How many bike types

[Pinhead]

Seriously .................



Road Racing Bike
Sportive / Endurance Road Bike
Triathlon
Time Trial Bike
Audax / Randonneur Bike
Touring Bike
Cyclocross Bike
All-Road / Gravel Road Bike
Singlespeed / Fixed Gear Bike
Track Bike
Porteur
Flat Bar Road Bike
Hybrid
Commuter
Dutch Bike
Folding Bike
Downhill Bike
All Mountain
Enduro Bike
Trail Bike
Cross Country Bike
Fat Bike
Expedition Bike
Hardcore Hardtail
Dirt Jump Bike
Trials Bike
BMX
Electric Bike

[Audax67]

Of course, you can get folding Audax bikes, and my former Audax bike is now electric.

[Jdsk]

I can do animals:

(a) those that belong to the Emperor, (b) embalmed ones, (c) those that are trained, (d) suckling pigs, (e) mermaids, (f) fabulous ones, (g) stray dogs, (h) those that are included in the present classification, (i) those that tremble as if they are mad, (j) innumerable ones, (k) those drawn with a very fine camel hair brush, (l) others, (m) those that have just broken a flower vase, (n) those that look like flies from a long way off.

Jonathan

[VinceLedge]

Cargo bike?

[tenbikes]

Way too many.

Should be: one wheel, two wheels, three wheels.
I think four wheels, even if chain driven like a bike isn't really a bike, but you can add that as a fourth if you insist

[a.twiddler]

"Seriously" -?
Like the man with a jumbo sized can of worms and a tin opener. or the key to Pandora's box, it's a bit late to have second thoughts once you've used it. This thread could go on for ever, which could be bad news for the person who was hoping to be able to have a ready reference to all sorts of bike types at a glance.

A rigid mountain bike could be used as a winter bike, a round town hack, a station bike or even for touring, and other types of bikes could too, especially once they're older.

Then there's upright trikes for various purposes. and recumbent trikes for various purposes. Different wheel configurations, 2 in front, 2 at the back. Vintage trikes which might have a large wheel on one side, two small wheels on the other, to give the advantage of a four wheeler on rutted roads. Quads themselves. All varieties from speedy lightweights to off road to rugged load luggers. Some folders.

Tandems both sporty or leisurely, upright or recumbent, even with one recumbent and one upright rider. Possibly with three wheels too.

Recumbent bikes, all different, long wheelbase short wheelbase, compact long wheelbase, with suspension, without suspension, large wheels, small wheels, one of each, front wheel drive, again lightweight and fast, steady tourers, even off roaders. Underseat steering, overseat steering.
Much more variety, low volume production, even home made and hard to categorise. Again, some folders.

Seatless trials bikes, stunt bikes. Tall bikes.

Vintage high wheelers or "ordinaries". Draisiennes, hobby-horses. Treadle driven or front wheel pedal driven.

Wooden bikes. Bamboo bikes. Wrought iron, gas pipe steel, lightweight steel, aluminium, carbon fibre, other plastic composite frames.

Someone will be along soon to add more categories

[TrevA]

Dursley Pedersen
Balance Bike
High Ordinary (Penny Farthing)

[TrevA]

Way too many.

Should be: one wheel, two wheels, three wheels.
I think four wheels, even if chain driven like a bike isn't really a bike, but you can add that as a fourth if you insist

Technically, only a a 2 wheeled cycle is a bike, 3 wheels trike, 4 wheels quadrike?

[rareposter]

Seriously .................



Road Racing Bike

Since you can "race" any bike, it's more useful to have broader categories and then sub-categories, a bit like how you classify animals:
1) kingdom, (2) phylum or division, (3) class, (4) order, (5) family, (6) genus, and (7) species.

Within bikes of course there's a lot more crossover - could easily argue that "gravel" fits into both CX and road and of course "folding" could be a sub-category of many bikes since you can get both quick fold and bikes that use couplings. Electric as well - can have e-road, e-cargo, e-MTB, e-gravel...

Rather than a neat linear tree, it's more a very broad range of overlapping circles where one bike could easily fit 3 or 4 different sub-categories and you could probably go further and classify by intended use or by frame material or wheel size...?

[Jdsk]

...
Rather than a neat linear tree, it's more a very broad range of overlapping circles where one bike could easily fit 3 or 4 different sub-categories and you could probably go further and classify by intended use or by frame material or wheel size...?

Yes. As is so often the case properties and, now, tags are more useful than disjunct categories.

I think that was probably part of Borges' thoughts...

Jonathan

[cycle tramp]

I can do animals:

(a) those that belong to the Emperor, (b) embalmed ones, (c) those that are trained, (d) suckling pigs, (e) mermaids, (f) fabulous ones, (g) stray dogs, (h) those that are included in the present classification, (i) those that tremble as if they are mad, (j) innumerable ones, (k) those drawn with a very fine camel hair brush, (l) others, (m) those that have just broken a flower vase, (n) those that look like flies from a long way off.

Jonathan

I can do birds... i) chicken ii) not a chicken

[cycle tramp]

Can't believe that 'All Terrain Shopping Bike' was missed from the list...
It's going to be the next big thing in bikes - cycling to the shops, but more extreme

[Jdsk]

I can do animals:

(a) those that belong to the Emperor, (b) embalmed ones, (c) those that are trained, (d) suckling pigs, (e) mermaids, (f) fabulous ones, (g) stray dogs, (h) those that are included in the present classification, (i) those that tremble as if they are mad, (j) innumerable ones, (k) those drawn with a very fine camel hair brush, (l) others, (m) those that have just broken a flower vase, (n) those that look like flies from a long way off.

I can do birds... i) chicken ii) not a chicken

Needs a Hen Diagram.

: - )

Jonathan

[nirakaro]

I can do birds... i) chicken ii) not a chicken

I still use the classification I came up with as a (very urban) child:
i) sparrows ii) ducks iii) mythical birds.
Chicken I imagined to be a vegetable.

[nosmarbaj]

Can't believe that 'All Terrain Shopping Bike' was missed from the list...
It's going to be the next big thing in bikes - cycling to the shops, but more extreme

Many years ago I was cycling in the Torridon area and came across a man on a Raleigh Shopper (for younger readers, this was a small-wheeled bike made of heavy steel tubing - OK for cycling to the shops but not much else, you'd think). He was cycling round the entire coast of GB, taking only the public roads nearest the sea. Any dead ends such as the Torridon - Diabaig road (where I met him) he cycled to the end and back; that road is 15 km long with some seriously steep bits, while the Loch Garry - Kinlochourn road is less steep but over 35 km each way. I don't know whether he completed his trip, nor what type he would have said his bike was.