A bike without a name is unlucky
Well they all have names! XRV750 etc but many believe that not having a personal name is unlucky. This
seems to stem from naval terms for ships and boats (I don’t know what the difference is I’m ex Air Force).
Looking at the many reasons and I’m sure some Navy bod is going to have another answer; it stems from tax!
Yup, most ships would either be commercial or military – a way of making sure the tax was collected was by
the name of the boat. If you did not have a name then it drew the unwanted attention of the tax man to go
through all your documents and cargo. If you had a name then it would imply that all was in order and you
had paid your tax for the cargo.
Older still was from the times when sea travel was lethal, wooden boats (ships, whatever) being made of
wood with a single mast and oars. Off you go into the blue yonder and the mast head would be of the God
protection applied to the boat. This let the sea God know that you had protection and the name could be
checked against that God. Mainly this would be seen to be Greek and Roman by the looks of things but just
about every culture on the planet had some kind of sea God.
Fijian – Daucina
Celtic – Lir
Hindu – Varuna
Norse – Njord
Greek – Poseidon
Roman – Neptune
Not everyone names their bike but those that do tend to use the opposite sex as a name. For male rides that
would mean a woman’s name... my bike’s called Tara. Perhaps where danger is present and often felt that it’s
out of your control then a little bit of luck can’t hurt, right?