A lot of folks suggested great names for the new French-style VO city bar. Thank you all! Read the comments to the last post; very clever names indeed. After polling the VO staff and thinking about it myself we came up with our three favorites:
Brian suggested Espresso bar. That's actually Italian, but still sounds great.
Kevan's suggestion Flarrow, from flat and narrow, was also a favorite.
The winner, however, is Matt's suggestion of Belleville, another Parisian neighborhood in keeping with our VO Left Bank and Montmarte bars. And, as he says, "a nod to a great bicycling movie, The Triplets of Belleville."
All three folks mentioned above will get free handlebars. Please send me an e-mail with shipping info.
I wanted to mention a few other great suggestions. Flaneur, suggested by Pavel is a super name, but we were thinking of calling the production mixte the Flaneusse, so too close. Chris' Cintre-Ville is neat and noteworthy; maybe for the next bar. As are Melvin's Bridget Bar-Deaux and Tony's Camionnette (which we are saving for a rack name). Finally, Libraridan's Madeleine, with it's link to Proust, is a wonderful suggestion.
That was fun, i love naming contests. please do another one in the future.
ReplyDeleteWell, Belleville is a fine name, but isn't it a bit disingenuous to name a Taiwanese copy of a French bar with a French name?
ReplyDeleteI'm really not being contentious, just thinking that a Chinese (or even American!) name would be more honest than trying to evoke a lost Gallic nostalgia.
It seems no different than placing a "Motobecane" decal on a China-manufactured downtube.
I assume that the French original can no longer be sourced from France?
Rich
OK- how about Da Jia?
ReplyDeleteTaichung?
Song Chaing?
Guanzhou?
Yiching
Chern Shianq?
Hakka?
I kinda get where you are coming from. For example, Trek should not mane their new all weather city bike, the Portland, as they don't manufacture it in Portland Maine?
(Not that's it's a terribly well speced rain bike- smallish tires, hardly any clearance for fenders, so they had to spec flat fenders to make it work. No kickstand, no rack, no bags, no lights.....WTF)
or the Bianchi Castro Valley?
We would have to take Marin bikes to task as well, for their disingenuous smearing of NorCal's birthplace of mountain biking with shoddy $5,000 mountain and road bikes.
Lets not forget about Masi, Torelli, and Derosa either; most- if not all- of their bikes are now made in Taiwan or China.
Wow -- I'm now glad I didn't enter the name contest. "City Bar" would have led to my crushing humiliation....
ReplyDeleteHow bout engrish? I mean Ostrich does it already. Call it the super happy fun bike bar.
ReplyDeleteStill think you V-Oers missed the boat with Small Cargo Bar (small cargo, get it? s.cargo (c'mon escargot)).
Okay. I'm sorry.
"Super happy fun bike bar" sounds good to me! :-)
ReplyDeleteThe Bridget Bar-Deaux name would probably be much more appropriate for a lovely, 1950's style curvaceous Randonneur drop bar.
ReplyDeleteMaybe one with "exaggerated" curves and a deeper drop ? (!)
Ooh-La-La !
Regards,
Gen'l. Melvin DeGaulle
I think that anyone who spells espresso "expresso" shouldn't be rewarded in any way.
ReplyDeletel suggest belle-de-nuit in competition with bridget bardeaux for a feminin name.
ReplyDeleteBien le bonjour from Paris
> l suggest belle-de-nuit in competition with bridget bardeaux for a feminin name.
ReplyDeleteThe Bridget Bar-deaux is awesome. Unfortunately, i think it would be mis-used on a bar that's simple and flat. But maybe Chris can start working on a new design!
"production mixte the Flaneusse"
ReplyDeleteI'm excited! City or Randonneur? When will this be available and how much? Pictures?
I can not wait for these bars to be available!
ReplyDeleteproduction mixte - "la flaneuse"! just one s, s'il vous plait, for the feminine version of flaneur (what a great name!) :)
ReplyDelete