brick
07-28-2006, 11:10 PM
Ever go through a really wild few days where stuff just starts clicking? 'Cause that's how the last week has felt for me. In the grand scheme of things my numbers don't mean much, but I'd like to try to capture the important stuff in one post since all my thoughts are currently scattered across four or five threads.
Playing with routes and driving 'out of my element'
Still being pretty new at FE driving, it's pretty tough to know where my real strengths and weaknesses are. The first of my little realizations was that I had been driving the same exact routes for so long that there was no reason for my FE to keep improving. If you do the same thing day after day after day, you get the exact same numbers in turn! Switching my commute from highway only to a mix of highway and back roads has done wonders for my technique, forcing me to handle situations that a highway never presents.
The other benefit of playing with maps is that I just happened to find a much shorter way to get where I needed to go. Humans are creatures of habit and it really pays to break out of those habits and look for better ways to do things. In this case the payoff was a guaranteed reduction in daily fuel consumption.
FAS Good!
Learning when and where to cut the engine has been a slow, ugly, somewhat comical process. There were times when I figured there was no point. But forcing (fasing?) my way down that learning curve has resulted in some pretty significant improvement. I think it just goes to show how ridiculously inefficient IC engines are that so much FE can be gained from a relatively short distance covered without it running. Suddenly I find myself HS P&Ging down the highway and seeing numbers that I once thought impssible, using a technique that I once thought crazy.
Let 'em go
Bad mojo is everywhere in varying forms and intensity. This can be a problem for FE drivers due to our general reluctance to stomp on the go pedal, which can be a lot like a "Kick Me" sign on the rear bumper. The best way to deal with this is prevention: recognize the driving techniques that might be especially irritating to a follower and minimize their impact when necessary. Pleasing everyone is impossible, but saving yourself some aggravation by letting others pass or keeping a more even pace can improve a drive dramatically. This counts double (maybe triple) for people like me, who deal extremely badly with being the target of road rage. I wish I could ignore the testosterone jockeys completely, but there's something about being screamed at that just eats away at my soul. He can dig his own grave but I want to be left out of it.
What's more, taking a few moments to let a line of traffic go ahead has allowed for miles of subsequent pressure-free driving and the improved FE that goes along with that kind of freedom. Well worth it!
**EDIT**
Wayne, saw your comment about blasphemous idling and loss of momentum. I'll see what I can do about that ;)
Playing with routes and driving 'out of my element'
Still being pretty new at FE driving, it's pretty tough to know where my real strengths and weaknesses are. The first of my little realizations was that I had been driving the same exact routes for so long that there was no reason for my FE to keep improving. If you do the same thing day after day after day, you get the exact same numbers in turn! Switching my commute from highway only to a mix of highway and back roads has done wonders for my technique, forcing me to handle situations that a highway never presents.
The other benefit of playing with maps is that I just happened to find a much shorter way to get where I needed to go. Humans are creatures of habit and it really pays to break out of those habits and look for better ways to do things. In this case the payoff was a guaranteed reduction in daily fuel consumption.
FAS Good!
Learning when and where to cut the engine has been a slow, ugly, somewhat comical process. There were times when I figured there was no point. But forcing (fasing?) my way down that learning curve has resulted in some pretty significant improvement. I think it just goes to show how ridiculously inefficient IC engines are that so much FE can be gained from a relatively short distance covered without it running. Suddenly I find myself HS P&Ging down the highway and seeing numbers that I once thought impssible, using a technique that I once thought crazy.
Let 'em go
Bad mojo is everywhere in varying forms and intensity. This can be a problem for FE drivers due to our general reluctance to stomp on the go pedal, which can be a lot like a "Kick Me" sign on the rear bumper. The best way to deal with this is prevention: recognize the driving techniques that might be especially irritating to a follower and minimize their impact when necessary. Pleasing everyone is impossible, but saving yourself some aggravation by letting others pass or keeping a more even pace can improve a drive dramatically. This counts double (maybe triple) for people like me, who deal extremely badly with being the target of road rage. I wish I could ignore the testosterone jockeys completely, but there's something about being screamed at that just eats away at my soul. He can dig his own grave but I want to be left out of it.
What's more, taking a few moments to let a line of traffic go ahead has allowed for miles of subsequent pressure-free driving and the improved FE that goes along with that kind of freedom. Well worth it!
**EDIT**
Wayne, saw your comment about blasphemous idling and loss of momentum. I'll see what I can do about that ;)