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HHC
Although I completely agree with the sentiment - a bike is a 'thing' and does not have sex/gender - a few thoughts:
1 - I'm guessing the habit is nautical in origin, which in and of itself, although dated, is not so sinister:
"But people generally agree on the more romantic notion of the ‘ship as a she’ phenomenon: that it stems from the tradition of boat-owners, typically and historically male, naming their vessels after significant women in their lives — wives, sweethearts, mothers. Similarly, and more broadly, ships were once dedicated to goddesses, and later also to mortal women of national or historic significance, thereby bestowing a benevolent feminine spirit on the vessels that would carry seafarers across treacherous oceans."
2 - Mrs The Kindness of Trees assumes her cars to be male. Indeed, her current car is called Francis. (Previous vehicles include Fu Manchu and Wesley.) I'm fairly sure nobody has ever given her any grief for doing this.
... and yet when the guy at work refers to his (mountain) bikes as 'she' I'm squirming inside. I also very much object to people describing bikes as 'sexy'.