Back in the old high school days, like the late 70s, the only thing I learned and knew about the metric system is that it was this “weird” way most of rest of the world measured stuff. School didn’t teach a thing about it.
For a short guy, I was pretty good at track. I ran the 40 yard dash in like 4.6 seconds. The 100 yard dash in like 10.9 seconds (breaking under 11 seconds was a milestone). I ran the 440 in like 53 seconds. The word “meter” didn’t exist. I was 5’7” and weighted 145lbs. Dang, 170cm sounds much taller than 5’7”.
Having owned multiple Japanese bikes including 5 Savages, I’ve really come to embrace the metric system. Not to mention all the stuff made in China that is virtually all metric. The “Base 10” decimal system really fits the way my brain works. Memorizing or knowing that 1/2” is 0.5” is easy. Converting other inch measurements to a decimal in my head, not so much. Like 7/32” - who can do that in their head or has it memorized? I can do the 8ths in my head easily enough. The darn 16th and 32nds are just goofed up ballpark guesses in my head.
I watched a YouTube repair video the other day. Guy was working on a Ford F150. He appropriately used an 7mm on 3 screws, but then decided to mix systems and got a 5/16th to work on some 8mm heads on a different part. This made me scratch my head, and how he made the 5/16th work I’m not that lucky. When the 7mm fit like a glove, I knew I was dealing with a metric setup and instinctively grabbed the 8mm for the screws that he used the 5/16th on.
The metric system makes much more sense now and the Imperial system is weird unless it’s a 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 4/4.
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