How did we ever call them Quad bikes?

By definition a bike has two wheels.

Bike is a shortened ersion of bicycle.
Bicycle is from BI =2 and the greek kuklos meaning wheel.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bicycle

I didn't think it needed spelt out.

If we have bicycles and tricycles, we should have stuck with the Greek and called them tetracycles.

I can understand the confusion but the word bike is now a generic term used to describe various modes of transport. the type generally identified by a pre-fix e.g. motorbike.

I suppose the word should strictly be quadcycle as opposed to bicycle or tricycle (a few of which I've seen). Good question though.

Unlike Latin or Ancient Greek, English is a living language.

You're right!

They should be called a quadrycle, like a tricycle or bicycle

EDIT: Its a fair question. Bike is short for BIcycle where the bi is Latin for 2. If it has more than 2, it isn;t a bicycle, and therfore not a bike.

We call them quad bikes because they have four wheels.
Like a Trike,which is a motorbike with three wheels, the word bike is still associated with it.

You are right, they should be Quad Cycles. But then the English language is never very consistent.

Edit: the number of people who don't know that 'bi' means two is shocking!!

"Quad bikes" is referring to 4 wheeled bikes. 4 meaning Quad..

Maybe because the vehicle has four wheels, but cannot be placed into. for instance, the car category.

Clever question, I think when most people saw it they thought "Boy what an idiot"

No, good question, I agree with your reasoning.

How did you ever called it American Football ? It's a kind of rugby! And people calling themselves indian or jew?

but a quad bike has 4!!

Look at the number of wheels,I say look at the number of wheels. codger

But a quad bike has four??

yeh but a quad has 4

Which definition is that , can you quote in directly from anywhere , who says a bike has to have 2 wheels

bi cycle......... 2 wheels tri cycle.......... 3 wheels quad bike............ 4 wheels

Oh Dear, you're not very bright are you??

coz quad bikes have 4 wheels. duh!