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When everything in this country is done on miles? In happy with either, just curious to see where people get it from. Is it an engineering thing? Or do people love the continent and want to continue the vibe?
Not everything in the UK is done in miles, all arms of our military use metric, so most ex-forces bods will too. Not sure if this applies to police.
Because 10k sounds better than 6.2 miles when you're trying to impress people down the pub/at work etc. 🙄
The Rules #24
Ahhh, no more explanation needed
Oops, double post.
I've used km for hiking for decades - ever since the OS decided to publish 1:50K maps. It was only natural to continue that when mountain biking.
I often use miles for road biking though as all road signs are currently in imperial units.
Maybe because not everyone lives in the UK
Os maps are in km and when using with bike computer and compass, km is better.
Once i get home from shredding the gnarr and the mrs asks how far, i do the 5/8 mental calculation and say 'its about a mile and a half,love'!
Toadally stokerized.. and now stocked back up on biscuits and crisps! 🙂
Swapped recently, also gone to KG for weight, much prefer it.
Everything should be metric.
Cos it makes it sound like they have done more
I've taken to saying 'klicks' cuz it sounds cooler... 8)
more importantly, why do some people (me included) measure short distances in meters but longer ones in miles.
They're members of a French sleeper cell.
more importantly, why do some people (me included) measure short distances in meters but longer ones in miles.
I do this, but only because in 1980s Scotland we weren't taught anything about Imperial measurements at school. And, anyway, metric measurements just make more sense.
more importantly, why do some people (me included) measure short distances in meters but longer ones in miles.
The smaller imperial units are confusing for most born in the 70s or later. I mix mine up but switched to km for cycling when became a roadie to fit in with the pros better....
Still seem to be a lot of people using metric to measure their fork travel, and imperial for the rear wheel travel.
That's just so wrong.
Metric just makes more sense.
It's been the primary system taught in UK schools since at least the early 70s.
There's no need to remember all those different amounts like:
1760 yards in a mile
36 inches in a yard
versus
1000 metres in a kilometre
100 centimetres in a metre
The Rules
#24
Yes. This.
Metric just makes more sense.
It's been the primary system taught in UK schools since at least the early 70s.
There's no need to remember all those different amounts like:
I was at primary school in the early 70s and seemed to remember imperial .I still convert metric back ,price of fuel to gallons kms to miles on Audax rides ,my weight and height etc
I was at primary school in the early 70s and we were taught metric measurement, but my memory suggests only for small numbers. As a result I went through a period of referring to 4 foot 10 centimetres.
Same with weight 3 pounds and 50 grammes.
Now being an architect we have the great amusement that the Brits adopted millimetres as the primary system for construction whereas the rest of Europe adopted metres and centimetres. Studying in the US in the early 90s I quite like decimal imperial!
It is weird how we have this schizophrenic dual system. I think in imperial but convert to metric to do calculations, then convert back again so I can understand the results.
It was 1974 when is became compulsory in UK schools according to [url= http://www.metric.org.uk/education-policy ]the Metric Association[/url] (I bet that's a fun club to be in!)
I'm happy with both, but usually use miles to match with road signs
The OS National Grid is metric.
Makes everything really easy when measuring stuff on a UK map.
I was at school during the transition from metric to imperial - started school in 1971.
I use;
Body Weight: stones and lbs
Doing recipes and weighing small stuff: Grammes
Distance: Miles
Measuring stuff with a ruler: Cm
Working with maps: KM but with a mental conversion to miles to work out how long it will take to walk/ride it.
Height: Feet and inches or cm dependign on the age of the person I'm talking to.
Car 'gas mileage' - mpg but with a mental effort to convert to miles per litre to work out how much it's actually costing me based on pump prices.
it's bloody mess, frankly.
Ha ha, it's a total mess, go to most other countries and they laugh at our system, for them there is little use in using miles.
I've taken to saying 'klicks' cuz it sounds cooler...
+1
I also like to call the car park "the L.Zee" and refer to red socks as "Charlie".
more importantly, why do some people (me included) measure short distances in meters but longer ones in miles.
