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Word of the day:

Velocipedes.

  Wikipedia describes it as:

Velocipede (/vəˈlɒsəpiːd/;Latin for "fast foot") is ahuman-powered land vehiclewith one or more wheels. The most common type of velocipede today is thebicycle.
The term was coined by Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce in 1818 to describe his version of theLaufmaschine, which was invented by the German Karl Drais in 1817. The term "velocipede" is today, however, mainly used as a collective term for the different forerunners of themonowheel, the unicycle, the bicycle, the dicycle, thetricycle and the quadracycledeveloped between 1817 and 1880.

I ran into this while checking out an old Sears Catalog PDF but they differentiate the bicycle from the Velocipede, which they describe as a tricycle or a quadcycle.

and the word is also used to describe hand or foot powered carts that travel on rail lines.

UK site on the history of these carts HERE

A Velocipede is a simple 3 or 4 wheeled rail vehicle which the rider propels along the track using his arms and legs. It was invented by George Sheffield to get to work by unofficially riding on the tracks of the Michigan Central Railway in the hours of darkness. One evening he found a broken rail and by borrowing a lantern from a local farm, he stopped an approaching train and prevented a derailment and loss of life.

News of his nocturnal velocipeding was out but the railway company was grateful for his prompt action and allowed his use of their tracks, also asking him to build another velocipede for the Michigan Central.

His patent was issued on 11 March 1879 and according to the Scientific American of 3 November 1883, 4000 of these machines had been sold in America and Europe in just 4 years, a worldwide hit.
News of his nocturnal velocipeding was out but the railway company was grateful for his prompt action and allowed his use of their tracks, also asking him to build another velocipede for the Michigan Central.
His patent was issued on 11 March 1879 and according to the Scientific American of 3 November 1883, 4000 of these machines had been sold in America and Europe in just 4 years, a worldwide hit.

and will they make a comeback?
Treehugger has an article on the bicycle of the future.