole 25 km drive home in 20km/h average speed maybe I tap the brakes lightly here and there. In regular city driving with light traffic I accelerate to 3000rpm getting up to 70kmh with gears 1-3 and then I drop to neutral and coast down to 50kmh. But my next pulse is followed by a fifth gear acceleration at 1500rpm instead. This gives me about 30mpg on a stretch of road. I can get same or worst results if I use all gears off the red light but at a slower arrival time.

[SentraSE-R]

Here's how to determine the best engine load for accelerating.