---
title: "te andan pedaleando la bicicleta"
translation: "Somebody is sleeping with your partner."
type: "word"
category: "expression"
url: "https://consalsa.app/words/te-andan-pedaleando-la-bicicleta"
canonical: "https://consalsa.app/words/te-andan-pedaleando-la-bicicleta"
published: "2026-08-26"
updated: "2026-08-26"
author: "Andrey the Nomad"
site: "ConSalsa.App"
license: "https://consalsa.app/about"
---

# te andan pedaleando la bicicleta
URL: https://consalsa.app/words/te-andan-pedaleando-la-bicicleta
Translation: Somebody is sleeping with your partner.
Pronunciation: /te ˈan.dan pe.ða.leˈan.do la bi.si.ˈkle.ta/
Category: expression
Region: Mexico
Register: casual, between men, and cruder than the words look
Variants: te andan pedaleando tu bicicleta, te están pedaleando la bicicleta, pedalear la bicicleta, te andan pedaleando la bici, pedalearle la bicicleta a alguien
Literal meaning: Pedalear la bicicleta - to pedal the bicycle. The bicycle is the partner, and somebody else is riding it.
Tone & safety: Nothing in it needs bleeping, but the picture is a woman as a bike other men ride. It belongs to men talking to men, and plenty of people find it uglier than an actual swear word.
Published: 2026-08-26

Quick answer:
- Te andan pedaleando la bicicleta means somebody is involved with your partner behind your back - not flirting with them, involved with them.
- The bicycle is the partner and pedaling it is what the other person is doing. Almost always the bicycle is a woman.
- It gets said as a warning to the man being cheated on, and as gossip about the man doing it. It has no place at work or with strangers.

What it means:
- Somebody is with your partner while you are not looking. Not circling, not trying - already there. The bike is being ridden, and that bluntness is the entire reason the phrase exists instead of a plain sentence.
- It reaches you two ways. Either a friend tells you, usually with aguas in front of it, or it gets said about somebody else - creo que Juan anda pedaleando la bicicleta de Pedro. Both are common, and the second one is how most people first hear it.

Literal meaning:
- Nobody has a documented origin for this one, so treat any confident explanation with suspicion. What is clear is the company it keeps: Mexican Spanish has a whole family of phrases that turn a partner into something somebody else helps themselves to. Comer el mandado does it with groceries, rayarle los cuadernos does it with schoolbooks, and this one does it with a bike.
- The andan is not they. It is the impersonal third-person plural - somebody, and I am not saying who. English has no clean equivalent, and the vagueness is doing real work: it lets the speaker deliver the accusation without naming anyone, which is the only reason it can be said out loud at a table.
- Andar plus a gerund is not the same as estar plus a gerund. Estar pedaleando is happening right now; andar pedaleando is going around doing it - repeatedly, over time, and with the speaker's disapproval baked in. That disapproval is half of what makes the sentence sting.

How Mexicans use it:
- As a warning it comes wrapped in aguas: aguas, carnal, te andan pedaleando la bicicleta. Whoever says it has usually been sitting on the information for a while and has chosen this phrasing because it is easier to say than the plain version.
- As gossip it takes the other shape, with the owner named: anda pedaleando la bicicleta de Rodrigo. This version is about somebody who is not in the room, and it is the one you are most likely to overhear before anyone ever says it to you.
- In WhatsApp it is short and the bicycle usually gets clipped to bici. Friends send te andan pedaleando la bici with a screenshot and no other text, and that is a complete message.
- The bicycle is nearly always a woman. Turned around - a woman using it about her boyfriend - it works and people will laugh, but the laugh is partly at the phrase, because the picture was not built to go that direction.

Tone and safety:
- The words are clean. Nothing here would get bleeped, and that is exactly what makes it easy to misjudge. The picture is a woman as a bicycle other men ride, which is squarely machista, and in mixed company plenty of people find it uglier than an actual swear word.
- On top of the image, there is the claim. You are telling somebody their relationship is over, out loud, usually with other people listening, in the form of a joke. Wrong and you have insulted their partner. Right and you have made them find out in public.
- Between men who already talk to each other this way it reads as loyalty. Anywhere else, do not. Aguas con ese cuate flags the guy without claiming anything happened, which is much less than this phrase says and often all you actually know.

Common mistake:
- The real mistake is using it for flirting. Pedalear la bicicleta means it already happened. If what you saw was somebody being too friendly at a party, the honest words are tirar la onda or echar los perros - reach for this one and you have accused two people of something bigger than what was in front of you.
- The smaller one is the article. You will see tu bicicleta written down, and it is understood, but the te at the front of the sentence already says whose bike it is, exactly the way me duele la cabeza does not need mi. La is the version people say.

Examples:
- Aguas, carnal, te andan pedaleando la bicicleta. — Heads up, man - somebody's been with your girl.
- Se fue una semana y ya le andaban pedaleando la bici. — He was gone a week and somebody was already in there.
- Creo que Juan anda pedaleando la bicicleta de Pedro. — I think Juan's involved with Pedro's girlfriend.
- Te la andan pedaleando y ni en cuenta. — Somebody's all over her and you're not even paying attention.

Mini dialogue:
A: Oye, ¿y ese cuate que siempre anda con tu novia?
B: ¿Rodrigo? Es su compañero de la chamba.
A: Ajá. Compañero que le lleva café los sábados.
B: ...
A: Nada más digo. Aguas, te andan pedaleando la bici.
B: Chale. Ya me dejaste con el pendiente, carnal.

FAQ:
Q: What does te andan pedaleando la bicicleta mean?
A: It means somebody is sleeping with your partner behind your back. The bicycle is the partner and the pedaling is the affair. It is not a phrase for flirting - it claims something already happened.

Q: Is te andan pedaleando la bicicleta rude?
A: No individual word in it is rude, which is what catches people out. The image is a woman as a bike that other men ride, so it is machista and it lands badly in mixed company. Among men who already talk this way it passes as loyalty.

Q: Is it la bicicleta or tu bicicleta?
A: La. The te at the start of the sentence already marks whose bike it is, the same way me duele la cabeza does not need mi. Tu bicicleta gets written down and is understood, but it double-marks the possessive.

Q: Can you say it about the person doing it, not the person it is happening to?
A: Yes, and it is common. Anda pedaleando la bicicleta de Pedro names the owner instead of addressing him, and that is the version you are most likely to overhear as gossip.

Q: What is the difference between pedalear la bicicleta and poner el cuerno?
A: Poner el cuerno is cheating and it blames your partner. Pedalear la bicicleta blames the outsider. Same situation, opposite finger.

Q: What is the difference between this and comer el mandado?
A: Nothing much. Te están comiendo el mandado is the same accusation with groceries instead of a bike, and Mexicans use the two interchangeably, sometimes in the same sentence.

Q: Can it mean something other than cheating?
A: Mostly no. People stretch it as a joke to anything quietly taken - a client, a spot on a team - but that is borrowing the phrase rather than a second meaning. With no context it is about a partner every time.

Q: How do you warn a friend without saying it?
A: Aguas con ese cuate. It flags the person without claiming anything happened, which is usually all you actually know, and it leaves your friend room to ask for more.

Related words: tirar-la-onda, echar-los-perros, aguas, carnal, cabron