Generic word for uni-, bi-, tricycle, etc.?

Question

Is there a generic word for bicycle-like vehicles that may have 1,2,3,4 or more wheels?

I want motorcycles excluded; only pedal-driven vehicles should be included.

It may be more complicated, depending on what you are trying to express. This article lists at least 11 types of wheeled, human powered vehicles, including rickshaws and skateboards. Are you limited to pedal driven? What about balance bikes? Trikkes? — bib, Sep 02 '16 at 11:00
Generally something along the line of "human-powered vehicle" is used. Or "pedal-driven vehicle", if you feel you must be that specific. — Hot Licks, Sep 02 '16 at 11:58
How about a manually propelled conveyance? Unfueled gyroscopic transport? Hipstermobile? — rojo, Sep 02 '16 at 12:46
Or one could use "omnicycle", except that the name has been co-opted by an "as seen on TV" exercise bike. — Hot Licks, Sep 02 '16 at 17:39
How about providing a sentence where you would use this word you seek? — Drew, Sep 02 '16 at 20:08
Our legislators cannot find a suitable word. In the traffic act they define "bicycle" to include any number of wheels. — Keith McClary, Sep 04 '16 at 05:13
This is what you get for thoughtlessly adapting a word that is needlessly specific when the concept to be convey was essentially only "human powered driving thingy". Living languages be damned! ;) — I'm with Monica, Sep 06 '16 at 07:38

score 70 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

70

Velocipede (/vəˈlɒsəpiːd/; Latin for "fast foot") is a human-powered land vehicle with one or more wheels. The most common type of velocipede today is the bicycle.

The term "velocipede" is today, however, mainly used as a collective term for the different forerunners of the monowheel, the unicycle, the bicycle, the dicycle, the tricycle and the quadracycle developed between 1817 and 1880.

[Wikipedia.org]

Note that this is unlikely to be understood by a wide audience. I knew the word existed, but I didn't know its exact definition until I researched it for this answer. I had suspected it was just a synonym for bicycle, and was quite happy to find out it was in fact its hypernym.

edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

Community

1

answered Sep 02 '16 at 10:47

AndyT

14,793

1

Huh, I always thought velocipede was just another term for a penny-farthing. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Sep 04 '16 at 13:12
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I always thought velocipede was a synonym for boneshaker, an early bike that looks more like a modern bike than a penny-farthing. According to Wikipedia this is correct - "velocipede" was the manufacturer's term - though the word might also have taken on a more general meaning later. – N. Virgo Sep 04 '16 at 15:53
I would have decoded "fast foot" and thought it was a quick bug. – WBT Sep 04 '16 at 22:48
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I'm still pretty sad that Velocipede never caught on. It's so much of a better name than bicycle. – AJFaraday Sep 05 '16 at 08:53
Velocipedes were pretty much rendered obsolete by the "Ordinary bicycle" or penny farthing. Which itself was obsoleted by chain drive which allowed appropriate gear ratios. – user_1818839 Sep 05 '16 at 18:00
In Russian any pedal-driven bicycle is called velosiped. – Anixx Apr 25 '17 at 12:37

Mithical · Answer 2 · 2016-09-11T09:11:52.593

34

A cycle

4.
a bicycle, motorcycle, tricycle, etc.
_{-Dictionary.com}

Note: This was posted before the exclusion of 'motorcycle'.

edited Sep 11 '16 at 09:11

answered Sep 02 '16 at 10:05

Mithical

1,216

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I want motorcycle excluded, only pedal-driven vehicles shoud be included. – Anixx Sep 02 '16 at 10:07
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In that case, "pedal cycle"? – jsheeran Sep 02 '16 at 14:00
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Oxforddictionaries.com gives A bicycle or tricycle. No mention of a motor--. This fits with what I'm familiar with in the UK (where "bike" may be used for motorbike in context, but "cycle" isn't). – Chris H Sep 02 '16 at 14:00
I assume you want to exclude hand cycles, balance bikes etc? – Chris H Sep 02 '16 at 16:59
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To the downvoter: This answer was posted before the exclusion of motor--. – Mithical Sep 04 '16 at 16:14
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Cycling is an extremely common term for the activity of riding a human powered n-cycle vehicle, and the common term for someone who rides such is cyclist so this answer is better than it may first appear. Cycling is widely recognized as excluding motorcycling. Furthermore, a common term for some motorcycle riders is biker and many motorcyclists refer to their vehicles as bikes. – barbecue Sep 04 '16 at 19:27
@Anixx I've never heard the term cycle applied to a motorcycle, but maybe that's just me. – Fiksdal Sep 06 '16 at 07:49

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 04 '16 at 13:51

23

Pedal cycle.

