Should I just submit to metric units?

American here and new to the cycling world.

Every time I read an article or read about a component, I have to sit with my calculator because everything is seemingly in metric.

Have you all just made the switch on your head units and Strava and minds to metric? Or hold out hope that the rest of the world will see the value in our much simpler system and adopt that (sarcasm).

Miles to KM is easy enough that I just keep my head unit and strava imperial but have Zwift metric. 1km=~.62mi 1mi=~1.62km 1kg=~2.2lb, 1m=~3.3ft.

:rofl:

Coming from running I have some of the conversions memorized, and then I know that 40kph is 25mph. We worked on the metric system in elementary school but not using it regularly means I’ve forgotten most of it. It seems to be good enough for me to follow racing, but I don’t use it for training or anything.

A Brit now living in Switzerland and I’ the opposite, cannot even do imperial anymore :joy:

With km & km/h being “further” & “faster” than imperial equivalents, seems an easy choice :wink:, but you might want to keep feet for ascent :laughing:

I do this, but more because Zwift isn’t real life and I don’t want to compare my avatar’s speed with what I can actually do. (Plus, I get more XP that way)

  1. There are two types of countries in this world - those that use the metric system and those that have put a man on the moon.

  2. I am faster in KM and weigh less in KG.

:crazy_face:

I use metric in Zwift because as noted you accumulate more XP that way…and over the years I have gotten pretty good at quick, rough conversions. If you watch enough euro bike races and ride in KM occasionally, you just kinda memorize the conversions in buckets…30km is ~20 miles, 50km is ~30 miles, etc. Close enough for most purposes…

I stick to miles, but as others have said, to metric for Zwift XP. I had a car with a speedometer that showed me 25mph is 40km, and I know a 5k is a little over 3 miles. Ever since I learned that, I just do guess-timates off those numbers.

You should use the Internation System of Units always.
Start from cycling and follow with everything.

Yes, except for tire pressure - PSI > BAR!!

Euros / UK / Canananada/ Aus - Are you PSI or BAR? I feel like psi is more prevalent than just the US.

UK shouldn’t be taken as a good example here. We use every measurement standard at the same time!

You get a pint of beer in pub (imperial) but a bottle/tinnie of beer is in ml! We really should work out what we want to use!

How many stones per square hand are you running?

I use miles because I live in a country that puts distances and speed limits in miles on road signs. (Walking distance signs are often in km, for whatever reason!)

Also use psi because it seems easier to remember than differences between 1.25 and 1.27 bar.

Haven’t got a clue about mass apart from in kg and get fits of laughter everytime I see an imperial Allen key 7/43 or a measurement like 0.00002 inch.

Italy is mostly on BAR.
Even tough I advocate for switching to Pascal

Same here in spite of being in Europe/Denmark.

Logically, it shouldn’t make that much of a difference, but I also feel like the value in psi is easier to remember…

No but the temptation to say to the group

“Hills coming in 3 clicks” is there

If you live in the US and switch your head unit and Strava to KM, you might look like some euro poseur!

Not as badly as if you spelled poser as poseur! :rofl:

This is where it gets really fun! British pints are about 20% bigger than American pints. For most units we are the same, but primarily for volume there are differences. And I just learned that there are two different definitions of fluid ounce in the American system, depending on whether you’re talking about food nutrition labeling or not–and neither is the same as the British fluid ounce. Oh God, I’m going to stop reading up on this now!