Author Topic: MPH or KMH?  (Read 19014 times)

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #25 on: 01 January, 2021, 04:09:12 pm »

You might want to know those things but it’s not necessary to know them.  Sure you can see distances on signs if you’ve made a wrong turn but you don’t need speed nor distance showing on your GPS.

I do need to know those things. You may not want to know them. But I do. Your prescriptive phrasing quite frankly sucks.

You feel you do not need to know distances in anyway shape or form, that is for you, and only you. Your wording suggests everyone should think the same as you. This is, IMHO. Wrong. Please do not presume for others.

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #26 on: 01 January, 2021, 04:37:41 pm »
I use the units which give most meaning in terms of the activity I'm doing. So cycling is in Km courtesy of Audaxing, walking and car journeys are in miles,  temps are in centigrade/celcius  etc

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #27 on: 01 January, 2021, 04:50:16 pm »
I’m totally metric these days. I buy my shoes in European sizes, I weigh myself in kilos and even the car satnav talks to me in kilometres.

I haven’t even bought beer by the pint since the summer - only in 330ml or 500ml containers from the supermarket.

In any case, pints are also metric units according to the current official definition.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #28 on: 01 January, 2021, 04:54:40 pm »
Not being one-dimensional I use both and, and the same for weights etc. Keeps the grey matter working.
It is simpler than it looks.

Davef

Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #29 on: 01 January, 2021, 04:56:42 pm »
With the exception of driving I have moved to km for pretty much everything and I think in km and km/h (or minutes/km for running or seconds per 100m for swimming).

Mental arithmetic using 20 or 25km/h is much easier than 12.5 or 17

Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #30 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:32:54 pm »
A friend of mine measures distance on a map in thumbs. 

Karla

  • car(e) free
    • Lost Byway - around the world by bike
Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #31 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:34:53 pm »
In any case, pints are also metric units according to the current official definition.

568 is the best multiple in existence  :thumbsup:

Davef

Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #32 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:37:04 pm »
A friend of mine measures distance on a map in thumbs.
It is 3 thumbs on the map, and it is 1:50000, so 150,000 thumbs to my destination.

rob

Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #33 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:38:19 pm »
This does remind me of a long time riding partner who would give me a running commentary on how far we had done and how far we had to go.  He may have been the victim of one of my occasional tetchy strops.

PaulF

  • "World's Scariest Barman"
  • It's only impossible if you stop to think about it
Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #34 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:44:22 pm »
A friend of mine measures distance on a map in thumbs. 

But metric or Imperial thumbs?

Zed43

  • prefers UK hills over Dutch mountains
Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #35 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:49:01 pm »
I use imperial to annoy certain people  ;D

Being Dutch, it's pretty much all metric. Except for TV / monitor and pants (jeans) sizes, those are imperial. And some bicycle parts, diameter of the stem and tubes (1" top tube is standard, 1 1/8" is oversized etc).

When I'm tired / want a ride to be over I "countdown" the last 6.4km in miles. Yes, seriously.

I don't have distance or speed on the main page of the Garmin, though I have a secondary that shows various stats like average km/h, total distance (km) and distance left (km) for the current track (which is usually the next control).

Karla

  • car(e) free
    • Lost Byway - around the world by bike
Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #36 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:54:38 pm »
I use imperial to annoy certain people  ;D

That is a useful side-effect, yes  ;D

When I was riding across some of the more boring parts of America **coughKansascough** I set my GPS to km so that I could convert between imperial and metric, for want of anything more exciting to do.  I suspect I might get on well with Rob's annoying ride partner.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #37 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:56:23 pm »
I use both. On my tandem the control panel is in km and the garmin that sits next to it is in miles. I estimate distance on landranger maps in miles, and on explorers by halving the landranger mile.

You convert a Metric map, where every single part of the map key and grid is in metric into imperial?
I get working out the metric value and then converting to imperial, but actually reading such a map in imperial just seems completely wasteful.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #38 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:58:23 pm »
Everything in miles.  Kilometres aren't used in the UK (except for motorway distance posts 0.1km apart).

Using km for the length of a ride is like a tabloid using °F for heatwaves and °C for cold snaps, to make the numbers more impressive  ;)

Only the signs are in miles, highway engineering is metric.

