Most of the world uses the Metric system to measure things.
My recalcitrant country-men and -women (I'm not politically correct enough to say "countrypeople"!) will have none of it: We still cling to the Imperial/Avoirdupois system, and measure heat or cold in Farhenheit rather than Celsius temperatures.
About three decades ago, the powers-that-be in the world's bicycle industries talked of adopting a universal standards. At the time, most of the world's bikes came with English, French or Italian threadings for bottom brackets, freewheels (There weren't any cassette freehubs in those days.), headests, stems and pedals. English measurements were expressed in inches, while French and Italian were in milli/centimeters. Older and lower-priced American bikes had unique threads and other dimensions that were expressed in fractions and inches. But most bikes from Japan and current or former British colonies had English threads, while most Continental European bikes that weren't from Italy had French threads.
A strange thing happened, though. French threading was dropped altogether. Italian bikes--and some French and other Continental (e.g., Belgian) racing bikes adopted Italian standards. But the rest of the world adhered to English standards--at the same time they started to size their bikes (even those intended for export to the US) in centimeters rather than inches and equipped them with 700C rather than 27" wheels.
I thought about all of this on seeing this graffito:
Was this person protesting the adoption of the Metric system? Perhaps he/she was accustomed to ordering pints of beer in a bar/pub. Or, perhaps, he or she was a good ol' Amurrrikun mechanic who's sick of the half-Imperial, half-metric system we have in bicycling.
My recalcitrant country-men and -women (I'm not politically correct enough to say "countrypeople"!) will have none of it: We still cling to the Imperial/Avoirdupois system, and measure heat or cold in Farhenheit rather than Celsius temperatures.
About three decades ago, the powers-that-be in the world's bicycle industries talked of adopting a universal standards. At the time, most of the world's bikes came with English, French or Italian threadings for bottom brackets, freewheels (There weren't any cassette freehubs in those days.), headests, stems and pedals. English measurements were expressed in inches, while French and Italian were in milli/centimeters. Older and lower-priced American bikes had unique threads and other dimensions that were expressed in fractions and inches. But most bikes from Japan and current or former British colonies had English threads, while most Continental European bikes that weren't from Italy had French threads.
A strange thing happened, though. French threading was dropped altogether. Italian bikes--and some French and other Continental (e.g., Belgian) racing bikes adopted Italian standards. But the rest of the world adhered to English standards--at the same time they started to size their bikes (even those intended for export to the US) in centimeters rather than inches and equipped them with 700C rather than 27" wheels.
I thought about all of this on seeing this graffito:
Was this person protesting the adoption of the Metric system? Perhaps he/she was accustomed to ordering pints of beer in a bar/pub. Or, perhaps, he or she was a good ol' Amurrrikun mechanic who's sick of the half-Imperial, half-metric system we have in bicycling.
