# Km or miles? (Cidre not Cider) and is Strava where it's at?



## Jaco45er (1 Sep 2013)

Hi 

Ok bear with me, new to the road bikes, the one I bought doesn't even have suspension !!!!!

I have noticed that the vast majority of road bikers use Km instead of miles? Was just wondering why? I mean I know Km looks longer  but is there another reason? Just curious.

Also, for the last few years been using Walkmeter and recently Bikebrain to record my trips. I see that Strava seems to be the overwhelmingly popular app for road bikes, is it more suited for this?

I particularly like the Walkmeter function as it records live via Facebook, which was really handy when I decided to hit the local tacks and after 11 miles ripped a tyre to shreds and had no repair kit or tools"cardinal since know". One call to the wife, she tracked me down and rescued me (surprising really, she can find a dot on the map 11 miles away, but struggles to find the kitchen most days!!!!).

All comments welcome, even if it's "stop asking stupid questions".


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## Sambo24 (1 Sep 2013)

I pick my new road bike up tomorrow and I know that I'll definitely be using Strava. I've used the app previously for running and it's an amazing motivator. 

As for KM or M historically I've always used miles as I know the set distances around my local town for 4, 6 and 8 mile runs. I'm pretty sure Strava is quite easy to flip between the two so I'll probably use both.


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## numbnuts (1 Sep 2013)

I'm British and it's miles


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## on the road (1 Sep 2013)

I use miles because miles is the unit of distance in Britain and I've set Strava to miles.


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## Easytigers (1 Sep 2013)

Also use miles (there are challenges on Strava though that I find are a good motivator and they're always shown in km)


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## Rustybucket (1 Sep 2013)

Miles all the way- will the tour of Britain be covered in miles I wonder...


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## Keith Oates (1 Sep 2013)

I've spent so many years now outside of the UK that I use Km automatically and even think distances in them as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Nigelnaturist (1 Sep 2013)

Easytigers said:


> Also use miles (there are challenges on Strava though that I find are a good motivator and they're always shown in km)


Not always the CTS one is in miles.
@Jaco45er you can set the units in either or, and flip I ride in imperial but ride to metric distances 20,30,40,50Km ect..
My spreadsheet shows both if I need it in one or the other. 
Certain other things are easier in metric like avg gradients of hills, meters climbed/meters travelled. 
The only good thing strava is any use for is to show people your ride, and segment times, the rest of the info isn't very accurate.


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## Easytigers (1 Sep 2013)

Nigelnaturist said:


> Not always the CTS one is in miles.
> @Jaco45er you can set the units in either or, and flip I ride in imperial but ride to metric distances 20,30,40,50Km ect..
> My spreadsheet shows both if I need it in one or the other.
> Certain other things are easier in metric like avg gradients of hills, meters climbed/meters travelled.
> The only good thing strava is any use for is to show people your ride, and segment times, the rest of the info isn't very accurate.


I didn't know that!!! Thanks Nigel...I never noticed when I've seen the milestone badges (just goes to show how observant I am!!!)


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## Jaco45er (1 Sep 2013)

Nigelnaturist said:


> Not always the CTS one is in miles.
> @Jaco45er you can set the units in either or, and flip I ride in imperial but ride to metric distances 20,30,40,50Km ect..
> My spreadsheet shows both if I need it in one or the other.
> Certain other things are easier in metric like avg gradients of hills, meters climbed/meters travelled.
> The only good thing strava is any use for is to show people your ride, and segment times, the rest of the info isn't very accurate.


Hi Nigel, so if you are not too interested in competing with others on certain sections of your ride? Then Walkmeter is better? I've found Walkmeter to be very accurate. 

Thanks for all the replies, now when you pop to the grocers, do you buy bananas by the pound or kilo? Joking


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## the_mikey (1 Sep 2013)

I use km and convert to miles if necessary, I find it much more useful personally to work with km than miles, mostly because the km is a smaller unit, switching to miles on my gps is psychologically worse than having no gps at all, but then this is down to having always used km to measure cycling performance.


