Avatars and user names

[Travis Bickle]

Just curious really, I'm inviting everyone on here to share with us where you got your avatar image from, why, and what inspired you to choose that particular image and your user name? I'm a firm believe that nothing in this world truly random!

I'll kick off!

Travis Bickle is the main character in 70s film Taxi Driver. I'm a taxi driver myself and this has been one of my favourite films even since way before I even considered becoming a taxi driver myself. I've used Travis Bickle as a handle for years, mainly for gaming etc but also when signing up for various accounts online where a certain amount on anonymity is desirable. But only after becoming a taxi driver myself did I start using Travis Bickle as a handle, before that (through my childhood into my early 20s) generally 'Wonder Mike' was used (as in one of the members of the 70s hip hip group The Sugarhill Gang who released the iconic single 'Rapper's Delight', which I'm ashamed to admit I know all the words to, all 14 and a half minutes of the full album version!!! That's autism for you!).

I like to think that being a taxi driver is where the similarities between fictional character Travis Bickle and myself end. I don't think I am a paranoid schizophrenic. Mind you, if I were, would I know?

I found the image for my avatar on Google Images, I liked the fact that it's kinda cartoonised and also the contrast of yellow and black is my favourite colour scheme.





I look at some of your user names and avatars and am curious, what were the reasons for picking the ones you did?

On the surface it probably seems like a dumb thing to ask but I bet there are many interesting and amusing tales behind it for some of you. Suffice to say mine was less interesting.
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Must Go Faster
1999 Yamaha FZS600 Fazer

[stinkwheel]

I've used the username since the mid 90's when I used to ride cheap Eastern European 2-strokes. Stinkwheel is a term for a 2-stroke. I first used the name on the Jawa Riders yahoo group bulletin board.

My avatar is a Nac Mac Feegle, characters from Terry Partchets Discworld books called "Pictsies". I used to use this one:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3w0IfJ2MWTFD0JvGXXS-pXf-m4V60AHdd-x3IlfeIQoPsgT_MLjkamw1fl1es8XA_iIR1Kdcmibm2A7nZA_m6SuyifOwoylM38zCHSeb4f17xuckYQV0J69Mhtuk6MZhJjHTnQfZ-Q=w76-h80-no

That's Rob anybody McFeegle. To whom I have a passing resemblance both in appearance and accent.

But it's (very, very slightly, like 5 pixels total) animated and someone whinged about favoritism because it's technically against forum trules. So when I was made a Mod, I changed it for Wee Mad Arthur who is a night watchman in the books.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Sister Sledge]

Mine is a second username. The first was accidentally too similar to another persons and so I chose to change it. Someone here came up with this name.

I change my avatars at random. They're actually photos of displays at museums. You know the type - a medieval village with mannequins dressed as paupers or whatever. I grab photos because I think the faces the artists create are quite funny!
The current one came from The Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne. I have others from there and some from The Scottish Mining Museum too.
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CCM 404 DS

[Travis Bickle]

That's great. Two of the people I had in mind that this was actually aimed at (among many others).

Stinkwheel - Ok I've learned something. Didn't know 2-strokes were called that! And is that a thimble on his head?

Sister Sledge - Your avatar looks like a bloke with pants on his head. Is that actually what it is?
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Must Go Faster
1999 Yamaha FZS600 Fazer

[Travis Bickle]

Also only learned just recently what the term 'chicken strip' means. I think that's partly what made me make this thread because I'd been wondering about various others for a while and that one just kinda clicked into place when I read the term somewhere else.
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Must Go Faster
1999 Yamaha FZS600 Fazer

[grr666]

Grr is a nickname I've had for about 25 years. Was (as all nicknames should be) given to me by a mate who I used
to work with when I was about 19, still a great friend now BTW. The 666 bit is because usually a 3 letter username is a
bit short for forums and stuff. It hints to what kind of music rings my bell and it's also the last 3 digits of my phone number.
The avatar is me, I chose it because its definitely what I look like.
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Currently enjoying products from Ford, Mazda and Yamaha
Ste wrote: Avatars are fine, it's signatures that need turning off.

[waffles]

I previously had a picture of waffles with ice cream on them (for obvious reasons) then changed to a dog with anime eyes. They don't really work well as a small avatar but now the dog has kinda grown on me.

And waffles because they are fucking delicious
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Theory test - 19/8/09, CBT - 11/10/09, MOD 1 - 16/8/10, MOD 2 - 27/10/10
Past rides Yamaha XT125X, Triumph TT600, Honda XR250
Current rides Suzuki GSXR 600, Honda MSX125

[Shaft]

My name is not because I'm a badass New York PI (I'm more fatass New Kent Road) but because I have a thing about shaft drive bikes - I realised a very long time ago that chain maintenance is not something I enjoy, so I've had almost exclusively shaft driven bikes for more than 30 years.

I decided my avatar needed to be something appropriate and as most bevel boxes are rather amorphous blobs, I chose the very distinctive unit from a Yamaha XS1.1S.

