Bike Names

So after much scrounging, selling off things, saving, fiddling, fetching of small parts, swearing, and harrassment from hordes of unclean bicycle mechanics, I finally have a rideable mountain bike to hit the trails with. I built it from the ground up- almost every nut and bolt of it- because that's the way (uh-huh, uh-huh) I like it.

Dare I say this bike is hell on wheels? A two wheeled, mud flinging, carnival of gyroscopic motion? A magic carpet? It is all of these things and more. When I sprint on it, I swear I can hear the roar of jet engines. When I jump it, I could be forgiven for thinking it had wings. When I round a bermed corner, I marvel that the wheel I laced and built myself doesn't explode like a roadside bomb filled with spokes.

So only question left to ask is this: what do I name this fine, custom built, piece of machinery? I've met lots of people who have names for their cars, but it takes a true enthusiast- someone who really loves their bike, to name it. It got me thinking of what it is that really makes for a great bike name.

Cisco, who's a regular at our shop, named is mountain bike "Excalibur". Kevin named his blue Ibis Mojo with the matching blue Maverick DUC32 fork the "Blue Bomber". Karli named her custom purple anodized Maverick ML8 "Purple Rain". Dave Pike has a mutant cro-moly town bike he calls "Big Chrome."

I figure I can rival that with a name of my own. My bike is a Giant Reign 0 that I had powdercoated white. The two choices I came up with are "Arctic Fox" or "Apollo the Off-road Supernova". Look at the attached pictures, and you can see where I'm coming from. In the end, I kept both names, and once I do a few upgrades in the spring, it will henceforth be named "Apollo the Off Road Supernova Version 2.0 a.k.a. The Arctic Fox" There's nothing like piling on.

If you'd like to name one of or all of your bikes, ask yourself some of these questions and ultimately you should come up with something good. What do you use the bike for? What color is it? Is it light, heavy, fast, or slow? Think about all of it's attributes and then think of some pop icons and see if any of them fit the bike's attributes. For example, some guys here have downhill or freeride bikes and have named them Sledgehammer, Hoss, and The Beast. Fitting monikers eh? Here's some more ideas on the house:

The Silver Bullet
The Maltese Falcon
The Pink Panther
Urban Destroyer
Rolling Thunder
The Beef-Hammer
Lightning Hopkins
Elwood
Machine of the Gods
The Blue Streak
Greased Lightning

Firebird
Freedom Wheels

Hopefully there's enough here to get your creative juices flowing. We'd love to hear what you come up with!

RC