I saw this bike outside of a Supercuts yesterday. A Huffy Stalker.
Is there a creepier model name for any mass-produced bike? I’ve spent half an hour Googling this, and I can’t find anyone else who found this bike’s name a little disturbing.
Perhaps other bloggers are smart enough not to want their websites search-indexed for the words “stalker” and “creepy.” (Great. That ought to bring in the the kind of traffic we want.)
Over the weekend, I’ve been thinking about iconic brands. (For reasons to be revealed in a forthcoming bike review.)
I’m no bike snob. (I think the Web already has one of those.) But isn’t Huffy the iconic bad bike?
Yet the brand has survived this long-standing stigma, as well as being driven into bankruptcy with help from Wal-Mart.
Even Blackwater changed it’s name to Xe, after it’s original name became synonymous with “private mercenary army” and “human rights abuses.” (Okay, maybe Huffy’s brand-name problems aren’t that bad.)
Huffy’s response seems to be: Fight for survival and keep on making bikes. And they double down with disturbing bike names.
The Freddie Krueger of bike brands.
In a way, you’ve got to admire that.