How dull is that!
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Things get better with age; I'm close to being magnificent........
20 RE Interceptor, 83 Z1100A3, 83 GS650 Katana
WooHoo, I'm a Man Point Millionaire! https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=234035

[Polarbear]

My nickname IRL is Polarbear or more often, PB, ever since I had my photo taken with this chap in Alaska and the jokers I was with said there was a handsome one and a short fat polarbear. Sadly I can't find the actual photo as it was well before the age of digital cameras.

https://www.angelfire.com/co4/grumpynam/alaska/PolarBear2.jpg

My avatar is nicked and cropped from one of the few images on the net I could find with PB on a bike back when I joined.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[Islander]

My username is Islander because I live on an island - specifically one of the Orkney Islands. My avatar is Ogri because well, Ogri!. It was also a nickname given to me by some people I worked with

[Sister Sledge]

Nah the bloke is medieval and has like an open balaclava on his head. I don't have a full image to show how it fits together with the rest of his clothing.
This one was too small to turn into an avatar and the details would be lost. It's a diorama at a mining museum,,

https://live.staticflickr.com/7878/40409548993_1045a95959_b.jpg


Should get hellkats blood warmed up a little!

Edited to a link because we're on our last warning from google about nudity on public threads and google can't tell the difference between a museum diarama and the opening scenes of a late 70's homo-erotic scandinavian porno. It just sees flesh tones. - stinkwheel (I also thought your avatar was a man with his underpants on his head)
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CCM 404 DS

[Ste]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6L1d7PbILw

[Easy-X]

I ride a Superlight 125, a faux-cruiser, hardly a Harley...

The avatar pic is a bitmap render of the vector image I designed for tank badges.
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Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[Travis Bickle]

[RhynoCZ]

This isn't the first such thread, so just a quick recap...

Rhyno is/was a wrestler, that I used to chose in the wrestling games on PS1. Yes, I do know there should be an ''i'' instead of the ''y''.
CZ = Ceska Zbrojovka (czech armory/armourers?), a company that used to make some quite interesting motorcycles, then forced to merge with Jawa and after 1989 the gov sold it to Cagiva who killed the whole motorcycle division. They still make motorcycle chains and firearms, though.

My avatar is the ''classic'' CZ motorcycles logo.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Ste]

[Kentol750]

I can't get a pic on here..even my fat face is over 40 something.
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Some bikes.

[mentalboy]

Mentalboys was the nickname four of us were given in our late teens, thanks to a penchant for 'interesting' adventures that scared the crap out of the other outdoor pursuits instructors.
The avatar seemed appropriate for a pussy loving forum where bullshit abounds.
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Make mine a Corona.

[pepperami]

My name came from when I was having an angry moment with a couple of customers years ago.
The lads at the time nicknamed me and it’s just stuck.
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I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[thx1138]

This has been my user name, most places, since I first got online in the 80s. It's tattooed on the back of my head.

Character from film of same name. Guy who lives in a dystopian society where thoughts and actions are controlled by the state, everything is homogenized, one size fits all, sugar coated mind numbing television is mandatory as are drugs to control. He aims to break out of it.

My avatars is me on my old CRF250L riding through a ford, near a house where a grumpy person lives and sometimes yells at people for riding through the ford, which is on a legal road.

[Tracey Suntan-King]

Yeah, déja vu but a reminder is always useful.

I used the name Tracey King after an IRL stalker who followed my sister around for years, because I joined specifically to stalk a BCF member.

The stalking paid off, (Reader, I married him) which is why I became double-barrelled.

My avatar is an expression of my persona, an aging hippy chick with no pants on
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Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're probably right

[Howling Terror]

Up until 1900 nobody had heard sound from a loudspeaker. Horace L Short put an end to tranquillity by making a machine capable of projecting a voice that could be heard 20 miles away.

They nicknamed it The Howling Terror.


The avatar is an OSF indicator from the duke. ST2 to be specific.
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Diabolical homemade music Bandcamp and Soundcloud
Singer songwriter, Artist and allround good bloke Listen to Andrew Susan Johnston here
The Harry Turner Project

[Shaft]

[Lord Percy]

My avatar image is the picture I used for a Facebook page I created when I was about 20 years old (ten years ago). It was a page for putting up random facts I came across. In those days, Facebook was more of a jolly social affair so it had quite a few followers. I got bored eventually and deleted it, but continue to use the image for a couple of online accounts.

My username is rubbish. Previously it was 'SA1988', which is my initials and birthdate. Boring but I didn't really mind to be honest.

Then a certain user on here who has long since gone (Sun Wukong) told me my username sounded like a brand of dildo, and that I should change it to something more interesting like Lord Percy Percington Esquire, so I became Lord Percy.

My real name isn't Percy and I'm definitely not a lord.

[andyscooter]

my namecame from my name and when I first had email one of the suggestions was use something you were interested in as the emal so I decided andy scooter

name stuck for years even though I no longer have them

my avater is a beer because im now andybeer
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gilera runner vxr200 (chavped)
if its spelt wrong its my fat fingers and daft auto correct on my tablet