Bicycles [damerell]

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I've got two bikes.

Well, actually, I've got four bikes, but the Brompton and the tandem don't have a naming problem. The other two do. One of them used to be "the green bike", but the other one is green. Age is also not a useful distinguishing mark; I've owned one since 1992 and the other since 2007, but the latter actually dates from the 50s or 60s.

A friend's bicycle has the ambitious name "Bucephalus", perhaps because it's fixed-gear and no-one but her can ride it. So maybe I should give these bikes names?

One of them is the one I have had since 1992. It's a 531-steel tourer in British Racing Green with black forks.

The other is a Triumph (== rebadged Raleigh) roadster in a paler green, redone with a 5-speed Sturmey Archer hub and 650B wheels (the old French touring size).

[Poll #1123245]

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There are 30 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

Use the hexadecimal colour value as the name.

I really don't like the tendency to give inanimate objects names, hence my answers.

What about computers?

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They kind of need names, for networking purposes.

Anyway, bikes aren't inanimate, not *really*. Um.

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Un-networked UNIX boxes still have to have names. Very important.

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I seem to be double commenting at people on this one. I bet you talk to yours at 2am when there's no-one else around, too...

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I talk to mine in full broad daylight when people are around! I frequently tell Bucephalus that he is a good bike & not to go wandering off with strangers while I'm in work / in the pub / shopping. Otherwise he might feel unloved & run away.

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*This* is why I don't go for the whole naming-stuff thing. :)

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Nah, I did that before the bike had a name :-) I spend a *lot* of time on bikes. Also I built Bucephalus all myself! And fixies have lots of personality.

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It's a shame it's a personality that includes the desire to bite the ends of your fingers off.

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You just don't have it trained yet. Mine only bite off _other people's fingers_. :)

I don't name my bikes, but I do have a tendency to tell them things like "Stay!" I have not yet reached the full conversations level, though... at that point I might start getting a little worried.

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Aaaargh, no, it's a conglomeration of bits of metal, it does not have a personality, aaaargh aaargh aargh. *headdesk* *sigh*

I spend an awful lot of my time with my guitar and have never felt the need to give that a name.

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They need names for networking, but this does not mean one has to use them the rest of the time. My desktop has a name but I don't call it that to myself (it's "the desktop") - it only gets used to Dave because he seems to feel comfortable using it himself.

Bicycles, cars, houses, walking sticks, hot-water bottles - I have friends who have named all of these and I think it's all equally crazy.

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Oh, well, cars are just smelly boxes.

I think command-line computers are extra prone to it because you have conversations with them...

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I'm curious: is there a size at which it's acceptable for a thing to have a name? Do you object to streets, towns, or countries having names? How about ships? Are numbers as bad?

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You may win by default.

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Think of my suggestions as a homage to the final track on the album.

After the touring Fraggle, and the Muppets' roadie (yes, I know he started out as the gofer for the theatre, but he did also perform as roadie in at least one of the films).

I think you should get one of them resprayed so that it's not green any more. Or alternatively name one of them after the colour that it used to be. After all, one of mine seems to be "the grey bike, you know, the one that was pink, and before that red, and originally magenta".

That's an ingenious suggestion marred only by the detail that if British Racing Green is available, I'll be unable to resist it. :-)

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Bucephalus is doop's fault, & is because of the bullhorn bars.

I am no good at names, though. Cepheus (the audax bike) took ages to name; I only finally did so in the end because when in the middle of Wales I realised that I'd spent far more time, over the last 10 days, with him than with any human person. Hm.

It was because of the bars, and also because nobody else could ride it (unless they were v nice, or pointed it towards the sun), and also because you are Great :-P

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Anything would be good as long as you don't clash with my names:

Doctor Lawrence's Cyclotron (reserved for if Faith gets a bike).
Marchant the Wonder Bike (my bike - I know, this is a bit like calling a dog spot nowadays)

I think either is unlikely.

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I mean, to be a name I'd pick myself.

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The names I have suggested are a matched pair for maximum confusion :-)

I eschewed "Bob", because at least one of the bikes is bound to be an evil interloper, intercepting things.

Alternatively, you could call them 'Harley' and 'Triumph', after equivalent motorbikes. This has the added advantage that while the bike (that would be) called Triumph presumably no longer actually says Triumph on the frame, it was actually made by a company of that name.

Quite the opposite - the roadster still has the original Triumph paint job and headbadge, but was made by the company of the name of "Raleigh".

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I chose Bob and Kate as a Blackadder reference but Bob has had another mention by someone else so I think Bob should certainly be picked.

April