Six really strange motorcycle monikers

1. Harley-Davidson Knucklehead
Okay, so we understand all of the American cruiser brand’s bikes around the era were named after what the cylinder heads looked like, but what we don’t understand is the apparent resounding agreement when someone in the room yelled out: ‘knucklehead!’. And while we’re talking about Harley, who signed off on the Fat Boy name? Luckily for both of these machines, they went on to become rather successful in their own right, but it’s fair to say their badges probably didn’t help.

2. Hodaka Combat Wombat
When you actually stop and think about Hodaka’s rugged little trials bike, the Combat Wombat moniker makes a bit of sense. But a name that makes you giggle before you’re forced to stop and think about why the Japanese-American brand might have chosen it probably isn’t going to be a good idea. Mind you, Hodaka loved a motorcycle moniker that rhymed, evidenced by other Hodaka-badged machinery like Dirt Squirt and Road Toad.

3. Yamaha Bee Wee
Here’s a name very similar to the brand’s enormously popular Pee Wee 50 fun bike, perhaps Yamaha thought it would repurpose a tried and true name on it’s knobby-tyred two-stroke scooter. We concede the often brightly coloured scoot is anything but a big brutish bike but, if a motorcycle moniker bearing the word Wee must be used, it should be confined to bikes aimed at little kids — not adults.

4. Suzuki Gladius
This would have made excellent sense to the Japanese brand’s marketing department. Here was a bike set to replace the firm’s hugely popular SV650 and what a better name to do it with than the Latin word for sword. Except perhaps nobody said it out loud to realise it sounds a little bit like lady-arse, and clearly nobody in the room had a grandmother named Gladys. Any wonder Suzuki has decided to relaunch the SV650 moniker and let old Aunty Gladys go peacefully.

5. AJS Porcupine
It was the late-40s and the British brand AJS had just built a serious racebike that would go on to claim the very first 500cc world championship in the hands of Les Graham. Reminiscent of the rationale used to name H-D’s Knucklehead, the engine’s spiky fins reminded someone of a porcupine and thus earned it its name. Sure, the animal boasts sharp quills to ward off predators which has a tough-sounding ring to it, but unlike world championship-winning motorcycles, porcupines are awfully rotund and very slow.

6. Gilera Fuoco
As if a leaning three wheeled scooter almost 10 years ago wasn’t strange enough, Gilera went and named it the Fuoco. It means fire in Italian, which may have made it seem like a good idea, but is there anything fiery about the plastic covered 500cc scoot? It was probably a smart move when the Gilera Fouco was rebadged and re-released as the Piaggio MP3 Sport. And more than a few relieved PR managers around the world, too, we suspect.

7. Any others?
What do you reckon the strangest sounding bike name is? Surely the Honda Deauville deserves a mention, or Yamaha’s Thundercat?