Honda-SOHC
Other Stuff => Misc / Open => Topic started by: Athame57 on October 29, 2026, 02:25:22 PM
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When I stopped motorcycling in the early 1990s ( I went back to sea ) it was still gallons and that's how I still think really. I returned to riding in a world of Litres and I've never really adapted to it, I think in terms of how much it cost me now! Would most of us have been happier like I would have been if Bxt had us return to gallons, not that the EU forced the issue?
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George, when I started driving I used to get FOUR GALLONS for a quid and still come away with 1s 8d change. It was a female PM (whose grave I would happily dance on) who took us to the £1 gallon. I don't think bxt was the cause but every penny increase is 4.54p extra per gallon, so it's down to smoke and mirrors as usual.
It's now over £8 per gallon so thats a 32 fold increase. I was getting £4 a week as an apprentice, many people are certainly getting 32x£4 or £128 per week
Bloody cheap this petrol stuff ain't it? 😀
Ian
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I went to school in the early seventies. We were taught in metric and I have to say I prefer all measurements that way. Imperial measurements are annoying and complicated to me. Why are road distances still measured in miles and yards I would like to know, truly frustrating especially as the majority of road users today were never taught in imperial. Recently, I spent some time in Ireland and felt very much at home, everything in metres and litres and petrol cheaper than in UK. Ireland's economy is booming.
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I'm fine with working in most units. Although, I never think in "thou" just metric in that scale.
A friend can recite all those little rhymes used during metrification period when a child, usually after drinking alcohol :)
The 1970s Metrication Rhymes
During the transition from imperial to metric measurements in the UK, popular rhymes—often found on cereal boxes like Co-op cornflakes—were used to help people remember rough everyday equivalents:
• "Two and a quarter pounds of jam weigh about a kilogram"
• "A litre of water's a pint and three-quarters"
• "A metre measures three foot three"
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George, when I started driving I used to get FOUR GALLONS for a quid and still come away with 1s 8d change. It was a female PM (whose grave I would happily dance on) who took us to the £1 gallon. I don't think bxt was the cause but every penny increase is 4.54p extra per gallon, so it's down to smoke and mirrors as usual.
It's now over £8 per gallon so thats a 32 fold increase. I was getting £4 a week as an apprentice, many people are certainly getting 32x£4 or £128 per week
Bloody cheap this petrol stuff ain't it? 😀
Ian
When I started driving a car in 1965 four gallons of Esso Extra cost 19s 8d not much discounting back then.
I spent about about 30% of my wages in 1970 on petrol as a trainee on £10.00 a week.
As a % of my income today, l I spend less than 4% of my income on petrol.
As much as you might want to blame Mrs T for the increase in petrol prices the truth is the West was held to ransome by OPEC when the the oil producing countries realised it was selling a finite natural product far to cheaply, it took them from 1960 to the first real fuel crisis in 1n 1973-75 to exercise their power.
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I’m with Ted.
Although I would have been about 7 in 1965, I distinctly remember my dad going to the petrol station and getting 4 gallons for a 10s note.
Nowadays I have an EV.
It costs £6.25 to charge overnight for 300 miles range. [insert smug bastard emoji]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I went to school in the early seventies. We were taught in metric and I have to say I prefer all measurements that way. Imperial measurements are annoying and complicated to me. Why are road distances still measured in miles and yards I would like to know, truly frustrating especially as the majority of road users today were never taught in imperial. Recently, I spent some time in Ireland and felt very much at home, everything in metres and litres and petrol cheaper than in UK. Ireland's economy is booming.
I left school in 1973, I had been taught the old money system in many maths classes which all came to nothing with decimalization, that was a good idea. I was actually in Germany all this time from 1965 and outside the classroom money was metric, what a clash. But MPH and miles I much prefer, like gallons and pints!
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When I worked in Germany I thought in English, I translated in my head what I wanted to say from English to German to speak very basic schoolboy German. I was never truly bilingual as I had to do the conscious translation all the time.
Its the same with Imperial v Metric, I was raised on Imperial so I think in Imperial.I have to translate in my head to SI units.
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George, when I started driving I used to get FOUR GALLONS for a quid and still come away with 1s 8d change. It was a female PM (whose grave I would happily dance on) who took us to the £1 gallon. I don't think bxt was the cause but every penny increase is 4.54p extra per gallon, so it's down to smoke and mirrors as usual.
It's now over £8 per gallon so thats a 32 fold increase. I was getting £4 a week as an apprentice, many people are certainly getting 32x£4 or £128 per week
Bloody cheap this petrol stuff ain't it? 😀
Ian
Must be a Hull thing…..
I’d gladly join you dancing on her grave. More than happy to make it an all nighter. Nowt to do with litres or gallons but a great excuse for a jive 😬
Give me metric anyday and I grew up with thou’s, pounds and yards.
Simple multiples of ten. 1 litre weighs 1kg etc etc Soooooo damn simple
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When I started driving a car in 1965 four gallons of Esso Extra cost 19s 8d not much discounting back then.
At least you got a Tiger in your tank, and probably still a tigers tail to take home, I customized the back of my jacket to that classic theme by the way!
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OK, the first pint i pulled was 1s10p hapny, my RE 250 ran a month on a tankful at about£1, i was taught metric engineering then went to sea on a 1953 tanker in imperial, so can anybody explain why we buy timber as 3 meters of 4x2 inch for example!
Found a tiger sticker last week!
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Smiles per mile is what matters most when riding my classic stuff nowadays.
Have fun and try to forget the price per litre.
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Smiles per mile is what matters most when riding my classic stuff nowadays.
Have fun and try to forget the price per litre.
ESSO sign means happier motoring! ;D
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When I started driving a car in 1965 four gallons of Esso Extra cost 19s 8d not much discounting back then.
At least you got a Tiger in your tank, and probably still a tigers tail to take home, I customized the back of my jacket to that classic theme by the way!
Marginally better than a plastic smurf one of our local garages were handing out.
My earliest recollection of petrol prices was when I was sent on my bike to get a gallon of 16:1 for the lawn mower, two half crowns and enough change to knock on the backdoor of the pub for a packet of crisps and still have some change. The petrol pump was hand cranked.
Regards
Dave
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I've just returned from a holiday in New England. We had a hire car and paid $4.19/gallon (and the Americans think that is really expensive).
Do you feel as though we are being ripped off in this country >:(
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Leaving aside that a US gallon is a 20% smaller than our gallon.we need to pay all that fuel duty & VAT on top of the price to pay our struggling MPs & civil servants comfortably above the minimum wage. ;D
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My earliest recollection of petrol prices was when I was sent on my bike to get a gallon of 16:1 for the lawn mower, two half crowns and enough change to knock on the backdoor of the pub for a packet of crisps and still have some change. The petrol pump was hand cranked.
My earliest memory of fuel payment is odd ball really. We only got a car after my father was posted to Germany, soldiers over there were issued with petrol coupons to be used at BP garages ( also ESSO on autobahns) so he hardly ever needed money at all.