If you want Imperial/Mixed engineering then you need the railway...
200m platform at 1mile and 6 chains

Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #39 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:59:04 pm »
I use miles in countries that use miles, and kilometres in countries that use kilometres.

Same reason why I don't speak to people in Swedish when I'm in Italy.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #40 on: 01 January, 2021, 06:00:27 pm »
In any case, pints are also metric units according to the current official definition.

568 is the best multiple in existence  :thumbsup:

Definitely a lot better than 480. How are you supposed to get drunk on short measures?

On second thoughts, I might be slightly wrong about the uk pint - I think it is officially defined as 1/8 of a gallon, and it’s the gallon that is defined in metric.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #41 on: 01 January, 2021, 06:02:08 pm »
I use miles in countries that use miles, and kilometres in countries that use kilometres.

Same reason why I don't speak to people in Swedish when I'm in Italy.

I once spent time on a train in Italy in the company of some Swedish people. We communicated in English.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #42 on: 01 January, 2021, 06:02:29 pm »
It appears most cyclists on this forum use both, and for the same reasons. Like many here I attempt to calculate km to miles and vice versa. I'm Jan1961 born so formal learning was formerly imperial and latterly metric. When I time trialled in 1990s it was in mph. Evens (20) mph on twisty sporting course. Km for audax. When I ran in the '80s it was minutes per mile. Thanks for the interesting responses. My 27 year old son records in imperial for both running and cycling. That's England for you.

Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #43 on: 01 January, 2021, 06:05:53 pm »
I use miles in countries that use miles, and kilometres in countries that use kilometres.

Same reason why I don't speak to people in Swedish when I'm in Italy.

I once spent time on a train in Italy in the company of some Swedish people. We communicated in English.

Yes, so not Swedish.  ::-)


p.s.  Let me guess, it was around 1990. You were Interrailing.

Salvatore

  • Джон Спунър
    • Pics
Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #44 on: 01 January, 2021, 06:06:41 pm »
I use miles in countries that use miles, and kilometres in countries that use kilometres.

Same reason why I don't speak to people in Swedish when I'm in Italy.

I once spent time on a train in Italy in the company of some Swedish people. We communicated in English.

Swedes and Norwegians use miles. Their mile is 10km.
Quote
et avec John, excellent lecteur de road-book, on s'en est sortis sans erreur

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #45 on: 01 January, 2021, 06:46:36 pm »
Yes, so not Swedish.  ::-)

I wasn't making a point. You triggered a memory, I was being nostalgic. I'm aware that my pointless anecdote is entirely irrelevant to the discussion. I might have added that what I really wanted was to communicate with them in French...

Quote
p.s.  Let me guess, it was around 1990. You were Interrailing.

Close enough.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #46 on: 01 January, 2021, 06:55:19 pm »
I use both. On my tandem the control panel is in km and the garmin that sits next to it is in miles. I estimate distance on landranger maps in miles, and on explorers by halving the landranger mile.

You convert a Metric map, where every single part of the map key and grid is in metric into imperial?
I get working out the metric value and then converting to imperial, but actually reading such a map in imperial just seems completely wasteful.
I've been told that as a rough estimate for walking, you can consider every time you cross a kilometre grid line to be a mile travelled.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #47 on: 01 January, 2021, 07:01:46 pm »
I once spent time on a train in Italy in the company of some Swedish people. We communicated in English.
I spent an evening in a (very good) restaurant in Belgium where everybody was speaking English, but from the accents we were the only English people there.
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #48 on: 01 January, 2021, 07:02:20 pm »
Yes, so not Swedish.  ::-)

I wasn't making a point. You triggered a memory, I was being nostalgic. I'm aware that my pointless anecdote is entirely irrelevant to the discussion. I might have added that what I really wanted was to communicate with them in French...

Quote
p.s.  Let me guess, it was around 1990. You were Interrailing.

Close enough.

Next guess....they were very drunk

Re: MPH or KMH?
« Reply #49 on: 01 January, 2021, 07:03:17 pm »
I once spent time on a train in Italy in the company of some Swedish people. We communicated in English.
I spent an evening in a (very good) restaurant in Belgium where everybody was speaking English, but from the accents we were the only English people there.

That was just the Belgians trying to fuck with your head