What To Name The Tiger?

So it’s been over a year since I’ve bought a motorcycle. And I’m not using the KTM fully by riding offroad. And I really like Triumphs, and Triumph has come out with the new Tiger 1050.

I’m hoping mine will be here in a week.

Scorched Yellow with ABS, it’ll look pretty much like this:


tiger_2007_news.jpg

Which gave me the problem of naming it.

I’ve always named my bikes, and given them vanity plates with their names,.

My MuZ Baghira is “Thalia“. The KTM is “Metternich“.

So what to name the Tiger?

My first thought was Montecore, the tiger that attacked Roy. It’s a cool name, and ironic, and a good reminder that the bike is dangerous. But it felt like bad karma. A friend suggested Chompawat, after the famous man-eater, but again – bad karma.

Hobbes? great – a twofer – Calvin and political theory. But no way to get it – and kind of cutesy.

Think, think, think. Think about great cartoon tigers – and hey!!

Thomas Nast and Walt Kelley!!

Meet Tammany Tiger.

20 thoughts on “What To Name The Tiger?”

  1. Wow, that is one good-looking bike! But “pretty much”? Do we get a picture of the actual bike when you get it?

  2. Who provides the electrics?

    I once owned a ’58 650. Sweetest bike I ever owned. When it ran. Cornering was rock solid at any angle of attack until the pegs scraped the pavement.

  3. That’s not a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Hang on, let me look at the picture again.

    No, that is not a Harley Davidson motorcycle. You’ve been the victim of a cruel hoax. Get a vanity plate that says “Karaoke”.

  4. Roy maintains the tiger was trying to rescue him. “He is quoted in a subsequent interview”:http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/16/earlyshow/leisure/celebspot/main643860.shtml noting that he believes he had a stroke prior to the attack; he believes Montecore noticed something was wrong (this is at least believable, more than a few pets have proved they can notice and take action before their human groks) and treated him like a tiger cub by carrying him off by his neck in its mouth.

    I’m not so sure about that last part. The story is at least plausible in its particulars, and Roy knows his animals best – but that’s a double-edged sword here since we also know he has an interest in protecting the tiger. And “various reports of the attack”:http://drizzten.com/blargchives/000933.html leave aggression as an equally plausible hypothesis. As for the stroke, the interview noted above says:

    bq. “Horn’s doctors can’t comment on the theory because “after he was bitten, he did have a stroke, a massive stroke, and it caused so much damage to his brain and head that they can’t tell what happened now,”

    Not sure what to think, but I thought I’d throw it out there.

  5. Name suggestions:

    * Chennault (the General who recruited the WW2 Flying Tigers – and later helped found Air America)

    * The Blakeinator (“Tyger, Tyger, burning bright…”)

  6. Triumph, Norton, BSA electrified by the Prince of Darkness: Lucas.
    Why do Brits have warm beer? Lucas refrigerators.

  7. OK, the bike will be here this week.

    TG hates Tammany as a name. She is pushing for Montecore.

    I need to make sure she hasn’t taken out any new insurance on me…

    A.L.

  8. #16, 17,

    Yep.

    If Lucas made light bulbs they would emit darkness.

    I suppose in the modern age they would be DEDs – Darkness Emitting Diodes.

    I was an expert at cleaning the magneto points, the spark plugs, and pulling the magneto.

    Part of the problem was the Triumph cases which were notoriously bad at keeping the oil where it belonged. Until they gave up on the split case.

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