Page last changed August 3, 2003

Names of Bromptons (all truly silly)

Can't think of a name for your Brompton? Steal one from here!

Hardware IDs

• Richard Lighton, Dec 1998:
  [After numerous adventures of Arnold, the brave Brompton]
  Why "Arnold" did I hear you ask? Well, when I got my T5 in August, I decided that it needed a name. Nobody came up with one at the time, but when I made mention of the T5 later in the day, my son made a comment that it sounded like a very early model Terminator. So immediately my daughter named the bike "Arnold."
  (In the movies "Terminator" and "Terminator 2," Arnold Schwartzenegger (sp?) plays an Android, a Terminator Model 800. In "Terminator 2" he has to deal with a Terminator Model 1000.)
• Freeman Ng, Aug 1998:
  I've named mine "Lookfar" (and plan to paint eyes on each side of the main tube.)
• David Edge, Aug 1998:
  Mine is called Eric the Brompton, although all of my bikes are called Eric (Monty Python) so it hasn't really got a name. My wife's is called Harissa because she (the bike) is red and nippy. (Harissa is a red chilli paste from North Africa).
• Chris Eacock, Aug 1998:
  my t-5 is called the Gator after a line in "The Big Easy".
  After being rebuffed by Ellen Barkin, Randy Quaid asks

  "If I can't have you, can I at least have my Gator?"

• Dave H, Aug 1998:
  Most of the names I have aren't printable - I call the bike my mistress as it forms the menage a trois with my partner, I spend more on it then I do on her at times (most) and I'd almost sleep with it but I'd get oil on the sheets.
  PS we've been together now for nearly 9 years and only 6 new rear ends, 3 new mainframes, and 4 front ends later....
• Ann Jones, Aug 1998:
  Mine's called Morticia, no other reason really than she's black and sexy (so menfolk over the years have told me).
  Her garage-mates are Buttercup the mountain bike (because she's yellow and if I recall, the Goodies had a triplet of the same name) and Alice the Vauxhall Astra (there ends the colour theme). Strangely my fiance hasn't named his bikes or trike, he's way too sensible if you ask me :-)
• Liduine Reuser, Sep 1998:
  Tonnie Brom (In english Tony Brom) has a very special place in my house : in the livingroom, next to the computerdesk. The place in the house where I spend most of my time... In the office, he of course is next to my desk. While commuting, he just fits in between 2 seats (in these dutch trains where the seats are placed with the back to each other). An other very special place is in the pub in Amsterdam where I frequently go. His place is under a small staircase, the place is almost as small as in the trains, it is like they built that staircase just for Tony !
• Stephen W. Butler, Oct 1998:
  What do I call my bike?
  Until I was caused to think about it, it has simply been referred to as the Brompton. It does deserve a name and I have decided upon "Eeyore". With apologies to A. A. Milne, Eeyore is a beast of burden with a peculiar sense of humor. I also consider Eeyore to be short for "English Origami".
• JP Desbruèhres, Oct 1998:
  My Brompton is called "Rossinante" the French version of the famous Don Quichotte de la Mancha mount. Read Cervantes, it's a beautiful 500 pages story.
• Simon Risley, Nov 1998:
  Mine's called "THRUST II" - christened not by me, but my colleagues, as I'd arrived at work having just clocked 35mph one morning (well, it was down Wimbledon Hill, but I still had to pedal like mad!) and it was only a very short time after the British "THRUST I" broke the land speed record on the Nevada salt flats. Apparently it was going even faster, but this I find hard to believe.
• Alan Bennett, Jul 1999:
  This last weekend my yellow L-5, the "Killer Bee" and I took part in the...
• Koichi Yoshino, Oct 1999:
  I call my T3 "Bro-ko" though it is made in UK. "-ko" is used for female name in Japan. For example, Kyo-ko, Yo-ko, Nori-ko, etc. I think Bro-ko sounds very pretty in Japanese.

