...let me add that "riding" clutch is when you press the clutch pedal in, but not fully flooring it to disengage nor letting it go to engage. It's like holding the car stationary on an uphill by using gas/clutch. That's riding, and will burn your clutch.

 

no it wont. You can leave it in neutral with clutch engaged or flooring it while in gear and rev without affecting clutch disk.

 

ahh ok, thats what i was trying to get to, aight thanks for clearing that up

 

Daniel L hit it. It saves the synchros. If your synchros are already shot then it will be the thing that lets you downshift from say 5th to 2nd when slowing for a sharp corner. I got very used to double clutching because I had a car with bad 2nd gear synchros. It takes a bit of practice but I consider it to be part of what makes driving a stick shift fun. If I didn't want to work with the car I'd just have an auto.

 

Will downshifting w/o double clutching mess up the synchros? Right now I only double clutch when downshifting to first gear. My old CRX had worn out synchros and I had to double clutch each gear when downshifting.

 

synchros are there so you don't have to double-clutch. Sure, you could ignore the fact that you paid for a trans with synchros. But unless you are intentionally abusing your trans or truly an idiot when it comes to driving, the synchros will last longer than you own the car. At some point they will need replacing, but in most cases some other part of the trans fails first, such as a shift fork, bearings, or a shaft.

 

[QUOTE=GT_2003,Sep 29 2007, 04:35 PM]synchros are there so you don't have to double-clutch.

 

For the most part no. Down shifting a single gear shouldn't be an issue at all. The one that's hard on the gears would be going from 5th to 2nd or 6th to 2nd. Even then odds are the synchros will be fine for the life of the car.

However, if they synchros aren't fine or are just borderline then it really helps. In my old Corolla a 3rd to 2nd shift wasn't a big deal but I would frequently get grinding if I went from 5th at say 45mph to 2nd. This something I will commonly do when driving in town. I'll cruse in top gear then as I slow to turn right on a side street I'll shift into 2nd. That puts me in 2nd before I actually turn. I'll have the clutch in this whole time (but for the double clutch action). Now I can turn into the side street, rev match a bit and pull away. With some cars I've owned (the Corolla included) it was faster to double clutch rather than wait for the synchros to do their job. However, with newer cars with good synchros it generally is a non-issue.

Now that I have the habit I see no reason to break it. I enjoy completing a good double clutch, rev matched down shift so why not do it?

 

OK, that's what I thought and looks like my friends are wrong! I never downshift more than one gear at a time and I double clutch when downshifting two gears.