The language tends to be very colloquial and nuanced.

I say I'm going biking, not cycling.

I describe my self as a cyclist, not a biker (confuses with motorcycle riders)

It's swim-bike-run, not swim-cycle-run....but I've heard it called the bike leg or the cycling leg interchangeably.

Bike racer, not cycle racer....but racing cyclist, not racing biker.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

It depends are where you are from and which dialect you use.

For instance, I say "pop" when talking about Coke, Pepsi, etc... but most people around the world that speak English say soda or soda pop.

I think Titanflexr nailed it. I mostly use "biker," "bike ride," "biking," etc. when talking with other triathletes or cyclists. (Oops, I flipped.) But, I use "cyclist" when communicating with general audiences to avoid confusion with motorcyclists use of the term "biker."

I flipped to cyclist above for clarity and a little humor since I had already used some version of biker a few times at the beginning of the sentence.

For me:

bike = mostly a noun, short for bicycle, I use the triathlon lingo for "bike" as it is a norm
bicycle = formal for a bicycle to differentiate from a motorcycle
cycle = verb, for riding a bike, or something you go through in life, like the seasons
cycling = present progressive.......this is what I and the wife refer to what I'm going to do (are you going cycling today)
riding = while I'm actually doing it, I tend to use this.........if I get an urgent text from the wife......"I'm out riding"
biking = I don't honestly know many motorcyclist or true cyclists that use this.......I find it to be a term reserved for moms and dads with kids on the greenway
cyclist = person who rides a bicycle for exercise and occasionally (even on a B group ride) competes in some manner, even a light fondo


Honestly, the whole "bike rider" versus "cyclist" thing for me appears to break down into a "serious" versus "Fred" kind of thing. It's a race to the bottom on both sides to see who is more serious and who is the most nonchalant.

To rec riders, "cyclist" conjures up their worst nightmares of suffering during exercise or sport and their worst fears of being non-competitive.

To me, cyclist is simply someone who rides a bicycle ultimately for the purpose of even mild or irregular competition. That could even be the weeknight B-ride sprinting for home. Cyclists.

To me, "do you play golf" was more along the lines of recreation. "Oh, you're a golfer" was more along the lines of "oh, you travel and compete in this".

wrong, every thing is coke, get it right

I thought "soda" was mostly a US thing too. In Ireland and UK, carbonated drinks like coke, pepsi, etc are mostly referred to as "soft drinks" but also called "fizzy drinks", or "minerals". Carbonated water is sometimes referred to as soda water, but that's about it in my experience. I can't remember what they called them in NZ and Australia. It's a long time since I've been to either.

That's right, west coast is Coke.

Funny thing, every time I go to California people instantly know that I'm not from around there but to me they don't sound any different.

Now every time I've been to Colorado I can hear the difference in dialect.

Pop is a Michigan, Ohio and I think an Indiana thing.

And PA, at least around Pittsburgh.

Soda in mizery

Those who speak English (not American) call it 'pop'.
😜

Grew up in Southern Indiana, live in NW PA, for me it's soda.

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TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.

This was interesting:

http://popvssoda.com/statistics/PA.html

Pennsylvania statistics:
Total responses: 25265 (6.29% of all responses, 6.74% of all U.S. responses)
pop: 13089 (51.81% of all Pennsylvania responses, 8.30% of all pop responses)
soda: 11395 (45.10% of all Pennsylvania responses, 6.94% of all soda responses)
coke: 331 (1.31% of all Pennsylvania responses, 0.57% of all coke responses)
other: 450 (1.78% of all Pennsylvania responses, 2.13% of all other responses)

Ai_1

Sorry, I seem to have derailed this thread :)

I say biking

When I was new to the sport a few cyclist friends told me to come out for a bike ride.

What came to pass was me being dragged along for a 100km group ride where I was constantly off the back. I remember thinking to myself while suffering like a rented mule "this isn't 'just going out for a bike ride!!!!'"

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Long Chile was a silly place.

I'm a "cyclist" who goes for a "ride" or who goes "riding."

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"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

too funny, I grew up in SW Ohio, it was always "coke" never soda or pop.

If you said "Pepsi" you were odd, or from The South. If you asked for Dr. Pepper you were really weird and Definitely Not from Around Here.

Flow of dialect follows path of Ohio River or Erie Canal for Ohio during settlement as I recall.

Harvard Dialect Survey

if fascinated by dialect in the US:
https://aschmann.net/AmEng/#SmallMapCanada

Back to OP question: I prefer Cyclist always. Bicyclist is acceptable, never 'biker'. Or worse yet, 'cycle-r'.

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Anne Barnes
ABBikefit, Ltd
FIST/SICI/FIST DOWN DEEP
X/Y Coordinator
abbikefit@gmail.com

Any time I hear "biker", the first thought that comes to mind is a big guy with a beard and leather jacket sitting on a Harley...

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"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"

If I am around people who ride a lot, I tend to say "cycling". Around everyone else, I'll say either but usually "biking"

Funny, grew up in Michigan. Live in Colorado and have 2nd home in Michigan near family. Going back and forth, the Michigan dialect is the strange one to me now. But I do still say pop occasionally.

I tend to use cycling whenever it fits the structure of my sentence because I share office space with some bikers and we were both talking about our weekend rides on more Mondays than I'd like to admit before we realized we weren't talking about the same kind of bikes.

Tangentially, I get a chuckle translating bike riding to German. Fahrrad fahren. Although I may need to be corrected

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swim.bike.run.soccer