April 2010. I'd had a string of classics, but needed something the family could enjoy. Driving home my first thought was 'what have I done?', then ' hey this drives like a big 2cv' , followed by 'oh Marmite, I can't take a roundabout at the same speed as my 2cv!!' . It's a Devon, and the black plastic strip around the base of the roof made a bid for freedom on the dual carriageway. By the time I could stop it was dragging along behind. Should have taken the hint. Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk
September 2017. Driving home from Southampton , i also thought 'what have i done', mirrors kept flapping shut if i went over 40, finding 1st & 2nd gear was pot luck, near home realised clutch was slipping. Overall though sunny day and van looked great. Since then it's been a very steep air cooled learning curve, but overall great fun.
Just after I bought it, I'd had the Beetle for a while but was enjoying the camping as much as going to the festivals in the Beetle. I was doubly surprised at how my two boys enjoyed the shows too, I don't seem them often, they live with their Mum, so it seemed a great way to make some memories with them before they got too old. Anyway, my mate, who own a bus and knew many of the pitfalls, was really generous with his time, we went to look at it twice, then a third to pay and collect it and a fourth to really pay and collect it when I had internet banking problems . I'd been for a ride in it, but the first time behind the wheel was an experience in itself, inability to find second gear seems to be a reoccurring theme .
Expecting your bus to snap into second without giving the synchro rings time to do their thing seems to be a recurring theme.
It doesn't look the same. When I sold one of mine the geezer could NOT get second. He was very rude, cursing and swearing at the crap box. Eventually, just short of telling him to do one, I shoved him out of the seat and demonstrated. 2nd-3rd-2nd all day long, no problem at all, straight into gear every time by simple holding the gear stick lightly for half a second instead of trying to ram it into gear. I tell ye, it's a common mistake.
Well on a practical level, I agree, on the Bug second can be stiff to get when the box is cold, on the Bay it needs a gentle tickling You just need to get used to it and take it slowly
First time at the wheel of one was 2003, before that my last rides as a passenger were in the early eighties. Went to look at one for sale through a mate of a mate. It was rusty, the gears were hard to find, it ran like a dog with three legs and I couldn’t see out the steamy windows it had so much moisture in it and no heating. Pretty awful. Next one was for sale on an army base. Took it out on the M3. Lulled by the ride which was somewhat akin to being on a boat in a gentle swell my fairly new girlfriend (later missus, now ex) fell asleep* in the back so that pretty much sealed the deal. (*’power save mode’ I later discovered was a trick she could perform anywhere in any position in any transport situation once moving, mainly to conserve energy by automatically temporarily switching off her massive brain when not required - When she was thinking hard it was a bit like a van den graf generator in reverse, drawing in energy from any source like a black hole in space, causing national grid brown-outs, lighting to dim and trains to slow down, not to mention solar flare storms toward earth and deflection of satellites and small planets from their orbits....). Broke down on the motorway on the test drive, fixed the loose coil contact on the hard shoulder with traffic belting by, made it back to the base. Missus then woke up. Bought it anyway. Subsequent trips became a repeat of the above with me driving for many hours while she sat fast asleep with feet on the dashboard and legs akimbo only to wake when the bus reaches its destination. Luckily the breaking down bit wasn’t so common. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I often 'double de clutch' 3rd to 2nd gear if time. But as you say, if you 'feel' it in gently (ooer! ) at low speed, no problem.