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## BSRU (1 Sep 2013)

I use km because I know what 0.37km is(370 metres) whereas I have no idea what 0.37miles is.
Plus miles is so last millennium


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## Nigelnaturist (1 Sep 2013)

Jaco45er said:


> Hi Nigel, so if you are not too interested in competing with others on certain sections of your ride? Then Walkmeter is better? I've found Walkmeter to be very accurate.
> 
> Thanks for all the replies, now when you pop to the grocers, do you buy bananas by the pound or kilo? Joking


I use ride with gps (rwgps), mainly for elevation correction, but even that I think is a little high, but as I have used it from the out set, I use it for consistency to compare ride to ride data (elevation, ft climb per mile ect). 
Using strava is just simple a matter of of uploading and looking, so it's no real hardship, and it is interesting to see.
What I did though at the beginning of the year was to follow some riders in my area that where doing similar times to myself at that time, and I have set the default view to show those I follow, makes it a little more interesting than the same top riders being on top of a table.


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## Nigelnaturist (1 Sep 2013)

BSRU said:


> I use km because I know what 0.37km is(370 metres) whereas I have no idea what 0.37miles is.
> Plus miles is so last millennium


But I know exactly how much a foot and a yard is, and visualise how far something is away, 0.37 of a mile is a 1/3 of a mile or about 1 1/2 mins riding.


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## Hill Wimp (1 Sep 2013)

Having been educated in the last millenium and saw decimalisation come in i am a miles girl.This is despite travelling and cycling abroad a lot. I also use mapmyride to record all i need. If you need motivation i understand Strava is good but i agree with Nigel it can also be wildly inaccurate and give people a false idea of what they have done.

If you are happy with what you have used before when running why change?


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## Jaco45er (1 Sep 2013)

I think I am torn between the Euro and the pound. At work, I have to measure distances at work, for example, 200 metres, would never dream of doing it in yards, and I couldn't order the materials in yards anyway. However, on the bike? Km just doesn't seem right to me. Think I will stick with miles . Who knows, a few more road miles under my belt I might be converted, then again, old dog, new tricks


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## Gravity Aided (1 Sep 2013)

A bit of both. My clubs' century ride is metric, and many rides are listed as both, except those among the Amish.


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## SpokeyDokey (1 Sep 2013)

It's about time we decided which way to jump as a nation.

Base 10 is clearly more sensible imo but I appreciate a switch would be costly.

Much as I like being a Britainer(!) our units of measurement were dreamn't up by the mathematically challenged eg 240 pennies in a pound or 14 lbs in a stone.


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## Supersuperleeds (1 Sep 2013)

Miles for me as well, though if I am going to do a 30 miler, I will make it 31.1 miles as that is 50km


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## sleaver (1 Sep 2013)

I use km mainly because when I run, common distances are in kilometres. Take the 5k and 10k distances, you don't hear anyone saying 3.1 or 6.2 miles.

Also, if you were to measure something, would you use mm/cm/m or inches?


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## Supersuperleeds (1 Sep 2013)

sleaver said:


> I use km mainly because when I run, common distances are in kilometres. Take the 5k and 10k distances, you don't hear anyone saying 3.1 or 6.2 miles.
> 
> *Also, if you were to measure something, would you use mm/cm/m or inches*?



Inches


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## Moon bunny (1 Sep 2013)

I was educated in metric, but recently started to use feet and inches at work. So much easier to find half or a quarter of a measurement and such a practical system, fraction= use a rule, decimal=use a micrometer. Metric is OK for the mathematiclly challenged who need to count on their fingers.


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## zizou (1 Sep 2013)

Alot of roadies use KM because of the European influence of pro cycling. Similar reason for people talking of bidons and so on.

I'm probably a bit odd in that i think (outwith the track at least) of distance and speed in terms of miles / mph but height gained in terms of metres!


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## RichK (1 Sep 2013)

Rustybucket said:


> Miles all the way- will the tour of Britain be covered in miles I wonder...



Official site is using km... eg http://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/stages/stage1/scotland_route.php#.UiOJazbAuO0


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## Sittingduck (1 Sep 2013)

Miles but can think in terms of Km, when watching racing etc. Cuz I'm clever!


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## MickeyBlueEyes (1 Sep 2013)

Supersuperleeds said:


> Miles for me as well, though if I am going to do a 30 miler, I will make it 31.1 miles as that is 50km



Miles for me too, but if i'm planning on doing a 30 miler I'll round it up to 50 miles as that's much further than 50km  Don't let the metric system hold you back....


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## cyberknight (1 Sep 2013)

Whilst the road signs are in miles thats the way i will work stuff out .


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## Gravity Aided (1 Sep 2013)

Were we not supposed to be all on the metric system by now, the way we were told in High School? I think there were also supposed to be flying cars, universal employment, and elimination of poverty and disease by now as well. We will have to keep at it. Slide Rules at the ready.


