Why do folk in the UK refer to distance covered in kms

neeb

jagx400 wrote:

Miles for me, I am British, I will never be a European.

Begging to differ, but you are a European whether you like it or not, geographically, historically, to a large extent culturally (whether you are aware of it or not), and to some extent politically. The latter is the only one that is potentially negotiable.

Mikey23

Miles are the last bastion of empire ...

letap73

john1967 wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

I use km because the metric system makes sense to me, whereas imperial is just **** we cling onto for no rational reason. I use miles in the car because that's what the road signs / speedo are in.

So I take it you've never drunk a pint ?

So what point do you want to make? So the pint is some arbituary unit which drinkers cling onto. Interested to see how you order petrol in pints. Even more interesting to see how you measure small quantities of liquid like a small amount of cough syrup accurately with a pint. The metric equivalent - litre or cubic metre is far easier to use, hence why physicists/chemists around the world etc use metric/SI units.

letap73

neeb wrote:

I'm ashamed to admit I still use miles on my cycle computer despite living in Finland where kilometers are universal. I've tried switching to kms but I just can't get my head around a "feel" for speeds and distances in kms. This is, of course, purely because I was born and have lived most of my life in the U.K. and am used to it - there is no doubt that metric measurements are superior in all respects and I am basically in favour of them being forced upon everyone, especially the Americans. If we were all forced at school and later in life to use metric, society would make the switch within a generation and we would all be a lot better off.

Human nature being what it is, sometimes we need the nanny state to just kick us up the ars*, force us to get on with things and tell us in no uncertain terms that our parochial attachment to good-old-British Imperial measurements is just bloody-minded, Daily Mail reading, sentimental tosh.

The U.K. is actually a strange hybrid of imperial/statute and metric. Although I was brought up using miles for distance, stones & pounds for body weight and feet and inches for body height, I was also taught to use centigrade for temperature, meters and centimeters for most measurements, and kilos for weighing anything other than people. I blame the reactionary tossers who want to keep old fashioned British units for saddling my world-view with useless Imperial thinking for distance and measurement of bodily variables.

If you don't believe that metric and international standardisation is superior in all respects, try living in the U.S. where they still use fluid ounces and quarts for volume, Fahrenheit for temperature, etc etc etc... Bloody medieval! Not to mention U.S. letter size for paper, which is just completely idiotic when you know how international standard paper sizes work (A4 etc). I just hope I live long enough to see America forced to convert to metric by the Chinese, that will be satisfying.

+1 for most of that.

Interestingly some of the metric units are actually named after British scientists yet as you say some people cling onto means of measurement which are not easily understood. A typical example is the unit of power - imperial uses Horsepower , metric is the Watt - named after James Watt. The definition of a Watt is far more easily understood.

Davdandy

I`m a Brit and i use miles,feet and inches.I drink a pint of beer and fill the car/van with a gallon of fuel.

neeb

letap73

Davdandy wrote:

I`m a Brit and i use miles,feet and inches.I drink a pint of beer and fill the car/van with a gallon of fuel.

What's the size of your bike in inches - seat tube or top tube measurement will do ?

stickman

Miles is the official road distance measuring system of Britain, why would I use anything else?
And european countries all had their own versions of pounds ounces feet miles etc, until their governments imposed metric on the populations in a far-right dictatorial manner.

Davdandy

letap73 wrote:

Davdandy wrote:

I`m a Brit and i use miles,feet and inches.I drink a pint of beer and fill the car/van with a gallon of fuel.

What's the size of your bike in inches - seat tube or top tube measurement will do ?

Actually it is one and a half cubits.

MountainMonster

Davdandy wrote:

I`m a Brit and i use miles,feet and inches.I drink a pint of beer and fill the car/van with a gallon of fuel.

Where the hell can you find a petrol station that does gallons? Personally I think using metrics is retarded, it only causes problems for people when they do go to Europe.

letap73

Davdandy wrote:

letap73 wrote:

Davdandy wrote:

I`m a Brit and i use miles,feet and inches.I drink a pint of beer and fill the car/van with a gallon of fuel.

What's the size of your bike in inches - seat tube or top tube measurement will do ?

Actually it is one and a half cubits.

Thats about 68.6 cm whether seat tube or top tube you're a big chap :shock: - I better not mess with you then

nevman

Kilometres,otherwise I`d never finish an Audax.And I go faster than you flat-earthers.

Davdandy

letap73 wrote:

Davdandy wrote:

letap73 wrote:

Davdandy wrote:

I`m a Brit and i use miles,feet and inches.I drink a pint of beer and fill the car/van with a gallon of fuel.

What's the size of your bike in inches - seat tube or top tube measurement will do ?

Actually it is one and a half cubits.

Thats about 68.6 cm whether seat tube or top tube you're a big chap :shock: - I better not mess with you then

Oooo,thats what the ladies say.

thefd

I'm miles but I am tempted to try KM's!

neeb

stickman wrote:

And european countries all had their own versions of pounds ounces feet miles etc, until their governments imposed metric on the populations in a far-right dictatorial manner.

It's usually socialists and revolutionaries that do it actually - the far right usually have a romantic attachment to traditional systems as part of their whole nationalist agenda. in France a lot of metricisation came in with the revolution. Dictatorial certainly, but sometimes people do just need to be told what to do...

Bobbinogs

KMs for distance and Metres for climbing. I do quite a few audaxes and the routecards are exclusively in KMs. I used to spend quite a bit of time converting and then I thought "why not change my computer to metric and save myself the time". Now it has become second nature and I don't read the numbers on signs just placenames anyway.

Like many audaxers, I do a reasonable bit of distance/climbing and feel no need to use metric to boost my figures.

