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In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:
Image description:
Text: Amazon's electric cargo bikes have arrived in DC.
Image: A four-wheeled vehicle that appears to be a cross between a bicycle, a go-cart, and a mini-truck
Response text from high t alpha shemale @gluetaster: that's not a cargo bike man that's a loopholemobile
Bicycle: a vehicle with two wheels tandem, handlebars for steering, a saddle seat, and pedals by which it is propelled
Fine, it's not a bicycle, it's a quadracicle if it makes you happy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadracycle
The description of the vehicle is:
"Image: A four-wheeled vehicle that appears to be a cross between a bicycle, a go-cart, and a mini-truck"
There's really nothing about that vehicle that's bicycle-like. First of all, it has more than 2 wheels, so it's not a bicycle. In addition, you don't move it by pedalling. You also sit inside it, not on it.
It's really more of a cross between a golf cart and a delivery truck. It might legally get through loopholes meant for bicycles, but there's nothing about it that looks bicycle-like.
To be clear, that was just a description I quickly made up for the post. I've been trying to make more of an effort to caption my image posts with text, in order to make them more disability-friendly and accessible.
Just two wheels and pedal propulsion are all that is required, I can show you bicycles without handlebar steering or saddle-style seats that you would agree are still definitely bikes.
Regardless, the thing above is certainly not a bike.
I ride a bicycle with a laid back seat, tiller steering, and two wheels, and pedals
It also takes three standard chains to connect the pedals to the back wheel
Bicycle can also be 3 wheeler, either 2 in front or back like adaptive bicycles
or even 3 in line like this
There's also 4wheel adaptive bicycles like this one
Noteworthy also that only 2 from the above had a handlebar!
Now I'm not defending loopholecyle, which is basically a light truck, but just pointing out that your definition is very wrong
The words are tricycle and quadcycle
Bi means two
A trike is not a bike
Behold! A child riding a quadcycle!
Yeah that's the origin of the word
Just like one would think of the dice game when talking about 'hazard'
Sometimes words change their meanings
I'm not usually a linguistic purist but we can't let two mean three.
Trikes and quads might share characteristics with bicycles, but they're not bicycles because they don't have two wheels.
"a vehicle with two wheels tandem"
"a two-wheeled vehicle that you sit on"
"a vehicle with two wheels in tandem"
"Bicycle is a two-wheeled vehicle powered by the rider"
"bicycle, two-wheeled steerable machine that is pedaled by the rider’s feet"
"a bicycle, a bike: a two-wheeled vehicle moved by pressing down on pedals with your feet"
Sometimes you could argue that there's a grey area between a moped and a bicycle, or an e-bike and a bicycle. But, the two wheels is a key part of the definition. As soon as it's more (or less) than two permanently attached wheels, it's no longer a bicycle. That's why we have words like unicycle, tricycle, etc.
I would call the first image a tricycle (The shoulder-driven steering linkage on that thing is cool as hell btw), the second one is a concept that the builder does admittedly call a bike, and the third one a quadcycle with a pedal assist motor.