Kilometers on computers, anyone?
 

Does anyone use kilometers enstead of meters. I just got a computer but its in Kilometers, Celcius, meters, ect...(the manuel only says kilometers) im used to using mph, feet, ferenheight ect.... is it easy to change over? for example i can guess how many miles it is from my house to my school but i cant guess in kilometers, how long would it take me to switch over?

Hello America,

Everybody except you and a few small african nations uses metric. Please learn it ASAP.

regards,

the rest of the world

that is true ^^^

Dont use meters, use kilometers if you are...

..

I use miles. I know the metric system but since everything here is in miles/lbs/etc. I'll continue to use it. The rest of the world can sit on it and twirl.

Many of the functions on computers really only exist for their "bragging" value. I mean, what other use does "max speed" serve?

That said, you'll want your bike computer to be calibrated in whatever units the people that you're trying to impress will understand.

measuring ur sprint... testing to check progress. :D

Nah, I like to know the max speed so I can try to beat it! It is good for bragging purposes though. Especially for non-cyclists. You went 46.5mph on a bicycle??? :eek:

:D

lol... That's great...
I live in the US and I know the English system well - but I have to admit that it does not make much sense at all... 12 inches in one foot? 3 feet in a yard? 5280 feet in a mile? where the heck did we come up with those numbers???

but my car gets 300 leagues to the hogshead!

I've thought about switching because when you watch most of the non-TDF races they use the metric system and I'd like to have a better feel for what those speeds and distances really mean. But do I really want to have a better understanding of how fast they're going? I feel slow enough already.

The one good thing about the imperial stuff is that 100 miles is more manly than 100 km. The next time you're on mile 99 of a century and that last mile seems so important, think about what it would feel like if you were using the metric system. Would you really care about the difference between 159 and 161 km? Funny how those arbitrary units have such an influence, isn't it?

100, 150 and 200 are nice round numbers for km, too... on a mostly flat route 200km in a day isn't impossible for good riders. 100km makes a nice ride that doesn't occupy the ENTIRE day, you can finish and still have time to do some things in the afternoon/evening.

Yes! I got so disgusted with the U.S. not converting that I just said screw it, I'll convert all by myself and let everyone else catch up. So I used km on my computer. When I did a metric century (of course) I got the cue sheet in advance and converted it to km, as it should be!

WIth most computers, it's a matter of pushing a couple of buttons in the right order to convert imperial/metric functions. Should be in the instruction manual.

I work in both metric and imperial. Imperial really is silly in this day and age. For cycling (personally in metric for the past 15 years), 30kph is a nice steady pace, 40 is getting fast, 50 is really fast, and 60 is a sprint. 90-100kph is a nice number to shoot for on a long decent. Works out pretty nice.

By the way, with the Cateye Microwireless you need to reset the unit via the recessed button on the underside - it will then ask for your preference through the start up menu... It took me a while to figure this out as it was not clear in the instructions...
-Jason-

:lol:

I love it ... and how true!! :D

My record is 51.2 mph. Down hill of course. But still fast.

Steve
-I don't have a speed problem, I have wind resistance problem.

How do you divide hogsheads? 5 Pigheads to the hogshead, and 7 pigletheads to the pighead.

Steve
-I'm gonna need a calculator

I have my computer set up for Km. I often have to converts to mile when talking to people. The easy conversion which is accurate enough for most purposes is 3/5, i.e. multiply the number of kilometers by three and then devide by five. You can easily do that in your head. There are approximately 5 kilometers in three miles. If you are using a calculator you may simply devide the kilometers by 1.61 to get a more accurate miles, or multiply miles by 1.61 to get kilometers.

I now this sounds like and odd observation... but when I convert km to miles, I divide the km by 10, then multiply by 6. Obviously the same as 3/5, 3x first, then /5 second... but I've always done different mental math...

just cool to see the inner workings of someone else's mind... or at least a small piece of it. :)

I've done lots of 200km days. It feels good clicking over from 199 to 200. Would you really care about the difference between 123.6528673 miles and 124.2742384 miles? :)

It works both ways.

Funny thing about this. My bike computer was originally set-up in kms. It reset itself after about 1500 kms and, somehow, reset in mph. It was weird to get used to it. I felt a lot slower seeing 15-20 showing on the speedo. I got over that by riding faster.

:rolleyes: just strange to see the inner workings of someone else's mind :D