>>You are so right – using the English System will hurt us in the long run. The argument is, “It will cost too much to convert to metric”. Instead of support from the engineering community we get arguments from ANSI (American National Standards Institute) that metric screws are not as strong as English screws. This is correct – so why not redesign screws? A fact is that English threads hold much more pressure than metric. Working together would be a positive solution.
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>It's the old bicycle seat problem that Dogbert brought to light a while back. Bicycle seats are skinny, hard, and hurt like hell. Resolution: padded pants.
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>Alan

Alan;

This was not meant to be a joke but it was! In 1972 the Federal Government of the United States defined a requirement for bicycle seats. This was done for “reasons of safety”. As described in the standard there would be no seat but rather the existing shaft that attached from the bike to the seat would be sat upon. An artist drew a rendering of the proposed federal standard, which appeared in newspapers around the country. The new safety standard quickly went away! The power of an artist is not to be underestimated.

Tom