Bike Week 2025 - Language Matters!

It’s Bike Week! This year, we’re focusing on the theme “Cycling For Everyone.”

Because cycling isn’t just for people in Lycra on carbon frames.

It’s for kids discovering balance. For families exploring together. For older adults rediscovering joy. For disabled riders with the right adaptations. For queer joy on wheels.
It’s for anyone and everyone who wants to move their body, get outdoors, and feel free.

Each day this week, we’ll be shining a light on one area of inclusive cycling - from what the word cycle means to us and try-out days, to LGBTQ+ community rides and personal stories. And we’re kicking it off with something simple, but powerful:

Why we say “cycle”, not “bike”

You might notice something different about how we talk. We don’t usually say bike. We say cycle, and here’s why:
"Bike" usually means two wheels. When most people hear bike, they picture a traditional two-wheeled bicycle. But not everyone rides on two wheels, and not everyone wants to or can.

We work with people who ride:

• Trikes (three wheels)
• Handcycles
• Recumbents
• Tandems and side-by-sides
• Cycles with footplates, straps, backrests and custom seating

So when we say cycle, we’re using a word that includes all of those.

Language shapes who feels welcome.

Words matter. If someone has never seen a body like theirs on a bike, or if they’re told cycling “isn’t for them,” then language can become a barrier in itself.

By choosing the word cycle, we’re sending a different message:

You belong here, however you roll.

It’s a small word swap, but it’s rooted in something big: inclusion.

It’s about more than wheels.

Accessibility is about more than ramps and doors (though we care about those, too).
It’s about:

• How we speak to people
• What assumptions we make
• Who we represent in our images and events
• And yes, even what we call the things we ride

We believe in cycling for everybody.
So whether you ride two wheels, three wheels, four, or something else entirely, you’re a cyclist. And you’re welcome here.

Get Cycling CIC, 22 Hospital Fields Road, York YO10 4D
getcycling.org.uk | 01904 636 812 | admin@getcycling.org.uk

Published June 2025