The future is the same.

     I remember the day that I woke up during the Physics class I dropped.  The professor was making a very certain and matter of fact statement: the English measuring system would be eliminated in 5 years.  He said it so casually and with such assurance there was no reason to question him.  It also made sense.  We have made great progress toward that.  High school classrooms now have "yardsticks" that are 39 1/2 inches long, but it's only been 35 years since that Physics class, we should be patient.  I'm still buying socket sets and allen keys in both English and metric sizes, but fortunately bikes are predominately built in metric measurements.
    Nearly everything in the bike industry is related now in metrics, so our little corner of the world makes sense, right?    All wheel sizes are now built and ordered by standard ISO measurements but we haven't caught on quite yet. We still hang onto the old nomenclature.when it comes to the tires. It wouldn't be so frustrating if we only rode on road bikes with "700c" wheels, everybody knows they are really 622 mm in diameter not 700.

That would be easy to deal with, except that some people call them 28".

   But now looking for 26" tires can be challenging.  Are you looking for 26 x1 3/8,35-590 (650a)tires,

26 x 1 1/2 38-584mm (650B)tires,

26x1.50inch 35-559 tires,

or 26x1,28- 571mm (650c).  Kinda like the metric system, it would be easy if we just used one but  conversion has become a lifestyle we have embraced.

   I'm just glad inner tubes stretch,'cause I get dizzy buying new ones.

   If we only used road bikes we could depend on those, after all we know those aren't 700c,

those are 29ers.