Dem Round Black rubbery tings tha stick ya car to the road

Once upon a time in a galaxy far far away...

Tyres were crossplys, which were measured in imperial measurements, ie 5.20 x 13, if you look at trailer tyres some are still like that, 400x8 for example.
Once radials started appearing they were still rare, and were made to fit the imperial wheels.
As was said, Leyland and a few others buggered about trying metric tyres but from a cost point of view it was never a success so they didn't take off.
Some things are still imperial sized bit have metric conversions, a door for instance may say 1981mm but it's still an imperial door, metric ones were around in the eighties but again had a little success.

Interesting fact, bridge heights are always measured in imperial, they may have both but never metric only.

We seem to have been screwed on timber sizes as the metric equivalents seem to short change us.

Getting screwed due to changes? Surely not.....   

I remember going to Spain after the Euro came in, suddenly everything that was 100 Pesetas became a Euro, only trouble was 100 Pesetas was about 40p as opposed to the Euro which was about 80p.....

HighlyJetted wrote:We seem to have been screwed on timber sizes as the metric equivalents seem to short change us.

They cocked up bike tyres good and proper as they made/make some replacement sizes a 4.10 is a replacement for a 3.50 i think without checking anyway the 4.10 is not 4.1" wide or tall it's a metric tyre with a imperial name same as 3.60 & 4.60.