Do your bikes have names? If so, how did you name them? Did you give them a name you would give a person, like Betty or Howard or something?

Or is the name you gave your bike akin to something you might bestow on a pet, like Pumpkin or Spot or Patches? Did your bike speak to you somehow and tell you its name, or did it come to you in a dream?

I don’t name my bikes. Even when I was small and had a bike that had been named “Gypsy” by the manufacturer, I called it “my purple bike.” Nowadays I refer to my bikes by whatever make and model they are, like Rivendell Romulus and Surly Long Haul Trucker– LHT if I’m in a hurry.

I love my bikes and all that they do for me. I will even congratulate or thank them sometimes if a ride has gone particularly well. But naming them? Nope, I never have.

So what do you do if you don’t name bikes but you co-own a tandem with someone who does?

Felkerino, my partner in all things tandeming, isn’t much of a bike-namer either, but when it comes to our tandems he is sure that they are trying to tell him that they have a name.

Granted, the “lead sled” could not fit our Cannondale mountain tandem any better than it does. It’s perfect, and even I happily call it the lead sled.

Our previous Co-Motion Speedster was a burnt orange color, and Felkerino thought initially that it might have another title besides Speedster. “Autumn Leaf?” he said to me one day. “What? No way,” I answered. The Speedster never did offer up a name that stuck, and calling it the Speedster worked for me.

We have had our Co-Motion Java tandem since the beginning of the year, and Felkerino is pretty certain that it has a name. Initially, I could hear him murmuring something like “Shooting Star,” but that name has not picked up any traction.

If you read his most recent post, you will notice that he let slip that he’s been referring to the Java as the “Big Cat.” I think he’s waiting for some confirmation that Big Cat is, in fact, the “right” name. But I don’t know. I like to refer to it as the “Burly Beast,” but beyond that I simply refer to it as the our Co-Motion, the tandem, or the Java.

I never realized how not into naming things I was until our tandems came along. What’s to be done in a scenario where one says name the bike and the other says are you kidding?

It’s been funny to watch unfold. Big Cat. Burly Beast. Fluffy. Co-Motion Java. The tandem.

Tomato. To-mah-to. In the grand scheme of things, at least we know what the other is referencing.

So do you name your bike? I’m dying to know. And how… how did the bike get its name?