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My knowledge of grammar isn't great, but isn't bike(-ride) working as a noun here? I can use it as a verb and say "I biked here this morning" or "it's faster if you bike across the bridge". But I've never heard "I'm going for a bike", or going for a "20 mile bike". Bike ride is what sounds natural in those sentences.

And yet you can "go for a run/jog/walk/swim". English is weird. I guess it's because bike as a noun already means the bicycle itself, while there is no object named "run/jog/swim".




Saying "I'm going for a bike" would be the equivalent for "I'm going for a sneakers" (for a run).. its the action of riding that makes sense.


I thought the author was reaching for a questionable "Tale of Two Cities" Dickens pun :\




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