In reply to:
Never have I heard the term "dink" used refer to catching a ride on a bike. Where is this term used in this way?
Certainly here in Australia. Or more correctly, certainly amongst my schoolmates in Melbourne 30 years ago!
Now that you've introduced the extra words 'around' and 'with', I realize that I am familiar with what is apparently a local equivalent to your 'dinking around with' things or people, namely 'dicking around with' them. But it always has the 'around' - you never just 'dick' something, if you'll pardon the expression. If I dick someone around I am wasting his time, but if I dink him around I'm definitely helping him by giving him a lift on my bike.
I wonder whether the dink expression is a cleaned-up version of the former dink, or dick is a sullied version of dink, or one is a misquotation of the other and it stuck?
I haven't done an exhaustive search, but rather curiously, the following NZ-based website purportedly for Australians wanting to learn American slang defines 'dick someone around' as to mislead irritatingly.
http://psy.otago.ac.nz:800/r_oshea/slang.html#D
