Demise of the handbrake.

[Drago]

Every time I pull up at traffic lights on a slight incline I’m dazzled by a sea of red brake lights. Am I the only old fashioned driver who has a working handbrake?

That's one of my pet hates.

 

[stephec]

A handbrake only has one function: to do skids.

If you're not going to do skids, then just get a button handbrake or like some people have mentioned, an auto handbrake which doesn't require any button at all (which is my preference too).

This.

With a manual handbrake you can have fun on Tesco's car park in the snow. 😂

 

[stephec]

Every time I pull up at traffic lights on a slight incline I’m dazzled by a sea of red brake lights. Am I the only old fashioned driver who has a working handbrake?

Same here, it's far more relaxing to stick it in neutral and put the handbrake on.

 

[markemark]

My ev does this automatically. Calls itself auto hold. When i come to a stop the handbrake auto engages. Disengages as soon as I hit the accelerator.

 

[Animo]

Personally I really like my automatic handbrake and think it's one of the best innovations in modern cars.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Same here, it's far more relaxing to stick it in neutral and put the handbrake on.

In mine it is more relaxing to haev the "Brake Hold" switched on
then you just pull up using the brake and stop

the system will take car of the rest until you press the accelerator to pull off

the car is just not designed for you to use the handbrake in that situation


Oh - and the autostar/stop system doesn't engage if you have the handbrake on - I have no idea why

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Every time I pull up at traffic lights on a slight incline I’m dazzled by a sea of red brake lights. Am I the only old fashioned driver who has a working handbrake?

That’ll be all those people who are either too lazy to apply the mechanical handbrake, or the even lazier people with auto-hold who can’t be bothered to press a button. Auto-hold on my car keeps the brake lights on even though my foot isn’t on the brake pedal. Pressing the *handbrake button engages the handbrake and puts off the brake lights. It’s only courtesy not to dazzle those behind me. And it automatically disengages as soon as I touch the accelerator.

*(I noticed that as well as switching off my brake lights, it turns off my DRLs during the day, or dims them to half during darkness.)

 

[Vapin' Joe]

You're not a real man till you've driven with no handbrake. I did nearly a year in a Marina like that after the handbrake bracket parted company with the transmission tunnel. A three quid tip to the MoT tester who operated from a garage underneath the viaduct in Silvertown saw it issued with a fresh certificate. My refined clutch control and speed of shifting my foot from brake to gas kept me safe. I did eventually pop rivet the housing back on.

Those were the days.

 

[Profpointy]

Seems to me like a load of extra electric wizardry to go wrong, to solve a problem I don't have. I'd be just as worried about the car applying the brake all by itself by mistake as by it failing. What happens if the battery is flat? Can you still push the car if necessary? Presumably it fails "on" rather tha releasing itself.

By way of experience, my motorcycle had a cut out so you couldn't start it unless the clutch was disengaged (not wholly silly) but the switch got dodgy such that you couldn't start it at all.
I kind of agree with the side-stand engine cutout as I have seen, and flashed lights / beeped at, a motorcyclist riding with his stand down, though didn't see him come a cropper at the first left turn.

 

[Profpointy]

You're not a real man till you've driven with no handbrake. I did nearly a year in a Marina like that after the handbrake bracket parted company with the transmission tunnel. A three quid tip to the MoT tester who operated from a garage underneath the viaduct in Silvertown saw it issued with a fresh certificate. My refined clutch control and speed of shifting my foot from brake to gas kept me safe. I did eventually pop rivet the housing back on.

Those were the days.

Luxury !

How about no clutch ? Had a recurring clutch problem, eventually resolved by a new master cylinder. Repeated bleeding, and even replacing the seals failed to fix it. Got used to driving without the clutch. Changing gear isn't too bad but stop-start traffic, and especially hill starts are tricky. You have to turn it off, then start it in first gear and it bunny-hops away. Took its toll on the starter motor and synchromesh so subsequently had to double-declutch once I'd fixed the problem. I later found the mashed up bronze synchro rings in the bottom of the gearbox after a later rebuild for a different reason

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Luxury !

How about no clutch ?

Been there, done that. I had use of a firms car, a little Fiat Sceicento which was in the habit of snapping clutch cables, normally when you were at the furthest point from base. Exactly the same experience as you, you quickly learnt how to change gear, but when you had to stop it was a pain. Luckily the traffic in this part of the world is very light so I mostly got away with it.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I had a Ford Falcon in Australia that had a dash mounted handbrake. It didn't work very well. And such a bad design. Pulling straight back from in front of you does not offer the best mechanical advantage

 

[hobo]

I had a Cortina 1600e that had a handbrake underneath the dashboard.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I remember driving a Renault 10 in Canada
it was on a farm and quite remote

but it did have a perfectly good clutch

but some brakes would have been nice

mind you the tractor we used also had no brakes - and no clutch
you just rammed it into the gear you wanted when it was stopped and then stayed in it

stopping the Renault was difficult
stopping the tractor when it was towing 2 trucks was a great exercise in forward planning

 

[Drago]

You lightweights. I once drove a car that had no wheels. Corners were interesting.