MountainMonster

Metrics only boost your figures if you are talking about distance, it is the feet for climbing that make a huge difference compared to metres.

pride4ever

Cos like my dick its BIGGER.

john1967

letap73 wrote:

john1967 wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

I use km because the metric system makes sense to me, whereas imperial is just **** we cling onto for no rational reason. I use miles in the car because that's what the road signs / speedo are in.

So I take it you've never drunk a pint ?

So what point do you want to make? So the pint is some arbituary unit which drinkers cling onto. Interested to see how you order petrol in pints. Even more interesting to see how you measure small quantities of liquid like a small amount of cough syrup accurately with a pint. The metric equivalent - litre or cubic metre is far easier to use, hence why physicists/chemists around the world etc use metric/SI units.

erm the point i was making is that asprilla thinks imperial is shit but i bet hes happy to drink pints.I would also bet he gives his height in feet and inches and dont you know small measures of cough syrup are measured in tea spoon fulls.

philwint

I was surprised to find my kids (22 & 18) have no idea what an inch or a foot are. Everything is m & mm for them.

I can see a big advantage in standardisation, so can only hope to see miles replaced by km on our road signs etc, but probably not for a while with the little Englanders still around. But by the time my kids generation is 'in power' i can hope for a more rational debate on the question.

So for me I think in miles, always have and probably always will, but am trying to learn to get the hang of kms and cycling is a good place to start as lots of others use km.

sungod

km, after decades of physics and engineering, i work in si units not archaic mumbo jumbo

use of pints for draft beer/lager/cider in pubs etc. is a legal requirement, not a preference, so it's nonsense to complain about people who prefer km still ordering pints, it's not a matter of choice, it's the only option

if it weren't for that stupid law i'd order a lovely demi, mmm, demi

anyway, miles and pints aren't even proper measures, merely conversion factors, they are defined in terms of si units, in the 19th century the yard was defined as 36/39.370113 metres, in the 20th century it was redefined as 0.9144 metres, it magically grew a bit longer, the mile is just the metre's inconstant catin
:-)

chorlton chimp

Worst of both worlds here. When starting out I used km as it fooled me into thinking I was going further and helped me motivate myself. I was taught metric at school and still use it, however I then convert back to miles when I get home. Metric is definitely more sensible, you don't hear too many folk clamouring for a return to pre decimal currency after all do you? Being taught one system while the real world used another one means I'm not great in either.

asprilla

john1967 wrote:

letap73 wrote:

john1967 wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

I use km because the metric system makes sense to me, whereas imperial is just **** we cling onto for no rational reason. I use miles in the car because that's what the road signs / speedo are in.

So I take it you've never drunk a pint ?

So what point do you want to make? So the pint is some arbituary unit which drinkers cling onto. Interested to see how you order petrol in pints. Even more interesting to see how you measure small quantities of liquid like a small amount of cough syrup accurately with a pint. The metric equivalent - litre or cubic metre is far easier to use, hence why physicists/chemists around the world etc use metric/SI units.

erm the point i was making is that asprilla thinks imperial is shoot but i bet hes happy to drink pints.I would also bet he gives his height in feet and inches and dont you know small measures of cough syrup are measured in tea spoon fulls.

I give my height in m and cm since most documentation you'd need it for (e.g. medical) generally ask for it in cm and a teaspoon is 5ml.

I'm also happy to drink beer in pints because I like beer, are you buying? No-one would complain about their beer being served in the wrong sized glass unless they were Belgian. That's a rubbish argument. If beer glasses were standardised to 500ml instead of 568ml, and the price were reduced accordingly, would you really care? You certainly wouldn't be crying in your demi-litre.

The fact is that the imperial system is rubbish and is difficult to use. We only hold onto it to stop Telegraph and Daily Mail little Englanders from overloading the NHS as they choke on their own tongues.

I've got a background in physics so I grew up with the metric system rather than imperial and it just makes so much more sense. I can't see a single logical reason to choose imperial. If you were starting from scratch today and were given the choice of the two you would pick the metric system every day.

RDB66

Miles for me....But thats only because, im of a certain age and im English !!

hipshot

Simon Masterson wrote:

Because they like pretending to be like the pro racers who race in Europe.

Absolutely. I also have those pointy Contador sideburns and buy everything online so I can pay in Euros 8) .

cyclingfury

I ride in miles. It would be far too expensive to convert my bike to kilometres.

giropaul

If anyone is looking for a sensible reply:

UCI race regulations are in Kms, therefore the length of races tends to be in Kms for points etc purposes.

For Audaxes - Audax UK was formed mainly, in the first place, to enable riders to qualify for European events such as PBP. Qualification rides needed to be in Kms, and still do. Hence Audax uses Kms

LycraVirgin

Re: Why do folk in the UK refer to distance covered in kms

Because Britain signed up to the metric system........ I was taught to measure distances in meters at school and funnily enough now I’m a surveyor I use meters to measure distance at work . Why would I not use meters to measure distance travelled on my bike??! It’s a far simpler system than Imperial, I don’t know why British people insist in mixing and matching both. For example ‘my cock is 12 inches and I run the 800m in 1.55’

slowsider

letap73 wrote:

interesting to see how you measure small quantities of liquid like a small amount of cough syrup accurately with a pint. The metric equivalent - litre or cubic metre is far easier to use, hence why physicists/chemists around the world etc use metric/SI units.

You must drink extraordinary quantities of cough syrup

Surely a dram and a half would suffice ?

FergySteve

LycraVirgin wrote:

I don’t know why British people insist in mixing and matching both. For example ‘my fool is 12 inches and I run the 800m in 1.55’

:oops: I use both. I measure distance in the car and on the bike in miles (generally), but running could be anything. 10km but a half marathon or marathon is in miles. My road bike is 56cm frame size, but my MTB is a 17.5"...

nothing if not inconsistent!