KM vs Miles

[SpokeyDokey]

What's wrong with...

Miles to Km: Miles x 8/5

Km to miles: Km x 5/8

Accurate enough, especially with lower values.

 

[Dogtrousers]

What's wrong with...

Miles to Km: Miles x 8/5

Km to miles: Km x 5/8

Accurate enough, especially with lower values.

Nothing wrong with it but, being a bear of very little brain I find divisions and multiplications by 8 hard to do in my head.

Yeah, there are shortcuts but I don't find it all that easy. So I rely on my method which only requires divisions by 2 and 10 which are easy.

And if I'm not doing it in my head then I just multiply or divide by 0.6214

Plus, of course there are various "signposts" that I have by rote from things like riding audaxes (eg 200km = a wee bit less than 125 miles), and speed limits in France (eg 110km/h is a tad under 70)

 

[iandg]

I use kms on the bike, I find it easier working with metric OS maps. Convert imperial distances on road signs to KMs in my head when cycling but use miles when driving.

 

[NorthernSky]

i tried to use KM on strava but didn't really get used to it so have stuck with miles (might try again at some point )
i have now started to convert to metric when mentioning / recording my weight and height which took a bit of getting used to

 

[andrew_s]

Driving speeds and longer distances in miles ('cos road signs), everything else in km.
Pounds & ounces I have to convert before I've a proper feeling of "how much". Pints I just treat as half litres (which is what the pub pint frequently is if you discount the head).

Has anyone else noticed the removal of distances from non-trunk road signs?
Where a fingerpost at a rural junction may have originally said "village1 1¾; village2 3½" (on two lines), any modern replacement will just read "village1; village2".
My view is that it's a long term plan to reduce the cost of full metrification.

 

[Binky]

Always miles for me and feet for elevation.

What I find odd is some seem to record using the two methods. That is have miles ridden but have the elevation in metres. See this on Strava etc.

 

[Dogtrousers]

What I find odd is some seem to record using the two methods. That is have miles ridden but have the elevation in metres. See this on Strava etc.

I don't know why but I'll take guess.

I'm guessing it's just another example of the British half-and-half attitude to units, using a metric one here and imperial one there.

Metres of elevation because OS maps and pretty much everything else uses elevation in metres, feet are a bit of an oddity. Personally, I'll use feet for human height, but not for anything else. Miles, however, aren't an oddity because they are in common use, and on road signs etc.

 

[Alex321]

Always miles for me and feet for elevation.

What I find odd is some seem to record using the two methods. That is have miles ridden but have the elevation in metres. See this on Strava etc.

Not on Strava you don't, it won't let you (even in the paid version). I would much prefer to do that, because for some reason metres are more meaningful to me than feet. My Wahoo allows it, but as soon as it gets uploaded to Strava it is either miles and feet, or Km and Metres.