A BMX bicycle is a strong, relatively quick-handling, lightweight deriviative of the standard 20"-wheel single-speed youth bicycle. Variations include larger 24" wheel BMX bikes and occasional multi-speed bikes.

In bicycle racing, sports bicycles are used in a competitive way, most often in trials of speed. There are two types of bicycle: recumbent (which hold world speed records) and diamond frames which are faster up hills.

Cyclocross (or cyclo-cross) is a form of bicycle racing. Races take place typically in the autumn and winter (the international season is September-January), and consists of many laps of a short (2-3km) course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills, and obstacles requiring the rider to dismount, jump the barrier and remount.

Keirin is a track cycling event in which racing cyclists sprint for victory. Unlike the conventional track sprint discipline where riders seek to 'draft' or 'slipstream' each other, in the first few laps of the Keirin, cyclists are paced by a motorised vehicle called a derny, which leaves the track a few laps before the end, at a speed of about 50 km/h. The first cyclist to finish the high-speed (sometimes at 70 km/h) race is the winner.

Mountain biking is the sport of riding bicycles away from paved roads. It requires endurance, bike handling skills and self-reliance. It is an individual sport performed on dirt roads, fire roads, access roads, park trails and mountain trails.

Road bicycle racing is a popular bicycle racing sport held on the road (following the geography of the area), using racing bikes. It is popular all over the world, but especially in Europe. The most competitive and devoted countries are generally thought to be Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland, although the United States also has a high international standing, and many countries in the world have great professional cyclists.

Consists of several stages ridden consecutively, each stage being a race within a race. The competitor with the lowest cumulative time to complete all the stages is declared the overall, or General Classification (GC), winner.

In the track time trial, a track cycling event, cyclists compete individually against the clock to record the fastest time over the specified distance from a standing start.

Miss and Out or Devil Take the Hindmost is a massed start track cycling distance event. It is not a world championship or Olympic discipline but is a popular event for both spectators and riders at track meetings at a lower level and is usually incorporated into six-day races.

The points race is a mass start track cycling event involving large numbers of riders simultaneously on track. It is an Olympic discipline. In this endurance race, points are awarded to the first 5 finishers of sprints. The sprints usually occur every ten laps of a 250m track, or more often on bigger tracks.

The sprint is a track cycling event involving a one-on-one match race between opponents who, unlike in the individual pursuit, start next to each other. The event is sometimes called the 1000m sprint (reflecting the distance to be covered), but - unlike the sprints in athletics - cycling track sprinters do not usually start sprinting the instant the starting gun is fired.

The two types of biketrials have created two different types of bikes. The height of the bottom bracket on UCI bikes have been raised to accomodate not touching the ground. In addition, the length from the rear wheel to the front wheel is lengthened and the stem is lower. This geometry eases balancing and jumping ("Gapping") from and on the back wheel. Megamo and Monty are typically BIU bike types. Koxx, Echo, BT are more "modern" UCI type bikes.

Unicycle trials are an activity in which participants attempt to ride a unicycle over obstacles without any part of the rider touching the ground. The obstacles traversed can be set up specifically for the purpose of unicycle trials, but are often walls, railings, ledges and other "street furniture" found in an urban environment.