A reunion of family bikes in Portland last weekend
I read a note recently from someone who had recently stumbled upon a group of family bikers, which she referred to as a “convergence.” While this suggested the random nature of the experience, it made me realize I don’t know the collective noun for a group of bicycles, or for their riders.
English collective nouns mostly seem to focus on venery (the other venery): a pod of whales, a gaggle of geese, a murder of crows, a cete of badgers. But it’s not just animals. Inanimate objects have collective nouns: a bushel of apples, a deck of cards, an embarrassment of riches, a belt of asteroids, a hill of beans. You can find a posse of sheriffs, a slate of candidates, a hastiness of cooks, a troupe of dancers, or a bench of judges. And there is a collective noun for bicycle racers, which is, of course, a peloton.
But roadies aren’t my people. I could never call a group of family bikers a peloton, because that would be ridiculous.
If I got to choose, I would call the kinds of bikes I see most often a reunion of family bikes.
That’s just me, though. Is there an established collective noun for bicycles? If not, what should it be?
Hum of the city 
I like posse, but as a verb: “wanna bike posse?”
(Correct answer: “Yes!”)
A like a murmuring.
a wave of family cyclists…
Our kids swarm about on bikes, so a “swarm of family cyclists” seems semi-appropriate. But our bakfiets does not swarm, so perhaps our family as a group is more like “a wall of family cyclists”? (that’s what people coming the other way on the bike path probably see us as!)
Well, in Great Britain, if you’re not racing your bike in any athletic way, you might be seen “pootling to the shops on your bike. So in this spirit, we might bless the group of leisurely or commuting riders as a “pootle of bicycles” or a “pootle of riders.”
How about A Cambridge of bi(cycles)? I work in Cambridge and we have thousands and thousands, so it seems appropriate, at least to me.
I like “Reunion”
The collective word for cyclists is
A bottom of cyclists .
Just follow a group of them and it’s obvious
My partner calls them a Hazzard when driving along he’ll say Hazzard Ahead
A spoke of cyclists would be my term for it, like a murder of crows or a pride of lions. Saw them today (Oct 30th) riding en masse down Sierra Madre Blvd. That’s what made me think of a name for it. “Spoke” spoke to me as the right name.
A spoke of cyclists would be my term for it, like a murder of crows or a pride of lions. Saw them today (Oct 30th) riding en masse down Sierra Madre Blvd. That’s what made me think of a name for it. “Spoke” spoke to me as the right name.