Originally Posted by
noglider
One quirk from using the French name 700C is tha people thing C is a unit of measurement. People say they want a 29C tire when the mean 28mm. I've also heard people say they have 700CC tires, because CC is a unit of measurement, i.e. cubic centimeters. But that's not it, either. 700C refers to a diameter of 622mm, as measured at the bead. 700x28C is really 700C x 28mm.
Confused yet?
This is one of my personal pet peeves, along with the confusion of quantities and units of measure. You know, "what PSI are ya runnin'?" The quantity is PRESSURE, and the units of measure are pounds per square inch (PSI).
It doesn't bother me nearly as much when it happens among laypersons, but when I recently purchased a nice Panaracer city tire and it had "700x32C" printed on it, by people who make the damned things, I almost didn't put it on the bike.