Written by: Yahya Abd Wahab

Since the invention of the motorcycle in the late 1800’s many motorcycles were manufactured and produced and along with it many names had been created. Some have come and gone however some came and has stayed on till today. Did names have any significant role in determining success? Let’s look as some names that decorated the motorcycling world in the past. 

 

 Now what’s in a name you may ask, would you call your dog,   cat?  No? Well in 1922 a German company assembled a limited production motorcycle with 125cc 2-stroke engine and since a 125 would surely not pull enough power, they decided to name the bike AEROPLAN. In Holland in the fifties, a 49cc moped was named LOCOMOTIEF and much earlier a German company had a motorcycle named HELI. They chose these names most probably to illustrate how fast their bikes are. Whatever, what’s in a name?

Whatever product a manufacturer produced had to be new. Have you heard of an assembly line producing something old?  No. However many firms in the past are not convinced that what they produced were new and they came up with the novel idea to add the word NEW to their product names. Thus we get motorcycles named NEWERA, NEW COMET, NEW COULSON, NEW HUDSON, NEW HENLEY, NEW IMPERIAL, NEW MOUNT, NEW RYDER and so on. However one company in France producing 250cc and 350cc motorcycles between 1925 and 1930 decided to name their bike NEW MOTORCYCLE. Now that would shut up all other ‘newies’.

Now many motorcycles were named after the towns they were built in like ENFIELD (Royal Enfield) and BSA (Birmingham Small Arms), KAWASAKI from Kawasaki, Japan, but did you know that only 2 or so bikes were named after a racial group?

An American company decided to give the name INDIAN to their motorcycles. As the Red Indians are famous for their hardy lifestyle and fighting spirit, guess the motorcycle INDIAN connoted that the machines were hardy as well. Today INDIAN motorcycles are engraved in motorcycling history for their hardy and excellent motorcycles. Riding on the popularity of the INDIAN another American firm named their motorcycles after the APACHE tribe. Now between a tribe and a nation surely the nation won. The success of INDIAN, not only opened the eyes of the Americans, an English company followed the INDIAN formula and decided to name their bike after another racial grouping. They named their motorcycles ARAB. These were produced from 1923 to 1926 and are little Villiers engined 2-strokes. Unlike their American rival ARAB only lasted 3 years.

 

Choice of name may be difficult that some producers decided to name their bike as per their usage. An English company named their bike DESPATCH RIDERS and a German company named their bike KURIER then the Japanese took a step backward in 1950’s when a bike was named SILVER PIDGEON. Now if pigeon is not enough then there was a German COCKERELL produced from 1919 to 1924. Wonder if computers had been invented then, would there be a bike named EMAIL. Whether it was by courier, dispatch, or pigeon it was not known how many postmen were actually using any of the above machines.

Carnivorous animals were a favorite by many manufacturers. A WOLF first appeared in England between 1901 and 1939 and they were bikes of up to 700cc. That animal was also chosen by Suzuki for their 125 cc bike in the seventies. Kawasaki currently has a model called a VULCAN but did you know that the name VULCAN was first used on a motorcycle in 1904 by a Czech company and later in 1924 an English company reused that name. The American TIGER was produced in 1915-1916. The Argentines were not to be missed out; they manufactured the PUMA from 1954 to the early sixties. To rival the Puma there were 3 generations of PANTHER. Two German Panthers were produced 1903-1907 and 1933-1976 whilst the English PANTHER were produced between 1900-1965.

Then there is this Czech company which most probably were manufacturing war armaments during World War I. When peace came they switched to producing motorcycles, however the spirit of the war and killer machines were still with them and they named their bike KILEAR. For those who like to ride like hell then there were bikes for you too. Called LUCIFER it was built by the French between 1926 and 1950 and if LUCIFER is not good enough how about the Czech built SATAN. Satan was built only for a year i.e. 1929. Still in the world of the mystics an Italian firm named their motorcycle ABRA ( of abracadabra?)

Long before the advent of Japanese motorcycle companies a German company had the foresight and named their bike KING-JAP. King-Jap was produced between 1928-1931.  

To attract the riders with religious inkling an American company that produced V-twins bikes from 500cc to 1000cc in 1911-1918 called their motorcycle POPE. And then an English company chose the name ABBOTSFORD for their bike, (Abbot-Head of Church).  As a follow up in 1957 a Japanese company decided to name their bike POPET.

Some companies are full of air. An English company produced a 2.3 horsepower in 1903 and call the bike POWERFUL.

Talking about powerful, there were a couple of companies which did not mind not being linked to being powerful. In 1914 an English company started manufacturing motorcycles which they named LADIES PACER and in an attempt to attract females to motorcycling, a Belgian firm produced in 1925 a bike named LADY. Now naming bikes after ladies are not just done by companies that did not survive long, famous brand Ducati once had a 250 cc bike in the late fifties named DIANA. And ladies who are expecting please do not take a ride on this French motorcycle produced between 1908 to 1960. The bike is LABOR.

Then there are companies which named their bike after human body parts. Armstrong is a popular name in England otherwise 3 different companies would not have named the bike ARMSTRONG . Once between 1902-1905 when the company produced 211cc bikes. Then again another English company appeared in 1913-1914 to name their motorcycles ARMSTRONG. Lastly in the 1980’s another company came out with their own ARMSTRONG. Okay, okay that’s because your arms gets strong handling the heavy machines but then look at this Italian firm who between 1927-1931 produced a 174 cc motorcycle named ASSO.

From the human anatomy we look at names chosen for the character of a person. SNOB was produced in Germany between 1921 and 1925 which were 154cc. The French decided that SMART would be better then SNOB. Not to be outdone another French firm had motorcycles named SULKY.

Motorcycles named after people are plenty, some were named after the owners, some after the designers and some after the engine designers, but there were some mysteriously were named after people famous in later years.

ROSSI were built in Parma, Italy from 1950-1955 long before Valentino Rossi was even born and very much earlier a SIMONCELLI of 174cc was made. Even pop singers were not spared. A motorcycle named MJ a 750cc flat twin were produced in 1925 and to rival that there was the OSMOND which were 500cc single produced until 1924.

To beat them all there was this English motorcycle produced in 1921-1922. It was a DEFY-ALL.

 

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