Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 02:26 AM

Sniffing girl's bicyle seats. Well now, that's a new fetish I hadn't heard of before! I suppose it's a subgenre of panty sniffing but soo daring, since one would have to do it in public. And the name for this is a "Snoofter". All new info to me. Of course, riding the subways in NYC, I learned very quickly what a 'Frotter" was and had to explain that to my husband one day. It derives, obviously, from Frottage and is less nicely described as the mope who tries to dry-hump you in the subway when you are strap-hanging and cannot get a seat.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: MartinRyan
Date: 29 Oct 14 - 07:55 AM

"G'is a bar on your bike!" is how we might have looked for a lift on a bicycle in my Dublin youth.

"Any chance of the convey?" would be a more rural Irish equivalent! Heavy stress and drag on the last syllable.

Regards

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: GUEST,Gregory
Date: 28 Oct 14 - 10:08 PM

I came to this site while searching "double dinking". I grew up in Hobart and can assure readers the term double dinking was in common usage while I was growing up in the 1970's and 1980's. I can't remember the legalities involved but we all did it. Here in Japan it is common in Kagoshima, I can't speak for other parts of the country. The locals call it ふたりのりwhich would translate 2 people riding. Boys "straddle the saddle" and girls typically sit "side saddle" while courting.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: gnomad
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 06:42 PM

Again NE England (60s, 70s) in Hull we called it a crogger. I don't recall there being a related verb, it was just "Give us a crogger" or less frequently "Jer wanna crogger?"

Oddly I don't think we had a word for riding on the carrier at the back that many bikes then had, though it was a common-enough activity. Most of our bikes had too many attachments for handlebar jaunts.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycle
From: Rowan
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 05:38 PM

You got a good laugh there, Bob; offering to "dink Brenda home" would have been a real double entendre.

Conversations yesterday brought up the notion that "dinking" might have been a Victorian (State, rather than state of mind) term, but someone recalled her mum used it; her mum came from Hay which, although in the Riverina part of NSW, got its newspapers and football from Victoria.

G'day and thanks, rich-joy. It might be that there was an overlap between Aussie Rules and the use of the word. We need to hear from some Taswegians and South Australians.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 08:40 AM

In B. C. (western Canada) we always just called it "doubling", as in the phrase "I'll double you home, Brenda." We sure wouldn't have called it dinking, let alone double dinking, as dink was the usual schoolyard term for penis. Thus, the model cars known as "Dinky Toys" were a great source of ribald amusement for the elementary school set.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 05:43 AM

Gee......We used to just say, "Get up on the handlebars" or "Sit on the crossbar".............on the other hand, a guy who smelled girl's bicycle seats was called a "Snoofter."

Spaw

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: nickp
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 05:39 AM

I have a bell on my bike but its so quiet you'd never hear it!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: Jos
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 04:48 AM

My guess, before I read the thread, was that 'dinking' must refer to the sound of a bicycle bell - but it's years since I heard one of those.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: nickp
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 04:02 AM

Croggy - UK - Midlands (Coventry) - 60s/70s

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: Paul Burke
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 01:44 AM

Gizza crozzie- Salford UK, 50s/60s.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 12:47 AM

In Louisana when I was growing up it was just called "riding double" and was discouraged if not illegal.
- Phil

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycle
From: Rowan
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 10:06 PM

Many thanks, so far.

Leadfingers,
Googling "Riding Two Up" produced only info relevant to carrying pillion passengers on motor bikes but seems to be known as such across much of the English-speaking world.

Bluegrassman,
The Urban Dictionary includes a definition of "Croggy" used exactly the way I remember using the word "Dink" in Oz during my youth, ie as both a noun and a verb, but I suspect it might not extend to functioning as a root for the participles. "I dinked him/her" and "I was dinking him/her" were phrases in common use (Melbourne 1940s to 1980s, at least) but the "y" at the end of "croggy" might have prevented such declensions.

The UD also provided another use of the word, to refer to the crossbar of the bike; it also mentioned croggy as the act of transporting someone on your handlebars. Ouch!

But still no mention of items from the folk tradition; curious, given other songs of seduction.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 07:45 PM

Never heard of any word for it in Canada. Illegal here in Calgary.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: Bluegrassman
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 07:33 PM

In my part of the world, in the North East of England, when you give someone a lift on the crossbar of your bike, Its called a "Croggy"

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: rich-joy
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 07:25 PM

My Scouser partner has remembered his Dad beating him severely for daring to give a girl a dinky (only he can't recall what terminology they used) - but apparently it was a terrible scandalous thing for a young Catholic lad to do (no wonder he emigrated to Oz at age 18 ........)

R-J

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: Leadfingers
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 07:16 PM

And I have only ever used 'Riding Two Up' over here in UK - Dinking is a new one for me !

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: rich-joy
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 07:16 PM

Hi Rowan,
from my childhood in the 50s in West Aussie, it was known more as a "dinky" - or "dinkying" - if that's any help. Not much different, I agree, but still ......

Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: artbrooks
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 07:05 PM

Rowen, as far as I know, there is no word in US English for sitting on either the crossbar or the handlebars of a bicycle.

Subject: Folklore: Dinking or double dinking on bicycles
From: Rowan
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 06:42 PM

I've searched Mudcat but the only references to "dinking" appear to be describing the sort of behaviour that guitarists are often accused of; undirected picking of chords or notes while they await inspiration.

In Oz (and, I suspect, the UK) "dinking" (often named as "double dinking" is the name given to carrying an extra person on a pushbike. Baby carriers mounted behind the cyclist's seat are legal and not counted as dinking but, sitting a passenger on the crossbar (for "men's bikes") on the saddle of a "ladies' bike" while the rider stands on the pedals is officially frowned on and usually regarded as illegal. So is sitting a passenger on the handlebars; given the things used to mount headlights there, sitting there would be likely to handicap one's ability to produce progeny, in my experience.

But I can't find any songs about it and Google has been less than cooperative in the matter. Someone I know is doing a PhD with bicycle transport in urban contexts as part of the research and we were discussing dinking and its lack of appearance. This intrigues me, as both she and I were well aware of the role dinking can (and, in my case, did) play in flirting and courtship.

It's almost certain that US and Canadian 'catters use a different term and surely some among us can dig up references to songs and/poems where dinking features.

Cheers, Rowan