The bike that goes by pedal power
The BICYCLE is one of the cleverest machines ever made, and this word search gathers it. You'll be finding the spinning WHEELS, the PEDAL and CHAIN that drive them, the FRAME that holds it all together, and types from the two-seat TANDEM to the little TRICYCLE for beginners.
Each puzzle pulls a fresh selection from the list, so the bike shed changes every time you play — gentle on Easy, and a Hard-mode ride once the diagonals and backwards words appear.
Parts and pedalling
A bike is full of parts to learn, and the words are here. There's the HANDLEBAR you steer with, the comfy SADDLE you sit on, the GEARS for hills and the BRAKES for stopping, the CRANK that turns the CHAIN and the thin metal SPOKES inside the WHEELS. The RIDER rings the BELL and carries shopping in a BASKET. Keep a PUMP handy for a flat TIRE, fit a MUDGUARD for wet days and a night REFLECTOR, flip down the KICKSTAND at the shops — and, if you're brave, pull a WHEELIE.
The most efficient machine ever invented
A BICYCLE is a marvel of simple engineering: with no fuel and barely any moving parts, it turns the push of your legs on the PEDAL, through the CHAIN, into spinning WHEELS — and it's so efficient that a person on a bike is one of the most energy-saving travellers on Earth, beating a walking human and almost every animal. The clever bits in this grid all earn their place: the GEARS let you swap easy pedalling for speed, the thin SPOKES make a wheel both light and astonishingly strong, and an air-filled TIRE soaks up the bumps.
Bikes have a brilliant history, too. Early 'penny-farthings' had one giant wheel and were a nightmare to ride; the 'safety bicycle' with two equal wheels and a CHAIN, much like today's, made cycling something everyone could do — and it gave people, especially women in the late 1800s, a cheap new freedom to travel on their own. Today a TANDEM seats two and a TRICYCLE keeps the youngest riders steady. Learning the parts and the safety kit — the BELL, MUDGUARD and REFLECTOR — makes this a great fit for a road-safety or transport topic. For racing rather than the machine, try our cycling word search.
Great for a road-safety topic
It's a fun pairing with road-safety and transport lessons — Easy mode keeps the grid small with no diagonals or reverse words. Play online, print a PDF pack, or use Make Your Own to build a grid from your own cycling words.