How MX company's got their name

Found this scrounging around the net. I have no idea if it is accurate or not but I am sure there are members here that know the answers. I like the Pro Circuit (PCP) story.


COMPANIES NAMED AFTER A PERSON

SUZUKI...Michio Suzuki
HONDA...Soichiro Honda
KAWASAKI...Shozo Kawasaki
SCOTT USA...Edward Scott
DUNLOP...John Boyd Dunlop
FOX...Geoff Fox
BOYESEN...Eyvind Boyesen
KRAUSE RACING...Vic Krause
WHITE BROS....Dan and Tom White
SINISALO...Heikki Sinisalo
ACERBIS...Franco Acerbis
O’NEAL...Jim O’Neal
OHLINS...Kent Ohlins
PIRELLI...Giovanni Pirelli

COMPANIES NAMED AFTER AN ACRONYM

KTM...Hans Kronreif, Eric Trunkenpolz and Mattighofen
MSR...Malcolm Smith Racing
THOR...TorstenHallman Off Road.
HRP...Hannah Racing Products
SBS...Scandinavian Brake Systems
IRC Tires...Inoue Rubber Company
AMP..American Moto Products
LEM Motor...Ermanno Lelli Motors
DHMA...Donnie Hansen Motocross Academy
GSMXS...Gary Semics Motocross Schools
DG RACING...Dand Hanglevin and Gary Harlow

COMPANIES NAMED AFTER A PERSON, PLACE OR THING

BELL HELMETS: Roy Richter began his career with a business named Bell Auto Parts in Bell, California. When he started making he named them Bell Helmets.

YAMAHA: The man who gave his name to Yamaha Motorcycles never saw one. Torakusu Yamaha worked as a clock maker, medical tool manufacturer and designer of musical instruments (known as harmoniums). Yamaha became a very successful piano maker and it wasnt until 39 years after his death that Yamaha entered the motorcycle business.

BRIDGESTONE: The tire company is named after founder Shojiro Ishibashi. Ishibashi, when translated in English, means bridge of stone.

RENTHAL: Henry Rosenthal and Andrew Renshaw put their heads (and names) together to come up with RenThal. Just think, it could have been Roseshaw instead!

SHOEI HELMETS: In Japan, each era that an Emperor reigns has a name. The Shoei helmet company was founded during the rein of Emperor Hiro Hito. This period was known as the Showa era. Shoei took the Sho from Showa and attached the two first letters of the founders name, Eitaro Kamata, to come up with Shoei.

FMF: Donnie Emler loved the movie Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines (1965). So when he started his hop-up company he called it Flying Machine Factory. It was later shortened to FMF.

AFAM: AFAM is an abbreviation for Atelier la Fabrication Accessoire de Moto. Translated, it means a small workshop for the fabrication of motorcycle accessories.

WISECO PISTONS: The company founder, Clyde Wiseman, used the Wise from his last name to originally call his company, Wise Co.. The name later evolved to the faster sounding and more direct, Wiseco.

GAERNE BOOTS: The Italian boot company’s name comes from a derivative of the founders name, Ernesto Gazzola. Take the Ga from Gazzola and the Erne from Ernesto and put them together to spell Gaerne.

SILKOLENE: Fabric mills are the main industry in Belper, England,so when the local Dalton Family started their lubricant business in the early 1900s, they took Sylko (a brand name for a local cotton) and connected it to olene a word they thought sounded smooth yet tough.

R&D RACING: Rudy and Dean Dickenson originally had a company named Rudys Motorcycle Repair. Ricky Johnson, one of the Rudy and Deans top mini riders, said they needed a more hip name and came up with not only their name but he even designed a logo for them!

OAKLEY: Jim Jannard, the company founder, raised English Setter dogs. One of his favorite dogs was named Oakley. He named the company in the dogs honor.

HUSQVARNA: Originally a gun manufacturer, Husqvarna motorcycles were manufactured in the town of Husqvarna, Sweden. Today, they are made in Italy.

COMPANIES NAMED ON A WHIM

MECHANIX: The clothing company liked the way the X (replacing the C in mechanic) looked and sounded, but another company had already copyrighted that word. Luckily for Mechanix, the copyright expired and they took it over.

GFI: "I was in my attorneys office and he said I had to come up with a name for my corporation," remembers Goat Breker. "I was on the spot." When Goat had ridden for Team Kawasaki, the company made up stickers that read Goat For It. Goat liked the abbreviation and told the attorney to use it.

TUF RACING: Company founder Dave Antolak had been trying for weeks to come up with a name for his new company. While sitting with friends he commented, "Thinking up a company name is tough." The name stuck.

