UK slang for the act of having sex. See also boink, the term Americans prefer to use.

Onomotopoetic: To hit, usually over the head, with an oblong object that is usually made of wood (such as a baseball bat, clue by four or LART), making the bonk sound as it connects with someone's cranium.

v. to run out of energy or grow exhausted on a ride. "I bonked so early, it was embarrassing."

From the Dictionary of Mountain Bike Slang

When used as a noun it refers to a previous injury, usually due to a blow from some hard object.

I got a bonk on my head.

As a verb it refers to the process of getting a bonk.

He bonked his head on the floor
I'm gonna bonk you with my notepad if you don't stop bugging me.

NEC's attempt at a viable mascot to compete with Nintendo's Mario and Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog on NEC's TurboGrafx 16. Starred in bonk's adventure, bonk's revenge, and in a roundabout way, Air Zonk. He Replaced their previous, lackluster mascot, Keith Courage.

Then Again,, I think whacking people with your head is much less cool than transforming into a giant robot with a lightsaber.

The Turbografix-16 was fading fast in the early 1990s and NEC/Hudson needed a guarenteed 100% sure-fire hit to save the system from demise. Churning out a new Bonk game every year wasn't working out anymore, and the spin-off to the caveman character, Air Zonk, failed to set the industry on fire. What to do? How about taking Bonk and fashioning an RPG around him?

The Bonk RPG was fast-tracked in 1993 as Hudson and NEC turned all their attention to the project. Electronic Gaming Monthly got the scoop on the game and ran exclusive pictures and a detailed preview of the game that depicted Bonk teaming up with new unnamed characters and a few old enemies to battle King Drool once again. Screenshots of the game showed Bonk and friends traveling on the map screen as well as some character art. Interestingly enough, screenshots of an RPG failed to show pictures of any kind of battle scenes.

So where'd the game go, and why haven't you probably heard of it until now? The game was 20% complete when NEC pulled the plug on the TG16 in the USA and began a last-ditch effort to save the system in Japan. Seeing as how Bonk was more popular in America than Japan, the Bonk RPG was put on hold indefinitely. It never resurfaced and was banished to video game lore.

As for Bonk himself, Hudson took him and developed ports of Bonk's Adventure and Bonk's Revenge for the NES, Super NES (Super Bonk and Super Bonk 2) and Game Boy in 1994.


References:
Electronic Gaming Monthly circa 1993
Google Groups

Bonking is also a term used in distance running and endurance races like the Ironman triathlon. As SuperDan2K points out, it means to run out of energy. This is a physiological condition caused when muscles become saturated with lactic acid, or when runners' natural energy stores are depleted. Synonymous with hitting the wall. Many marathon runners experience such a feeling at around mile 18 of the 26.2 mile run.

Severe pain occurs in leg muscles, mostly, and also in shoulder, back and upper arm muscles. Eilte runners manage to prevent bonking by conditioning regimens, and can put off some of the effects by taking quick digestion sugar mixtures and exercise fluids like Gatorade during the final stages of the marathon. They also say that pain is inevitable for the competitive marathoner or triathlete, and that pain management is necessary.

Whaddaya mean, you don't know the Capital of Uberwald?

To get some non sexual content onto this piece of html, Bonk, pronounced "beyonk" is of course the capital of the mysterious ethnic conglomerate of Uberwald on the increasingly detailed mapped Discworld.

A rather dark place with narrow streets and houses build like fortresses (to keep the suckers out), Bonk is being ruled by an uneasy triumvirate of Dwarfs, Vampires and Werewolfs. The rule is being enforced by a rather gloomy townwatch which doesn't really know whose will it is enforcing.

For some reason their population seem to have a slight accent and pronounce their "W"'s like "V"s (as in "vot do you vant") their "a"'s like "o"'s and their "th" like a "z" (as is "vot ze hell"),

Culinary highlights are fatsup, beer and sausages with real meat in them.

Source: The fifth elephant, Terry Pratchett, Corgi 1999

As a term used in distance bicycling, "bonk" is used in various ways, mostly because good bicyclists aren't always up on their biochemistry, but my understanding of the term is that "bonk" is used to refer to the situation when the human body runs out of glycogen.

As a brief biochemical guide, the human body has three stores of fuels: free blood sugar, which lasts for about ten minutes, glycogen, stored in the liver and muscle tissue, which can last for around an hour of exercise, and stores of fat throughout the body that can last for days or weeks. When cycling, the body quickly runs out of sugar, but glycogen in the liver and muscle is broken up for glucose both to provide energy to the muscles and to run other body processes: including given glucose to the brain, which prefers glucose for fuel, and a lot of it. After that fuel is exhausted, the muscles will start burning fatty acids, protein or pretty much anything available for fuel. For the most part, this isn't a problem for the muscles: they aren't too discriminating. As a byproduct of the breakdown of fatty acids, molecules called ketone bodies are produced. The brain can survive by metabolizing ketone bodies, but doing so puts it on alert from what it takes to be a state of starvation. This leads to a series of metabolic changes that can be both harmful (it can be detrimental to thinking and reaction times) and helpful (for some people, including me, it involves some type of "cyclists high").

Although some training regimens actively seek for a "bonk", because it means that the body will be burning fat, I find it detrimental for several reasons: first, operating a bicycle can be a hazardous activity, and a brain that isn't fully alert is a brain that doesn't notice the potholes in the road until it is too late. Secondly, once I reach the point of running out of glycogen, I will become ravenously hungry, and remain so for sometimes a day or two afterwards. By eating regularly, I never reach the point of wanting to overeat. Thirdly, feeling weak and hungry is not a way to make cycling a regular, fun activity, which is the best way to build it up as a regular, healthy habit.

I am not the largest expert on either bicycling or biochemistry, and people who know more about both of these might have different opinions. The biochemical picture is, of course, also much more complicated than I described here. However, as someone who knows some biochemistry and has completed a century, I would suggest keeping a constant supply of glucose on any long rides.

Notice, also, that I am using the term "bonk" for a fairly limited phenomena: there are other sources of fatigue from cycling, that I don't usually see described as a "bonk".

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