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I owned a tool truck for nine years so I’m well versed in ratchet drive sizes. My 14 year old son has been spending more time in the garage with me and asked the simple question of why are the ratchet drives imperial when the ROW uses the metric system. A 2010 Polaris Ranger I was working on used some imperial fasteners on the chassis and metric on the engine. I believe class 8 trucks do the same.
On topic my son says it takes him a few minutes to readjust to the brakes on his mountain bike after racing his dirt bike but never the other way around. I’ve had an Ellsworth Joker and Santa Cruz Nomad built by LBS and they didn’t want to swap the front to the right side. Never knew why bicycles were opposite from motorcycles.
Anything with a Cat engine will still have imperial bolts. I had Cummins engines in a boat and I think that had imperial fasteners too.
Did you guys ever have to deal with Whitworth sizes?
I recently did some track prep in my late model camero...some of the seatbelt anchor bolts were metric, and some other critical bolts in the exact same area were imperial. (most of the car is metric to be fair). blows my mind.
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I have Imperial and Metric tools. When I had a couple Ford Rangers (1993 and 2000 4.0L), my metric tools worked for almost everything. Sometimes you need an actual 1/2" socket, but most of the time there's a metric socket or wrench that works for any Imperial size, not loose, not tight. Very surprising.
The transmissions are metric. Is the U.S. auto industry already in the process of making the switch to metric?
It's not something I'm passionate about. Considering that we're in a global economy, and the rest of the world is metric, I believe it's smart to design metric for most things. As Early said earlier, it's almost impossible to find Imperial hardware in most of the world, yet metric is only slightly difficult to find in the U.S. Even Home Depot carries a pretty good selection now.
I had 1987, 1993, 2000, 2006 Rangers. Single and Supercab, 4 & 6 cyls. They were mostly metric because they were largely rebadged Mazda B Series trucks.
I'd bet it was 100 yards past the spot where the trail splits to the right. (You started on "215 Enduro" and went onto "Break Right.") Big slab of rock with a hard left right after it. I started hucking that drop instead of rolling it, because it's almost an endo even if your brakes are in the right place!!!
Exactly it was a demo bike so I was trying to be careful and just drag the back brake down LOL if I would have just hucked it would have been fine that's what I get for thinking! Needless to say I didn't buy the bike gave me a bad taste lol
That's funny. I thought Mazda was re-badging Ford Rangers.
that may be the case currently, but the older ones were based on the B series, and Ford owned an interest in Mazda. I seem to remember Ford eventually sold off their stake in Mazda when they were having some financial issues a couole years ago.
Another Australian - where motorcycles and push bikes both have the front brake on the RHS - makes sense, and I’m glad it’s the case.
I’d like to swap my Road Race bikes to “Race Pattern” - 1 up, 5 down. It allows you to change “up” accelerating out of corners while leaned over too far to get your toes under the shifter.
Friends do it “no problem” - Just remember if your head is down (behind the fairing) push down - if it’s up (braking) pull up.
Over 50 years of shifting normally - I feel I’d definitely be redlining one day and in the heat of battle shift down. Wouldn’t be pretty.
No wonder my metric tools worked so well on them!
As an American, I support this post!
Explained here.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=JYqfVE-fykk&si=LgxLeuQujEMboHzA
Ridden plenty of technical trails with a shovel in one hand and another on the bars with front brake only. All you need to do, like on a dirt bike, is position your body and don't over do it. The rear brake has far less stopping power. That is the trade off. I rarely, if ever, rely on the rear brakes for anything.
One of the first things people should do is practice emergency braking and train their brain not to reef on the lever - regardless of any type of bike. For unskilled riders, most people will just say go slower and use the rear brakes.
Pit Row
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