r/OldSchoolCool • u/wemtastic • Oct 09 '25

1950s A ton-up girl fixing her Triumph, 1950s

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u/wemtastic Oct 09 '25

Ton-up” came from British slang for hitting the ton, 100 mph. In the 1950s most bikes barely managed 80, so anyone who cracked the ton, especially a woman, instantly earned respect at the Ace Cafe.

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u/SandboxSurvivalist Oct 09 '25

TIL the British didn't start adopting the metric system until 1965.

28

u/HoveringPorridge Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25

No one really wanted to though, and as a result a horrible mix of imperial and metric is used in current day.

The only one that's completely set in stone is distance; miles/yards/feet/inches. Kilometres are beyond my realm of understanding.

Milk and beer are sold by the pint but fuel is in litres for some godforsaken reason. Thermometers tend to have Centigrade and Fahrenheit listed etc.

I wish we could just decide on one or the other!

3

u/FraserYT Oct 10 '25

There was a half hearted attempt by brexidiots to get us to go back to imperial weights in shops, instead of grams and kilos, but that ship has sailed.

And although the roads all use miles, the national cycle path network officially uses kilometres

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u/HoveringPorridge Oct 10 '25

Honestly, i don't think thats too bad an idea. As long as we had one system used for everything instead of picking and choosing between two I'd back it.