'drive' a bike

[Bendy]

Where does this increasingly common term come from?

Is it a 'thing' or are people just stupid?

Maybe kids don't grow up with bicycles any more, I never went out for a 'drive' on my Raleigh Bluebell.

[Zen Dog]

[DrDonnyBrago]

Whilst I don't use it myself, and ride is more accurate, I quite frankly don't give a toss.



drive
verb /drīv/ 

1. Operate and control the direction and speed of a motor vehicle

[EazyDuz]

This is riding me crazy.
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To shreds you say? Tss tss tss

[Bendy]

Accuracy is everything.

Without it we will descend into a world of 'draws', 'brought' and being 'formally' known as.

[Flemy]

[RhynoCZ]

It is interesting, here we've got different language and people also use term: drive to describe what a person does on a motorcycle.

Basically I'd say, you ride on something, you drive something. So if you lose the 'on' then it's easily interchangeable.
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[map]

[pendulum]

When I got a diesel car I still used to say "I need petrol", I had a diesel for 3 years and don't think I ever said or thought "I need diesel", it was always petrol. Saying drive instead of ride is another old habit of mine, I make the effort to correct myself on this forum but amongst friends/in my own thoughts I still refer to myself as going out for a drive on the bike.
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1998 CG125 (Sold) CB500 [+ Clio 172]
Usually_Wrong: I tend to fail more than pass. [Speaking about Theory Practice]
Usually_Wrong: im on unemployment at the moment

[c-m]

Drive is a correct term for riding a motorcycle based on the dictionary definition, but it was never intended to be, and is grammatically incorrect.

Drive a carriage, ride a horse.

A car is a horseless carriage, a motorcycle a steel horse.
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[DrDonnyBrago]

Does anyone want to come for a ride in my car?

[Bendy]

[RhynoCZ]

[DrDonnyBrago]

I say fuel, unless I specifically refer to petrol or diesel.


I'd be more concerned about someone saying they were going to put "petrol" in my car than I would if they wanted to "drive" my bike .

[MarJay]

I prefer the term 'ride' for motorcycling and 'drive' for cars/vans etc...

However, 'ride' implies that you have a lesser kind of control over the bike than 'drive' does. I can understand 'riding' a horse for example, as the horse has its own brain.

Not only this, the government has the 'driving standards agency' and 'driving license'. It is not the 'driving and riding standards agency' or a 'riding license'...

I dunno, interesting topic. I'll always say 'ride my bike' instead of 'drive' but I'm not sure if it is totally inaccurate.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Fowlersrs]

Does it really fucking matter?

[map]

[Teflon-Mike]

It does seem an Americanism....
But lets have a ponder on this one....

Do you have a 'Riding Licence'?

No, so what it it? Its a DRIVING licence, with entitlement to 'Ride' a motorbike.

As a kid, ever have your dad ask when he went out "Want to come for a ride in the car?"

So if you can 'Ride' in a car, why cant you 'Drive' on a motorbike?

Lets go back to origin of terms.

What is 'Driving'?

You DROVE herds of live-stock; sheep, cattle, pigs or geese.

"I'm going to drive the Cow to Market & trade it for some magic beans"

When you got to the Market / Fair....

"I had a RIDE on the Swing Boat"

Implication, is to DRIVE is to exert control on a journey, to RIDE is to be an intern 'passenger' on a vehicle.....

So to SOME degree, who-ever has their hands on the controls is probably more correctly 'Driving' whether its a car or a motorbike.... while a passenger is riding, because they aren't at the controls.

I do find it rather annoying that people describe piloting a bike as 'Driving'.... and it probably is, ignorance, laziness, americanism, rather than anything else, though inadvertently 'more' correct use of terminology.....

Now you ought to see this new kettle I brough

THAT is another... go back to our primal nature as hunter-gatherers though?
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[Bendy]

[Vincent]

When choosing the correct definition, I'm sure the fact that you have to balance a bike comes into it somewhere.

Personally, I can't stand it when people, esp news presenters, pronounce Afghanistan "Afghanistaaahn And the phrase - "Let me make this clear", or, "I have to say....", and posh people using the word ""Gutted", but my pet hate is when people use the word ""Literally" incorrectly, as in " I was literally gutted". Ooohh, that gets my goat
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Space Is Deep

[RhynoCZ]

Yes, you've got driving licence, which allows you to drive a motorized vehicle.

So, you drive a motorcycle, but you ride on it. If you use 'ride' as a noun, then you can have it (ride) in a car and it's still correct.

Do you see the difference?

It's just my theory, I don't know you're language that well so I can't make any conclusions here, but it pretty much makes sense to me.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Marmalade]

[Ambitions0far...]

Riding comes from the horses, the cowboys term for moving cattle while on horseback was driving. They started using driving as a term for using a horse to work, they then dicided that to drive a horse you needed a license but to just ride it you didn't. When the motor vechile was introduced the term drive (which was now in common use) was adapted to it. As a bike is a modern day horse the term stands, being used for pleasure it is riding, if used for moving cattle its driving xD


*I may be talking completely out my arse..
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Current: ZX10r (2006)
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[MarJay]

[Suntan Sid]