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I Came Up With a Name for My Bike

8K views 45 replies 27 participants last post by  willfly4food 
#1 ·
I have NEVER personified my non-carbon-based-lifeforms before now, but I was just thinking (and perhaps getting sentimental in my old age), and the name "Sunshine" popped into my head! What a perfect name for a bike!

You young people, try not to get sick over the video linked:

This is what 66 years of love sounds like. [VIDEO]
 
#7 ·
ALL motorcycles have names; it's up to the riders to listen so they can hear the names of their rides. Sometimes it happens quickly, other times it takes many hours in the saddle.

I have ridden Gretchen, Harvey, Butcher Boy, Grizmelda, Hermione, Harris, and most lately, Lydia, my CBR250R.

Keep listening as you ride; you wWILL hear the name of your motorcycle.
 
#8 · (Edited)
My bikes tell me their names.

I have attached names to several Hondas, in fact to all my vehicles, motorcycles or not.

My trailer is Lurch. My previous trailer was Lurch.
Based on the way they act, I suspect all trailers
ought to bear that name. Enough about trailers.

My CBR-250R has been with me only a short time,
and has not yet revealed its name. I have a provisional
name for this bike, Carmine. That is not a very good name,
and I hope to learn this bike's name before long.

I think it takes a three-day ride for the bike and me to
start working together in harmony. The name will likely
then be obvious.

Previous bikes:
Puff the Magic Dragon - 1963 Dream 305
Old Black Joe - 1954 DKW 250
Falcon - 1964 Super Hawk
SALOS DAFEE - 1979 CB-750
(Stay At Least One Standard Deviation Away From Everyone Else)

Bikes still with me:
Colorado - 2006 V-Strom
Ignatz - 2008 CBR-125R
These two also have formal names that only I use.

My bikes have personalities, so I think it appropriate they have names.
When I associate a name with a bike, I think I take quite good care of it.

Name your bike if you want, or let it tell you its name if it will.
I think it rude to scorn people for naming, or for not naming, motorcycles.

Enjoy your ride your way, and I will enjoy my ride my way.
Keith
 
#10 ·
I agree that we must get to know our steeds a bit. Eventually we find out who they are thus, assigning an appropriate monicor. My 250 was Sumiko - "Charcoal" in Japanese. My 500 is Ami - which means "Big Brother" as he is Sumiko's big bro :) the 250 and 500 are the only 2 bikes I have named. Most likely because these bikes have personality and are endearing. I not only named my last 2 bikes but I assigned them the male gender. Yes.... I understand vehicles are customarily female however I ask.....who decided this is so?? Breaking this rule, my bike is a boy named Ami ;)
 
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#11 ·
Nice! I named mine because her first owner was a girl who never rode her. She sat in exile, enduring the elements in a far off corner if the island. Once I showed her freedom from the bicycle lock that was rusted shut, she showed me a whole new world.

What does it have to do with a Russian name? Nothing. Just always wanted to ride a Russian woman :).


I have named other vehicles too. It was just easier. When i was in EMS the dispatchers named the ambulances so that when they had to do maintenance, it was easier.

"unit 130, stop by and pick up Hercules and bring Zeus to the shop for pm...."

"unit 110, medics 1580 and 1534 and Horace in the road."

Sent from Motorcycle.com App
 
#12 ·
her name is 'black beauty'.. [from her number plate letters]

occasionally i pat her on the tank
and call her "good girl"..

she lives on the street, in the rain etc,
so i bought her a nice cover, but she
doesnt want people to think shes a woos,
so i only put it on at night now..

my previous 4 road hondas were made in japan

i heard a japanese [honda] exec explaining
about making honda motorcycles, when he said
that 'we japanese believe that everything has
a soul, including our motorcycles, so everyone
tries to make them as well as they can'..

which says something about motorcycles
made in japan, and also perhaps why
some people give their bikes names...
 
#13 ·
Thx jayuup. I never worked at a service where the cars were named. I refered to them as the "car", "truck" or "AMBLANCE" lol

I understand you folks in the states sometimes refer to your ambulances as "bus".
 
#16 ·
I always called it the "rig" but yes, the "bus" is a common term as well. I suppose it depends on what type of system you were in. fire based systems called it "rig" while standalone ambulance services tended to call em "busses". Best as I can tell it came from the feeling that some people used them as "transportation" to and from doctors appts.

Our ambulance company has number designators (04-2336 where 04 is the year, and 2336 stands for the ambulance number purchased that year) however that was always too hard to keep track of. one of our medics called his regular bus "his wife" and then we started calling her by her name. It stuck, and eventually we had blessing ceremonies for each rig as they were in-fleeted. It was a morale thing that stuck.

So names for vehicles is a time honored tradition. Why not name your bike?
 
#17 ·
The first car I named was my very first. In my family we had 4 cars for 4 drivers and we often would change cars depending on the needs for the day. The van was "brown precious" and the sportscar was "shrimp." when the family said we were going out, "okay everyone get in shrimp" or "start loading up brown precious" was a common "lets go" phrase at my house.

It just stuck.

My good friend named her Mini cooper "Domina" after the roman name for the "lady of the house." her fiancee's truck is "hector."
 
#24 ·
Beautiful name, CB. Elyzah fits the CBR nicely. Mine is named, perhaps unimaginatively and certainly not uniquely, Scarlett. Hardly surprising for a red/silver. Inspired both by "Gone With The Wind" and Johansson.

A good friend posted the following paragraph on another forum, part of a longer post on "balance." He rides a Yamaha FZ1, which helps to understand the reference to a hundred horses. But 23 horses work just as well...

"Name your bike, like The Professor. Develop a lasting relationship. You are a pair. The bike cannot operate without you. You, on the other hand do not have the balance or the strength to do the things you are about to do without the bike’s help. If you find inspiration hard to come by just look for a teenager on his bicycle and watch as he zigzags carefree about the sidewalks, the road, and the grass. True, your bike is not 20 pounds; but his bike doesn’t have the strength of a hundred horses on tap for his personal use sitting below his hindquarters. The horses make your bike a bicycle. They also make it a vehicle, as fast as any other vehicle."
 
#23 ·
Yeah, that's kinda how it is for me. I've got the "Honda", the "Bronco", and the "Scion"... Previous cars were named such also, Civic, and Mustang.

My dad always used a variation, the "white truck", the "black truck", and the "brown truck". Or the Nissan, the old truck, or the dualie.
 
#22 ·
I find our little ceebies are pretty little things that people underestimate, if your not careful they will come out and bite ya. Not to the rider by power but to he who underestimated their performance, they are nimble and dart like.
I find it reminds me of Rodya Rasklonikov (Crime and Punishment:Leo Tolstoy)or of Arya Stark (A Game of Thrones), I like the name of Rodya for it but I've alwayse thought of her as a girl out to prove the world wrong, and in crime and punish,ent he is the scum of the earth, my dear bike is nothing near the sort so I can't name it that.
It may have to be ARYA, it will be her temporary name untill she tells me who she is.
 
#26 ·
No cute names for me either,

The cbr is called the Nugget (as in the black boot polish brand, or something you'd flush)
The Ninja is called the Snotbucket (well its ugly and green)
I like to abuse my things.. makes em perform better.
 
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#28 ·
#42 ·
After my motorcycle crash and me flattening the gas tank with my groin area, me and a group of guys have changed our online gaming names to different versions of scarred genetalia. I was seein what they thought of a few names and the wife of an Englishman said I should name it The Vasectomy. It is fitting and I will paint it upon her soon.
 
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