At 8:00 PM -0400 7/10/03, HM & SS Sachs wrote:
>Fred Rafael Rednor wrote:
>
>Strangely enough, I think you'll find a fair number of "13mm"
>nuts and bolt heads are better fit by a 1/2" wrench. I would
>especially recommend trying the smaller 1/2" wrench on French
>bolts which always strike me as having been made from softer
>steel that Italian ones.
> Conversely, I've worked on a few bikes made to Imperial
>and/or American dimensions whose "9/16 inch" bolt heads were
>better fit by a 14mm wrench. It even made me wonder who was
>supplying fasteners for older American made Schwinns, for
>example. Along those lines, the metric socket sets i own tend to
>jump from 15 mm. to 17 mm. Only after I bought a 16 mm did I
>discover how often a 5/8" works just as well. Youth may make
>mistakes, but I wouldn't mind having some of it back...
And, 11 mm = 7/16"
The common 5 x .8 bolts used for bottle cages, fender/rack mounts and a myriad of other bike applications are often functionally interchangeable with #10-32.
However, I would point out that the use of the term "imperial" is ambiguous if you don't specify which empire it applies to. The metric system was spread through Europe by the bayonets of the Corsican Tyrant, after all.
Sheldon "A Bas L'Emepereur" Brown
Newtonville, Massachusetts
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