Miles or kilometres?

[Dogtrousers]

time is my preferred measure for how long a ride is. Is it reasonable to presume we're all OK with hours, minutes (& seconds if you want) are common units here?

Solar hours or siderial hours?

 

[Piemaster]

In the car - miles. Running - km. Bike - if using a bike computer it's set to km, if guessing '"it's about 3 miles" into the town.Makes no sense.
Similar with smaller measures, I'll guess lengths in feet, but it's mm if I actually get a tape measure out.

 

[classic33]

time is my preferred measure for how long a ride is. Is it reasonable to presume we're all OK with hours, minutes (& seconds if you want) are common units here?

Metric or Standard measure?

 

[confusedcyclist]

Sorry if it's already been said, but here we go...

http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/#24

 

[SamR]

Makes it sound as though you've further to go as well though!!

Well then you just change back to miles!

 

[Klaus]

Not this one again

In this country we measure distances in MILES.

When I worked for a civil engineering company about 30 years ago we invoiced the Dept. of Transport based on meters and kilometers. Funny that, having to charge for distance boards (showing miles) placed at kilometer intervals ... Anyway, I run my GPS in km, with a lap beep every 5 miles (which was programmed in by the last owner). KM pass faster than miles .... plus I am a foreigner ... explains it all.

 

[themosquitoking]

I love it when driving in Europe, all the road signs in kilometers make the towns seem further away but you get there quicker and it's lovely watching those distance numbers plunge so much faster than they do here.

 

[Donger]

My commute to and from work is currently 5.5 and 6.5 leagues, respectively .

What's that in rods and chains?

 

[classic33]

What's that in rods and chains?

See #29

 

[PaulSB]

A vaguely related tip for European touring. I use my Garmin to record the trip in miles which means more to me but fit a basic computer calibrated in kilometres.

I use the computer to keep an eye on distance covered and distance to next turn, town, village etc. Works well for me to simplify navigation on unfamiliar roads.

 

[Rob3rt]

Most of the people I know use miles, but I want to use KMs, so it sounds like I've gone much further than I actually have! EG 50KM, or 30 miles? Which sounds better? 50, of course. It's a bigger number!

When you tell someone how far you have gone in km, their eyes glaze over and they don't hear anything you say for the next few seconds while they are converting km to miles and thinking you are a massive gooch.

 

[Gixxerman]

I'm so quick I have to use light-minutes.

 

[Milzy]

Why do runners in this country use kilometres then?

As a vet runner I don't know anyone who's ever run in km. Maybe some run for fun jolly gogging noobs do.

 

[Gravity Aided]

In the States, we have a lot of runs measured in 3, 5, 6, and 10k.

 

[MickeyBlueEyes]

Most of the people I know use miles, but I want to use KMs, so it sounds like I've gone much further than I actually have! EG 50KM, or 30 miles? Which sounds better? 50, of course. It's a bigger number!

Yes, but, that also does bite you back when talking with someone who doesn't appreciate the conversion and thinks 'its roughly about half'... You've just talked yourself out of 5 miles...