At least in British English, it is a recognised generic term, sometimes in a formal or legal context such as insurance

Note that the examples of what is covered don't explicitly include numbers of wheels other than two, the term itself is not limited to 2 wheelers.

answered Sep 04 '16 at 13:51

user_1818839

753

4

"Pedal cycle" is not in anything close to common use. – Brock Adams Sep 04 '16 at 17:16
I've seen it written in to some laws. – WBT Sep 04 '16 at 22:46
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@Brock: Kinda – RedGrittyBrick Sep 05 '16 at 13:36
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The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 1994 stated that a ‘pedal cycle’ was defined as “a unicycle, bicycle, tricycle, or cycle having four or more wheels, not being in any case mechanically propelled unless it is an electrically assisted pedal cycle of such class as is to be treated as not being a motor vehicle for the purposes of the 1984 Act.” - http://www.bikehub.co.uk/featured-articles/cycling-and-the-law/ – armb Sep 05 '16 at 13:43
@armb, that article you linked more often says things like: "Cycle Track is the most official term, as it’s used in the legislation noted above" and uses "Cycle lane", "Cycle track", "Cycle path", etc. as the "most official" terms. Your reference supports Mithrandir's answer more than this answer. ... It looks like some Brit bureaucrats tried to coin the term "pedal cycle", but it never caught on and "Velocipede" is still cited six times more often. (See the first comment, above.) Also, "pedal cycle" seems to be a mostly British thing. – Brock Adams Sep 05 '16 at 16:06
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@BrockAdams I wouldn't expect any term for "pedal-powered vehicle with any number of wheels" to be in common use, since the concept itself is not in common use. I live in a city where pedal-powered vehicles are extremely widely used. I'd say that I see a tricycle about once a month, a unicycle about once a year and I don't recall ever seeing something with four or more wheels. So, if I want a term for "pedal-powered vehicle with any number of wheels", I just say "bicycle", which covers 99.99% of what I'm talking about. – David Richerby Sep 05 '16 at 17:47
I agree that outside some official uses it's not in very common or popular use. But that's not what the question asked. We don't know the questioner's intent in asking the question. If it's for some formal purpose where British English is used, it's a suitable term. If it's for a steampunk convention, then go with Velocipede instead. – user_1818839 Sep 05 '16 at 20:30
I just noticed this morning TFL API uses pedal cycle in it's collision data: https://blog.tfl.gov.uk/2016/03/07/london-collision-map-and-improved-cycle-journey-planning/ – AncientSwordRage Sep 06 '16 at 08:10
@BrockAdams - the comments under Mithrandir's answer suggest that the original questioner wanted something that unambiguously excludes motorcycles. (Strictly, even pedal cycle could include some mopeds. For example, the UK legal definition of "cycle track" is (in part) a way over which the public have "a right of way on pedal cycles (other than pedal cycles which are motor vehicles within the meaning of the Road Traffic Act 1988)".) "Velocipede" might be more commonly used, but as AndyT's answer says, it's mainly used to mean something different. – armb Sep 06 '16 at 17:30

score 15 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

Re:

Is there a generic word for bicycle-like vehicles that may have 1, 2, 3, 4 or more wheels?

Technically, yes, see AndyT's answer of "Velocipede".

But practically, no there isn't.
Not every concept has, or needs a word in English. The proof is in the fact that Velocipede never caught on (nor any word like it):

Practically, the word "Bike" is close and and most people will get your meaning.

"Bicycle" shops sell unicycles, bicycles, tricycles (AKA "trikes"), and quadracycles (AKA "Car-Bike" or "Twin bike", among other aliases).

Of course, "Bike" can also mean motorbike. Again, this hints that there is no real need for a unique term.

In terms of: ease of use, (human) power requirements, safety, efficiency, stowability, and support infrastructure, there are huge differences between 1, 2, 3, and 4 wheeled, human-powered vehicles (HPV). Likewise, 5 or more wheels would almost never be a good engineering/ergonomic solution for an HPV**.

So, it makes a great deal of sense to keep separate terms for such devices. They are markedly different experiences from the rider and owner perspectives.

** HPV does not answer the question since it also applies to vast hoards of watercraft, aircraft, etc.

score 9 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 02 '16 at 14:20

9

HPV. Human Powered Vehicle. This is as broad a term as you can get as long as you aren't worried about circus bicycles ridden by animals.

Vehicle types covered by the WHPVA

answered Sep 02 '16 at 14:20

Phil Sweet

15,699

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This would include human powered aircraft and submarines. – stannius Sep 02 '16 at 16:28
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@stannius, and also paddle-boats, rowboats, canoes, skis, balance/circus balls, etc. – Brock Adams Sep 02 '16 at 19:11
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I wouldn't use that acronym. – Laurel Sep 02 '16 at 21:41
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@Laurel Who wants to ride the Human PapillomaVirus? – EKons Sep 03 '16 at 14:35
In the context of cycling, HPV tends to refer to pedal-powered vehicle with significantly better aerodynamic performance (and therefore speed) than a normal bicycle. These tend to be experimental and not suited to riding on open roads. So the term isn't a good fit to many likely contexts for the question. – Chris H Apr 23 '17 at 08:44

score 7 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 04 '16 at 12:02

Apparently there was once the word push-cycle, which is probably exactly the word you want - it doesn't mention the number of wheels, and the "push" excludes the motor-driven ones.
But it is not very widespread. Many dictionaries don't mention it at all, and this non-native speaker certainly never heard of it until I stumbled across it just now!

pushbike would be better understood, at least in BE, but this one does mention the number of wheels. Oh well.

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 22 '17 at 20:13

2

DMV manuals often refer to "non-motorized vehicles", but they are not limited to pedal-driven vehicles.

answered Apr 22 '17 at 20:13

grovkin

718

Generic word for uni-, bi-, tricycle, etc.?

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