Why are they called quad bikes?

B

Barbara Doll to you

New member
unicycle = 1 wheel
bicycle/bike = 2 wheels
tricycle/trike = 3 wheels

should it not be quadcycycle/quike = 4 wheels? . I doubt we'd ever say we've got a trike bike. So why quad bike? It doesn't make sense as the bi = 2.
 
Actually they are called quads. the bike is a vernacular added by people that has dropped into common use like Hoover is always used to mean vacuum.

also if it was quad bike that would be quad bicycle which would be 4 x 2 wheels.

so stick to the original term of Quad not the vernacular ( "quad" was chosen because it scans better than quad-cycle which does appear in the dictionary)
 
They want the name to stand out and sound good. 'Quad' means 4 aswell, so basically a 'Quad bike' is a bike but with 4 wheels.
 
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