People do have a habit of personifying things. Since the old days of the Navy, we’ve always referred to our vehicles by name and gender. Ships were always female and to this day a lot of cars and bikes are similarly considered female. A lot of motorcyclists will refer to their bike as a lady, a lot of their wives will refer to it as a mistress. As one droll wit put it not long ago, “Of course bikes are girls. Mine is beautiful, but it regularly refuses to do what I ask of it and always costs me money. How much more female could it be?”
He has a point.
A lot of girl bikers will refer to their bikes as male. I think it boils down to what you feel comfortable riding. A lot of guys wouldn’t want another guy between their legs. A lot of girls would. Some people take things even further. One rider referred to design of bikes as integral to their gender.
Internal organs = girl bike.
External organs = boy bike.
I think that’s going a bit far personally, but each to their own.
I’m sure car drivers are equally divided on whether their car is a sultry lady or a muscular best mate. Comfortable in my sexuality I was happy to ride a bike named Albert for the last several years, though he was named by the previous owner. My new bike has yet to really establish a gender or name.
I’m not really sure why the urge exists to name our vehicles and many people are simply of the opinion that it’s nothing more than a collection of metal and various other materials and is simply an “it”. Now, all that said, I saw something today that totally confused me. Here in Australia we call pick up trucks Utes. That’s short for Utility Vehicle. However, even with that in mind I couldn’t quite fathom the thinking behind this guy when I pulled up behind him at the lights today:
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