Well I might measure in metric (usually), but I'll quite often refer to short distances in inches rather than cm - the shop might call that bit of wood 100 by 50, but it's actually a 2x4 (and I'll refer to it as such if actually speaking to a person). As for distances in km, as mentioned above, that makes sense for anything involving a map - hence I have my GPS set to km (though the computer on my road bike is in miles).
I always used to do height in feet despite using km for distance (when off-road), but have now made that conversion too.
Most engineering is metric. I find judging distances in metres/km far easier. Also previously mentioned OS maps in km.
wwwas - you use exactly the same choice of units as I do! Must be an age thing.
You think our systems messy .... I give you - the decimized foot.
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Crazy oilfield yanks !
My OH is an engineer and it's quite easy to set him on a full blown rant if americans use imperial measurements on something he's working on. He always uses km although he might just allow a 10 mile race to slip through.
I prefer miles for some reason. Habit mainly I think as I use metric for anything shorter than a mile.
You think our systems messy .... I give you - the decimized foot.
That is an abomination.
You think our systems messy .... I give you - the decimized foot.
Perfect.
I need one of those 🙂
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I prefer long car journeys in km. It's quicker Innit.
Got a decimilized foot tape in bottom drawer of my tool box from when i worked in california... Its the one i give newcomers to my house who require to measure something 🙂
Im cruel arnt it..... Had to move it from the measuring devices drawer after falling foul to it my self toomany times
The French took a shot at decimalising time, which seems sensible to me. [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_Calendar ]French Calendar [/url]
It's like having a second language, no?
Was riding with someone recently who quoted his bike's weight in lbs, and the ride in km.
I despise decimalisation, its bland and is the measurement of the totalitarian !
The Canadians also use both metric and imperial.
because mountain bikers are forward thinking progressives not backward looking little englanders
maybe
because mountain bikers are forward thinking progressives not backward looking little englandersmaybe
Speak for yourself mate 🙂
Got a decimilized foot tape in bottom drawer of my tool box from when i worked in california... Its the one i give newcomers to my house who require to measure something
Genuine LOL - that is cruel!
How many on here would give weight of bike parts in grams, but complete bike in lbs? I have to admit I do tend to do the conversion to lbs, but have moved on to measure complete weight in kg.
i was born with everything being metric - other than road signs. mm, m km makes sense to me. yards, groats and furlongs is nonsense.
Imperial = dark ages nonsense.
That said, I cannot understand a bike weight in Kg.
OS Maps is why.
And miles/lbs/stones/furlongs etc is just old skool.
Apart from Knots, as they are cool.
Why are imperial measures nonsense, its simple everything i halved !
If halving things is nonsense how do you justify dividing or multiplying by ten as sensical ?
i used to work for a builders merchant. everyone would ask for timber/plasterboard/sheet materials in feet/inches but the computer system only listed them in their metric sizes. took me a while to be able to immediately convert between the two.
i tend to use miles for most things. mainly because its the unit of distance that is used on road signs and my car. its also what most people i know use.
It used to almost invariably be bike weight in pounds, fork travel in mm, rear suspension travel in inches along with distance in miles and height gain in metres.
It's slowly getting more consistent, but tbh I don't have any bother understanding the mix. I'm ok with pounds, shillings and pence too but that is rarely a help with anything!
With the exception of some of the more arcane imperial stuff, I can (and do) work quite happily in both. Bikes in particular are a weird and crazy mix of both.
My Mum works almost exclusively in imperial.
just poured my self a 568.261485 millilitre cheers
Amtico is made in imperial but sold in metric
I use metric but then I live in Spain. The only imperial measure I have any affection for is the pint. Which is perfection itself.
Why are imperial measures nonsense, its simple everything i halved !
Eh?
1 mile
= 8 furlongs
= 320 rods
= 1760 yards
= 5280 feet
= 63360 inches
Where's the halving there?
KMs are easy to look at on an OS map. Miles are a pain in the arse.
I like to be fluent in both, but I grew up exclusively with kilometres, so tend to think in them.
