Viewing 32 posts - 41 through 72 (of 72 total)
  • Why do people give distances in km?
  • cheekyboy
    Free Member

    I despise decimalisation, its bland and is the measurement of the totalitarian !

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    The Canadians also use both metric and imperial.

    simons_nicolai-uk
    Free Member

    because mountain bikers are forward thinking progressives not backward looking little englanders

    maybe

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    cheekyboy
    Free Member

    because mountain bikers are forward thinking progressives not backward looking little englanders

    maybe

    Speak for yourself mate 🙂

    aracer
    Free Member

    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.

    thomthumb
    Free Member

    i was born with everything being metric – other than road signs. mm, m km makes sense to me. yards, groats and furlongs is nonsense.

    Spin
    Free Member

    Imperial = dark ages nonsense.

    That said, I cannot understand a bike weight in Kg.

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    OS Maps is why.
    And miles/lbs/stones/furlongs etc is just old skool.
    Apart from Knots, as they are cool.

    cheekyboy
    Free Member

    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 ?

    toppers3933
    Free Member

    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.

    johnners
    Free Member

    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!

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    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.

    trout
    Free Member

    just poured my self a 568.261485 millilitre cheers

    Amtico is made in imperial but sold in metric

    mogrim
    Full Member

    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.

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    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?

    danielgroves
    Free Member

    KMs are easy to look at on an OS map. Miles are a pain in the arse.

    SaxonRider
    Full Member

    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.

    cheekyboy
    Free Member

    Eh?

    1 mile
    = 8 furlongs
    = 320 rods
    = 1760 yards
    = 5280 feet
    = 63360 inches

    Where’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 !!

    number18
    Free Member

    It really annoys me when I see the date in month-day-year format. Not sure why!

    kimbers
    Full Member

    miles are just crap and illogical

    aracer
    Free Member

    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.

    stavromuller
    Free Member

    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?

    stavromuller
    Free Member

    Double post

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    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?

    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?

    oldnpastit
    Full Member

    a mile is a roman measurement definded a is a thousand paces

    That’s the kind of thing that makes STW totally amazing!

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    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 prefix 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 😀

    orangeboy
    Free Member

    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

    Edric64
    Free Member

    My weight in stones and pounds
    Bike size in inches

    kennyp
    Free Member

    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.

    DrJ
    Full Member

    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.

    kennyp
    Free Member

    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.

    downshep
    Full Member

    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.

Viewing 32 posts - 41 through 72 (of 72 total)

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