Your unicycle called a "bike"

[deadbeatpope]

How bothered are you when someone calls your unicycle a "bike"?

Please indicate your dismay on a level of 1 to 5. A higher number means more annoyed. Also, please explain yourself if you have strong feelings one way or the other.

I am scheduled to be a guest on one of my favorite radio shows and podcasts, A Way With Words, to discuss this issue on Thursday, May 19th.

The theme of their show is language and grammar and how it is used. Since we have quite a bit of our own language in the unicycle world I thought I would share that fact with them and invite them to look at the word "bike" from an unbiased point of view.

I had contacted them through Facebook with the topic and it can be visited on their page http://www.facebook.com/waywordradio if you would like to discuss it there. Their website is http://www.waywordradio.org/.

Please chime in with your thoughts so that I can bring various points of view to the discussion. Also, please deomonstrate the various contexts in which your unicycle has been called a bike... The poll is simply to impress IntoTheBlue.


Please have fun and be nice to each other...

[tanny]

The other day we were at the camping/bike shop. I wanted to figure out how to hang my unicycles off a bike rack so I asked them, "Can I bring in my ride? I need to know how to make them work on a Thule rack." They looked at me as if I had two heads and then said, "ahh, sure."

I walked in with my 36 and my kh trials. When the bike techs saw me they all wanted to help me figure it out. They had more questions for me than I had for them. They were truly intrigued. Even some customers approached me and asked me where they can get one. I showed them the UDC stickers.

None of them called my uni's a bike. Even if they did it wouldn't bother me.

Just in case you wanted to know how to hang your uni on a two pronged hitch rack, you have the neck clamped on to one prong and the wheel thru the other prong. It's easier on the 36 because of the wide spaces in between spokes.

[King Of Suede]

I've had someone call it a tricycle!

I find it funny, I'd say only 2 on a scale of 1-5.
I mean, my aunt came up to me at the last family gathering and asked "So, I heard you ride one of those umm... those wheelie thingys... like a bike with one wheel"
hahah I mean, saying that is jsut a contradiction in itself.

Please address in this podcast the use of there/their/they're and then/than because THAT makes me angry to no end, especially when people don't know the difference.

[knoxuni]

The one wheel bike thing makes me laugh but what really makes me mad is when people call it a unicorn!

[King Of Suede]

Originally Posted by knoxuni

what really makes me mad is when people call it a unicorn!

I don't believe that one.... I just don't believe it.
At least they get the uni part right.

[knoxuni]

My little sisters friend called it that and so did another kid

[MuniAddict]

Originally Posted by deadbeatpope

How bothered are you when someone calls your unicycle a "bike"?

Not bothered in the least, and if anything, it gives one the opportunity to get creative with a snappy comeback. Here's a perfect example...at :45

[King Of Suede]

Haha I don't think that guy understood what you said for a few seconds.
"Oh... Thats not a bike hummmmmmmmm"

Not related to the grammar discussion.. But can someone explain to me why people yell "DO A WHEELIE!!"?
What am I supposed to do? xD

[MuniAddict]

Originally Posted by King Of Suede

But can someone explain to me why people yell "DO A WHEELIE!!"?
What am I supposed to do? xD

I always just reply, "I am!" That never fails to get a laugh from the very person who made the comment.

[brent]

Actually, I call it a bike myself sometimes.
It let's me be a bit more nonchalant about situations where I don't want to call attention to myself. It also makes it easier to ask things like "do you mind if I bring my bike along" - or "are there any good bike trails out your way", etc.

[deadbeatpope]

Just added the poll. Seems I didn't do it right on the first try.

Originally Posted by MuniAddict

I always just reply, "I am!"

Me too.

[DSchmitt]

i usually just unload all the tools out of my pocket and throw them at the culprit. as well as my camera/tripod.


i don't put up with that bullshit, same with "where's the other wheel". people always find themselves in INTENSE situations after they say that crap to me

[harper]

Originally Posted by deadbeatpope

Just added the poll. Seems I didn't do it right on the first try.

You did it right on the first try when there was no poll. Polls are an exercise in asininity. Nothing ever comes of them. They are the most misused feature of the forum.

I have heard unicycles called bikes, trikes, bicycles, tricycles, clown bikes, unicorns, unisexes, motorcycles, and probably some other stuff. I used to get pretty annoyed but in reality the etymology of unicycle itself, like hexadecimal, is pretty screwed up so it doesn't really matter that much.

[deadbeatpope]

Originally Posted by harper

You did it right on the first try when there was no poll. Polls are an exercise in asininity. Nothing ever comes of them. They are the most misused feature of the forum.

I know. I added it kinda jokingly. Never done it before...

So most of us have heard a lot of things... Tricycle is always odd because tricycles are commonplace. Unicorn also odd. One wheeled bike...well if you didn't know the word how would you describe it? One wheeled tricycle is more accurate but it isn't usually the genius who says this stuff.

My unicycle is most often called a bike by a small child who says something like "cool bike!" with a big smile. How mad could I be. Once I heard a parent in a very authoritative and educating tone point and say "you see that is a one wheeled bike". Now that is funny.

I am going to veer a little here and just go vocabulary. We often think all of these statements are stupid but the rules are not as strict as many believe. A bicycle with training wheels is not a quadracycle. A three wheeled unicycle isn't a tricycle. I dare say that bike does not even mean bicycle because it can also mean motorcycle. Bike is derived from bicycle but has it come to mean "cycle" and would it just be easier if it had?

[unicycledood]

It dosn't bother me, but I do correct people that say bike. If they continue to say bike I take it as a sign they're trying to annoy me and I simply ignore them and go show my skills to someone else :P