I’ve driven manual for years and STILL don’t understand why you need to change gears.

Question

I get that low gears > more power but low speed. I get that high gears >low power but high speed.

But can someone give me the brain dead intuition of why you need to change gear “sizes”? A single sentence if possible.

I’ve tried Googling it but they always use a bike example. I’ve never ridden a bike. Or they start talking about ratios and it just goes over my head.

In: 0

Answer 1

Just imagine pushing a boulder up a hill. It requires more energy to push a rock up the hill by yourself than it does to push it up with 5 other people.

Higher gears = more people