RK CHAIN: The Japanese company utilized German technicians who call chains "roller kettens" so it has long been assumed that RK stood for the German word for chain. Not true! The company was originally called Race King when it first came to America, but American management said the name had to go. It was shortened to RK.

PRO CIRCUIT: Mitch Payton originally owned a Husqvarna dealership in Anaheim, named Anaheim Husqvarna. When he went into the hop-up business he called the products, Pro Circuit Products. The stickers were abbreviated to PCP. Unfortunately, the abbreviation was the name of a mind altering drug, so the PCP name was dropped, as was the word Products. In the end it was Pro Circuit.

ANSWER PRODCTS: Ed Cole and Fred Hoblit were told by their accountant that their silencer sales were growing so fast that it was time to officially start a company. Eddie saw a brochure on the accountants desk that had a line type on it that read, "The answer to all your tax problems," and that is the name they chose.

SPY EYEWEAR: The idea of using Spy came from a friend of one of the company’s founders. The word was short, simple and worked on many different levels (the James Bond image, spying as in looking, and a long term image the company was strategizing to develop). A legal search revealed the name was already trademarked, but not in use. The sunglass company contacted the owners of the word Spy and purchased the existing name, established and registered a trademark...A big advantage for a new business.

JT RACING The name is TJ backwards. Got that? TJ is slang in the San Diego area for Tijuana. Since the first JT products were manufactured in Tijuana, Mexico, owners John and Rita Gregory decided to take the slang name for the town, turn it around and voila, JT Racing was born.

CHAPARRAL: "I had a manufacturing/distribution company and when one of my big accounts went bankrupt, I was left with hundreds of road bike fairings," remembers Dave Damron. "We decided to come up with a brand name so we could sell the fairings ourselves." Dave was looking for a name that didn’t mean anything in particular. He was a big fan of Jim Hall, the inventor of the Chaparral race car, and decided to adopt that name.

COMPANIES NAMED AFTER FOREIGN WORDS

ENZO RACING: Company founder, Ross Maeda, met a young Italian inventor who had made a set of front forks from scratch. "The forks didn’t work very well," remembers Ross with a laugh, "but the guy was only like seventeen-years-old! He was amazing." The two kept in touch and together designed and manufactured a piston, the first product of Enzo Racing."My Italian partners first name was Enzo and everybody who met him thought his name was really cool in a funny way," says Ross.

JET PILOT: Founders Scott Burnworth and Phil Johnson were in Paris when Scott was racing for Team Yamaha. In France, they called motorcycle riders pilots. Scott and Phil liked that and since their first products were for Jet Ski riders, they named it Jet Pilot.

MAXIMA OIL: Dick Lechien spent a lot of time racing motorcycles south of the border. The Mexican speed limit signs read Maxima which is Spanish for maximum.

AXO: The name did not company from a fraternity name! AXO, an Italian company, was originally named Asso, which means victory in Italian. "There was an obvious problem using the Italian word in English," says a company spokesmen with a laugh. They came up with the less offensive AXO.

ATK MOTORCYCLES: Horst Leitner, an Austrian designer/engineer, invented an anti-tension chain drive system called the "Anti-Tension-Kettenantrieb" (thats German). It was abbreviated into ATK.

COMPANIES WITH PHILOSOPHICAL NAMES

SUNSTAR SPROCKETS: This Japanese company originally produced toothpaste and toothbrushes. Since their products were used when the sun rises and when the stars come out at night, they chose Sunstar.

100% PRODUCTS: "I looked at the picture of Bob Hannah hanging on my living room wall. Bob was number 100," remembers company owner Drew Lien. "I asked myself, What does it take to win? Youve got to give 100%."

NO FEAR: Prior to starting No Fear, the Simo Brothers had another clothing business (Life’s A Beach) and designed a T-shirt just for race track corner workers. The shirt wasn’t sold to the public and it had the words no fear as the center of the design. When they formed their new company, they liked the words No Fear.

COMETIC GASKETS: The founders wanted a word referring to acceleration and quickness and cometic (ko.met'ik), which pertains to a comet, signified speed and accuracy, so they chose it.

ONE INDUSTRIES: Founders Danny Dobey and Mark Blanchard were going to name their company Switch (like in switching graphics on your bike), but they felt it sounded like Shift. Danny came up with One but the name was already registered. Mark added the word Industries because it denotes strength and is a commonly used word in the snowboard and fashion industry.

ALPINESTARS: The Italian company started out making hiking and ski boots so they looked to the Italian Alps for inspiration. The Stella Alpina is a flower that only grows in highest elevations of the Italian Alps. Translated to English it came outs as Alpinestars.

CEET: No big mystery here. The name is a play on the word seat (pronounced ceet) and since that was the company’s first product (and still one of their biggest sellers), the name play seemed appropriate.