>>>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
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>Alan;
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>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.
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>Tom

Tom,

And here I thought only we had idiots like that making laws and rules. As recently as last year, the police in Toronto ticketed a couple of Bicycle messengers for using whistles to warn of their approach instead of those little handlebar bells as the law (1800 and something) dictated.

The messengers explained that nobody could hear those bells, but they could sure hear the whistle. They were ticketed anyway. They fought it and won in the end, but the police department stood behind the cop stating that he was just doing his job. I guess the muggers were on holidays.

Not to mention the the cop who was ticketing people parked in their own driveways (the law was on his side). You never heard such a fuss.

Alan