wheel question.. why is width and diameter in inches but

[mike]

I like the furlongs per fortnight unit but, at the
risk of coming back to the thread title, I think it's
to do with tyres. In the old days (when Britain ruled
the waves) wheels and tyres, (crossply in those days)
were both done in inches. 

When Michelin invented radials (mid 60’s?) they, being
French, sized them in mm but had to keep the inch
wheel part to allow radials to be fitted to all the
existing wheels. 

A few car companies have done metric wheels (Rover in
this country) but they have never caught on, largely
because of limited tyre choice and at the risk of
copyright problems “if it ain’t broke......”

Mike

--- Alex Kowalski <akowalsk at comcast.net> wrote:
> It's not a stupid question.  The simple answer is
> that Jimmy Carter tried to convert the United States
> to the metric system.  The only people who used the
> metric system at that time were engineers and
> scientists who were looking for something
> complicated like a universal, base-ten measurement
> system with which they could communicate with their
> peers across the oceans of the world without needing
> translation, and the people who didn't use the
> metric system who were gas station attendants, and
> were looking for something simple like continuing to
> measure things in furlongs per fortnight, so they
> could continue to communicate with their buddy Earl
> down the street without needing translation.  The
> gas station attendants won.
> 
> Jimmy Carter may have been wrong about a lot of
> other things, but unfortunately on the metric system
> he was correct but lacking the popular support to
> carry it through.
> 
> It's just that simple.
> 
> Cheers,
> Alex Kowalski
> '87 5KCSTQ -- All metric.  At least at a BP station.
> 
> --
> "I gargle with gasoline because here in the USA it's
> cheaper than Listerine and makes me a much hotter
> kisser, too."
> 
> 
> > Message: 4
> > Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 13:38:37 EST
> > From: JordanVw at aol.com
> > Subject: wheel question.. why is width and
> diameter in inches but
> > 	offset is	in MM??
> > To: vanagon at GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> > Cc: quattro at audifans.com
> > Message-ID: <da.217f459e.2f67342d at aol.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
> > 
> > here is stupid question i always wondered about.. 
>  why is wheel diameter and 
> > width always in inches, but the offset is in
> Millimeters?       just always 
> > wondered why..
> > 
> > anyone know?
> > 
> > chris
> _______________________________________________
> quattro mailing list
> quattro at audifans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/quattro
> 

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com