Is there such a thing as a metric half century?

[mstone]

no.

[consularrider]

Actually, there are multiple threads on bikejournal.com about quarter centuries. In addition, many century events do offer 50 km distance routes as an option.

[bobco85]

It all depends on who you’re talking to. Obviously in America we primarily use miles for distance, but a good number of cyclists know that a metric century is about 62 miles, so they can do the math to figure out the 31 mile distance. To nitpick, I suggest saying “half a metric century” instead of “metric half century” as it sounds less awkward. Also, using “quarter century” if fine because everyone understands it as 25 miles.

Just be careful about saying “quarter century” around an ELITE biker, because in their language it translates to “light warm-up”

[Certifried]

It always makes me think “organized tour/ride” when I hear those terms. Not sure about anyone else. If you’re just talking about a 20 mile leisure ride on the weekend, would you tell everyone you just rode 20 miles, or say you rode a 1/5 statute century?

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[mstone]

There’s a point at which it sounds forced. Like the other day my toddler did .01 metric century on his trike–but I wouldn’t put it that way in conversation. The more qualifiers you put on, the more out sounds like you’re trying to make something sound more impressive by association. It’s one thing for an organized ride to say you can plan to bail 1/4 of the way in if you’re not sure you can finish the whole thing, it’s another to say that your leisure ride was 1/16 of a Roman mile or somesuch. You can certainly do it if you want to, but people might wonder why you didn’t simply say the relevant number.

[lordofthemark]

Sunday I rode from Shirlington, MP 0.0 to Reston Town Center and back, that is over 18 miles each way, plus an extra mile from Park Center to Shirlington, so over 37 miles. So I finally rode over 50km in one day, whatever one calls it. My next distance goal will be to ride 50 miles in one day (which should also involve riding 25 miles at one shot)

[hozn]

I would say that the shortest distance worth calling something other than a “bike ride” is a metric [century]. Though I wouldn’t use a term like that for a ride unless I was describing a specific route on an organized ride (e.g. “I am doing the double metric, you?.”).

[Geoff]

In general I agree that terms like “Century” or “Metric Century” should be used for organized rides but there are times when I count training rides. For example, if I’m responding to a survey that asks how many centuries I’ve done this year, I may include the ones I did on my own. I suppose it depends on the purpose of the question. If the question is getting at how active I am in organized rides, then my personal rides are not “Centuries”, but they may be “centuries” if the question is about how much riding I have been doing.

[Drewdane]

bobco85;30073 wrote:

it all depends on who you’re talking to. Obviously in ‘murcah we primarily use miles for distance, but a good number of cyclists know that a metric century is about 62 miles, so they can do the math to figure out the 31 mile distance. To nitpick, i suggest saying “half a metric century” instead of “metric half century” as it sounds less awkward. Also, using “quarter century” if fine because everyone understands it as 25 miles.

Just be careful about saying “quarter century” around an elite biker, because in their language it translates to “light warm-up”

fify

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