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## HLaB (1 Sep 2013)

zizou said:


> Alot of roadies use KM because of the European influence of pro cycling. Similar reason for people talking of bidons and so on.
> 
> I'm probably a bit odd in that i think (outwith the track at least) of distance and speed in terms of miles / mph but height gained in terms of metres!


That's American (North that is) miles and metres, or at least its that way on GarminConnect.


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## deptfordmarmoset (1 Sep 2013)

Miles are 1.6 times as good as kilometres. I had a Sigma computer that gave the temperature and if I chose to have the temperature in Celsius it gave me the distance in km so I ended up relearning Fahrenheit.


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## snorri (1 Sep 2013)

I have two computers on my bke, one metric and one imperial so just use whichever I want on the day. 
My car records distance in miles, the petrol pumps deliver fuel in litres, I am conscious of fuel consumption so measure that in miles per litre which is crazy, but it works.


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## Jaco45er (1 Sep 2013)

Snorri your handlebars must look like the bridge of the starship enterprise


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## Shut Up Legs (1 Sep 2013)

I'm comfortable with the metric system, but for some reason still tend to think of people's height in feet and inches. Australia switched to the metric system between 1970 and 1988 (i.e. it was a drawn-out painful process). I have no idea how much this cost the government and commercial and private enterprises, but it was no doubt a lot.


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## Cush (2 Sep 2013)

SpokeyDokey said:


> It's about time we decided which way to jump as a nation.
> 
> Base 10 is clearly more sensible imo but I appreciate a switch would be costly.
> 
> Much as I like being a Britainer(!) our units of measurement were dreamn't up by the mathematically challenged eg 240 pennies in a pound or 14 lbs in a stone.


I agree it is time we stopped the present duel system and went one way or the other, The milkman delivers a pint but in the shops we buy a litre of milk. We buy a litre of petrol but work our consumption in MPH.


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## Ciar (2 Sep 2013)

I use strava and cyclemetre and always have both apps set to miles, don't do km's and i don't think i will convert now.


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## Bodhbh (2 Sep 2013)

zizou said:


> I'm probably a bit odd in that i think (outwith the track at least) of distance and speed in terms of miles / mph but height gained in terms of metres!



I'm the same with thinking mainly of distance in miles and elevation in metres. It's not like it's hard to do quick guestimates of km and feet tho. Gets me thinking I'm mixed up on a few things - I can understand weight in either stone or kilos, but pounds I have to convert to kilos make some sense of it. With food shopping, it's the opposite - pounds I can understand...kilos I have to convert.


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## Mo1959 (2 Sep 2013)

Start worrying when you still occasionally convert back to LSD and I don't mean the drug  I can just remember going with my Dad to fill up on petrol and it was 7 shillings and 6 pence for a gallon! 37.5pence for those that can't remember pounds, shillings and pennies.  .....and I got half a crown pocket money 12.5 pence


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## bpsmith (2 Sep 2013)

deptfordmarmoset said:


> Miles are 1.6 times as good as kilometres.



Think you have that front to back.


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## Wayne Tully (2 Sep 2013)

Depends on the race to me, especially with running, if I'm doing a 10K I set it to KM if I'm doing a marathon then it's miles.


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## Wayne Tully (2 Sep 2013)

Also I prefer Endomondo to Strava, on Strava there's too many wannabe racers setting KOM's and sprints that they will bore you to death about, I only care about beating 1 person and that's me.


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## Sittingduck (2 Sep 2013)

Wayne Tully said:


> Also I prefer Endomondo to Strava, on Strava there's too many wannabe racers setting KOM's and sprints that they will bore you to death about, I only care about beating 1 person and that's me.



Interesting that you're going on about racing in your previous post though. Perhaps you're more competitive than you realise


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## Linford (2 Sep 2013)

Not so happy with strava. Whipped phone out when i got to a waypoint on my ride today to take a pic for posterity, and it terminated the recording of the ride


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## Wayne Tully (2 Sep 2013)

Sittingduck said:


> Interesting that you're going on about racing in your previous post though. Perhaps you're more competitive than you realise




I do go into proper races and I do try to finish as high as I can but that's different to adult men try to out do each other on a section of the A32846


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## Sittingduck (2 Sep 2013)

Wayne Tully said:


> I do go into proper races and I do try to finish as high as I can but that's different to adult men try to out do each other on a section of the A32846



Tell it to Ten Dam!


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