If you say that something is 3kms away, I can picture exactly how far that is. If, however, you say that something is 3 miles away, I have to exert mental effort which I prefer to keep in reserve for other tasks.
Eh?1 mile
= 8 furlongs
= 320 rods
= 1760 yards
= 5280 feet
= 63360 inchesWhere's the halving there?
1mile
= 2 x 1/2 mile
= 4 x 1/4 mile
Anything less than 1/4 mile is not worth worrying about !
Fact !!
It really annoys me when I see the date in month-day-year format. Not sure why!
miles are just crap and illogical
It really annoys me when I see the date in month-day-year format. Not sure why!
Well of course the correct format is year-month-day, so in theory the septics are halfway there.
How much does a gallon of water weigh in pounds? I know instantly that five litres weigh five kilograms and will fit into a container larger than 50cm x 10cm x 10cm. Can anybody instantly tell me the minimum size of a container I would need for a gallon?
Double post
Why are imperial measures nonsense, its simple everything i halved !
Eh?1 mile
= 8 furlongs
= 320 rods
= 1760 yards
= 5280 feet
= 63360 inchesWhere's the halving there?
Well the furlongs and rods ones are obvious in terms of being divisions, as is the relation between feet and inches. Miles, rods and furlongs are all part of the same measurements and units for measuring travel and landscape. Imperial units can have different sources though, so the lumpy maths dividing miles into feet or inches is because they're two different systems - one for measuring journeys and another for dimensions of objects. "Miles" and "Feet" have different sources - a mile is a roman measurement definded a is a thousand paces and a pace was 5 roman feet so a mile would be 5000ft, but the 'foot' measurement used in roman times wasn't the same size as our modern 'foot' and the modern foot/yard/inch system is for measuring on a smaller scale so the mismatch doesn't matter. Its mathematically neat that mm add up neatly to km but for most purposed mm don't matter in describing journeys and we don't need to think about suspension travel in terms of fractions of km
How much does a gallon of water weigh in pounds? I know instantly that five litres weigh five kilograms and will fit into a container larger than 50cm x 10cm x 10cm. Can anybody instantly tell me the minimum size of a container I would need for a gallon?
But why is water important? What size metric container will I need for a decagram of custard?
a mile is a roman measurement definded a is a thousand paces
That's the kind of thing that makes STW totally amazing!
Its mathematically neat that mm add up neatly to km but for most purposed mm don't matter in describing journeys and we don't need to think about suspension travel in terms of fractions of km
Ah but you don't, because metric is neater than that.
Lengths are magnitudes of metres and weights magnitudes of grams - the [url= http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix ]prefix[/url] tells you what magnitude to use.
You never have to remember how many units make up a larger unit (12, 14, 1760) because (as long as you know your milli from your kilo) it's obvious.
Hence if I see a sign that says "Visitor Centre 500yards" then I don't really know what that is in miles off the top of my head, but a sign saying "Visitor Centre 500metres" is easy.
a mile is a roman measurement definded a is a thousand paces
Early metric?
But why is water important? What size metric container will I need for a decagram of custard?
Is it any easier to work that out in fluid ounces?
Anyway day to day I tend to use more water than custard 😀
I use a mix of both
Miles on the road bike same as if I drive anywhere
Bike weights lb
Small parts gram
My weight lb
Off road walking or mtb km to match os grid
Frame sizes
Road in cm
Mtb inches
And cycle tyres well that's a whole other world
My weight in stones and pounds
Bike size in inches
Imperial is far more fun than metric. Of course it makes no logical sense, but neither does life much of the time. Metric is dull.
This is the absolute bane of my life at work (oil industry). Some things are measured in feet, some in metres, some in both. You have to be constantly on the lookout for stuff being off by a factor of 3-ish.
I measure mountain bike rides in miles but road rides in kilometres. Rule 24. Same reason I drink from water bottles on the mountain bike and bidons on the road bike.
Took the ferry to Ireland a few years ago and drove from Belfast to Dublin. As we crossed the border the first road sign suggested Dublin was actually getting further away. Took a moment to realise the distances were listed in km. Speed limit signs on the same road were still in mph though. Mental.