The roots of Brompton itself

• Dr Charles Ebrill, Oct 98:
  I can remember using (prescribing) this. At the time there was little in the way of effective/palatable oral strong painkillers. I think there were various recipes and I think contained honey and other ingredients as well. The name came because it was developed at the Brompton Hospital.
• Channell Wasson, Oct 1998:
  Yes the Brompton cocktail. Very appropriate for America's halloween season! But don't drink and ride. You only try it once --then it ushers you out with visions of angels flooding your thoughts! It's of English origin. A knowledgable doctor friend from London once told me it's "A compassionate concoction used sparingly in hopeless cases, and named after the large London hospital on the Brompton Road. Brompton's designer, Andrew Ritchie, lived (lives?) on the Brompton Road- thus the bike's name. But lots of things happen on the Brompton Road.
• John Blackburn, Jun 1999:
  Brompton (or Bromton), Middlesex, dates back to 1309. There are many other Bromptons, some mentioned in the Domesday Book. It means "The TUN (fence, or enclosure) where the Broom grows". (Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, ed. Eilert Ekwall).
  Now in those days we talked really funny. Gadzooks, yes.
• PHolden960, Jun 1999:
  I was interested to note while in London that there is a section called Brompton, south of Hyde Park west of Knightsbridge thru which runs Old Brompton Road.
  Thought that might have been the original site of the factory; but, as JB mentions, apparently this is a fairly common place name, and someone in London indicated that there was not a connection to this area.
  Or was there?
• Rob Cope, Jun 1999:
  Yes.
  Designer Andrew Ritchie lived there: think he still does.

The Brompton patent

• Andrew Henry, Jan 100:
  You can read the patent at http://l2.espacenet.com/dips/viewer?PN=GB1580048&CY=gb&LG=en&DB=EPD
  With patents, they start out with the first claim being very general and gradually get more specific. They are only a license to sue someone - if you don't prosecute them then they can ignore your patent completely, and it may cost you more to do this than to forget about them. A court might see infringing a very broad claim as being not too bad.
  The patent includes a diagram of a 1980 Brompton, which looks quite odd.
• Gozum_NT at OIT, Jan 2000:
  Most interesting. On a quick read however, the patent is expired and the original design is not the design in production. Has the new frame been patented?
• Chris Newport, Jan 2000:
  So if I understand correctly, what is patented is the 'sum of the parts' rather than specific features such as the locking mechanism or the 'second fold' concept.

Variations

• Bob Gelman, Oct 1999:
  How about "Bromptonist" with all its potential political and philosophical connotations.
• De Clarke, Oct 1999:
  brompter? bromptist? bromptonian? bromptometrist :-) bromptier? (-iere)?
• Georg Koenigsberg, Oct 1999:
  Have a Bromptuous day!
• De Clarke, Oct 1999:
  Bromptuous! I like it! it leads naturally to Bromptuosity
  "A true Bromptuoso can fold a T5 in 10 seconds while airily whistling a Puccini aria and staring off into the middle distance at the approaching No. 16 bus...."
• Michael Lewis, Oct 1999:
  Les Bromptonoise
  Verb: Bromptonner
• De Clarke, Oct 1999:
  Bromp-san? not nearly deferential enough, especially from those inferior cumbersome riders :-)
  Bromp-tono!

• De Clarke, Oct 1999:
  oh, surely "to bromp", as in "I took a little bromp around the waterfront" or "Bromping through Europe".
  of course, here in the States no dedicated jargon-head could resist coining a horrid new "ize" word, so transit planners here would obviously talk about "bromptonizing" and "forming a working group to study the cost/benefit aspects of bromptonization".
  actually now that I consider it, "to brom" has its appeal also. "There I was, just bromming along" has a nice ring. Perhaps "to brompt" refers to the sensation of riding on a roughish surface, whereas "to brom" indicates the swan-like serene glide of a well-metalled road (or linoleum ;->) Or perhaps one "brompts" to work, but "broms" for fun?
  the more medically-inclined could refer to "bromptonation" as a means of forward progress.

• De Clarke, Oct 1999:
  well, there's "wannabe" -- maybe what you describe is the state of "wanna-B"?

The Brompton Folding Bicycle FAQ