Why is bike riding so therapeutic?

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Why is bike riding so therapeutic?

Postby Qijote » Sun May 09, 2004 10:04 pm

I play tennis, jog, swim, and ski, yet NOTHING relaxes me more than a 1 to 2 hr motorcycle ride. I come back tired yet totally refreshed. Maybe it is the total concentration that is required.
At every single curve you have to decide what hazards are present, at what point to brake, at what speed to enter, in what gear, how much to lean, how much to turn the head, how much throttle, look ahead to the exit, and when you are in the curve all your senses are looking for feedback to see if you have to make any adjustments to your plan.
At the next curve, you cycle through all those questions all over again. I guess this disconnects you so completely from everything else that getting off the bike feels like landing from a trip to outer space.
And what is really weird is that when I go to bed I can mentally relive just about the whole ride all over again. THAT doesn't happen to me with any other activity... well, except one.
Roy
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Postby hollywood » Mon May 10, 2004 8:27 am

Roy,

That brought a tear to my eye! I could not have said it better. I am going to have my wife read this post over and over until (hopefully) she understands! The bike and each ride are my one and only (OK, second to the other activity you referred to), outlet and therapy. However, I can’t even begin to lie here, the ride is the only activity of the two that can last for hours :lol:

Life once past graduation becomes more and more stressful and busier and busier. So the trip to the golf course or beach or whatever it is that takes away everything, is a good thing. The bike and ride is just that! You the bike and the wind! I guess sometimes you just have to be a rider to understand.

Thanks for the post, I am going to re-read it again. Ahhhhhh, owe to the bike by Roy (Rockster). :idea:
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re:

Postby Banshee » Mon May 10, 2004 8:45 pm

For me it's a combination of control and chaos. Do I command the bike or does the bike command me? Sometimes I can't tell.

When I ride I feel completely connected...to everyone and everything.

nice post roy,
-holley
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Postby Qijote » Tue May 11, 2004 2:36 pm

Holley:
I rode bikes since I was a 12 yr old farm boy until my mid 20's. Then didn't ride again until last year. It was like having to relearn how to ride all over again. I certainly was not in control for the first 1,000 miles. Maybe 'cause the bike is so heavy. (My last bike had been a Honda CB350, which was the first vehicle my wife and I bought after we got married. Nope, we didn't own a car until our first child.)
I didn't dare take a passenger until I felt I had control of the Rockster. Now, after 7,000 miles, I feel I have a lot of control and don't have any more close calls. And that's where I want to be: in the "no close calls" zone.
Roy
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re:

Postby Banshee » Tue May 11, 2004 8:43 pm

maybe it's because I AM a new rider Roy??

I love my bike.
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Postby JimVonBaden » Wed May 12, 2004 12:56 am

roylp wrote:Holley:
I rode bikes since I was a 12 yr old farm boy until my mid 20's. Then didn't ride again until last year. It was like having to relearn how to ride all over again. I certainly was not in control for the first 1,000 miles. Maybe 'cause the bike is so heavy. (My last bike had been a Honda CB350, which was the first vehicle my wife and I bought after we got married. Nope, we didn't own a car until our first child.)
I didn't dare take a passenger until I felt I had control of the Rockster. Now, after 7,000 miles, I feel I have a lot of control and don't have any more close calls. And that's where I want to be: in the "no close calls" zone.
Roy


Roy,

I completely understand. I stopped riding when I was 27, and didn't start again until last year. Even though I had over 50K miles on bikes, and at one point didn't have a car for two years, I gave it up.

What was I thinking?

I have put 8000 miles on 3 different BMW's since November, despite my 80% travel schedule, and I have never been happier, or more obsessed!

I love to ride, and get a little uptight lately watching the weather forcast. I will ride in the rain, but prefer not too.

Every time I get on my bike, I feel a calm, and an excitement that does not go away. Every time I pull into my parking lot I want to turn around and go back out.

I believe that a big part of my current obsession comes from the great community of BMW owners. I have met many of them, and anticipate meeting many more. This is the best group of people I have ever known!

I just love to ride.

Jim 8)
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Postby RocketMan » Thu May 13, 2004 12:47 pm

There are a lot of reasons people ride but in a little survey I did for a virginiawind.com article a few years ago I came up with one prevailing reason that most everyone mentioned, Freedom. The freedom of the road, the freedom from whatever may be troubling you, the freedom to go where and when you please to follow some hidden route or barrel down the slab, if that's your thing.

Fore me it's not only the freedom of the open road, all the smells, the sights and sounds, it's the connection between man and machine, as if you become one entity. That's why I don't like having any kind of radio or comm unit, it distracts from the experiance and for someone like me who rides older machines the music of the machine tells me how it's doing and when it's happy or having a bad day. It is also about the solitude of the ride, whether you in a group or not, each rider is seperate, complete and apart from the rest. But that's just me. :lol:

Here's a link to the full article,

http://www.roadrunes.com/Articles%20frame.htm

then click on "Why We Ride".

RM

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Postby Qijote » Thu May 13, 2004 6:21 pm

RocketMan:
Excellent article! Very well written. I can identify with many of the survey comments.
Roy
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Postby hollywood » Thu May 13, 2004 9:09 pm

Well there is another reason...but this turned out to be a long post, no need to read it :twisted:

Today a friend of mine (newest member gtlloyd) asked me if I wanted to go for a ride. He bought a new RT1150 and I went with him to pick it up today. So, as I was sitting at work and got a call 0900 asking if I would consider riding him up on the beast (my R12CL) and ride back with him from PA, I said let me think about it? At 0901 I told him I would meet him at 11AM with my bike since I had my truck with me at work.

I decided although this is my last week with my current company and I have been stressed trying to get everything transitioned even though they are the issue, not me, I realized I needed a ride. So, off we were to PA (Trans-AM BMW) to pick up his new RT.

We shot up there via 15 to 30 through Gettysburg about 1.5 hours, but the ride back we took many back roads winding our way the whole way back. It had been 1 ½ years since he rode, so after a few minutes around the area he was back in the saddle and off we were. I let him take lead and just go at his pace and stop if needed until he was comfortable riding again and with his new bike.

After traveling around 100 miles, and many back roads, I quickly realized he got his motorcycle legs back. When we hit some somewhat local (about 20 miles from home) roads I realized we were traveling faster on the twisties then we were on the open roads :twisted:

Anyway, what I am saying is, as we headed out about 3:15, I think it was 3:16 when I realized... I hit my zen and over the next 3 hours, as I said we had a long ride home over some great roads, I was totally free of everything but the joy of the ride.

So, RM, your article about freedom is VERY relevant. However, for me I love music and like hearing the change of the tracks in the CD player. It is like each song change or curve, or road change is a new ride or new adventure for me. With each mile I travel and each song goes by, I get further and further away from the stress and closer and closer to pure pleasure of the freedom your article mentions.

So, as the day started out with high stress, it ended very relaxed and with several hundred miles on my bike. I will admit though, sometimes when you (‘I’ – I maybe only speaking for myself) have something on your mind and really have a hard time not thinking about it, the ride allows you the freedom to think as well.

As much as I obsess over the ride, the ride allows me to obsess over that one thing on my mind I can’t stop thinking about. The ride...It relaxes you and takes all your concentration, but yet it allows you to totally think about what’s on your mind. Give it total concentration as much as the ride itself. Maybe if our world leaders would just go out for a ride and think about things before taking action, we could live in peace :?: :twisted: :?:
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Postby JimVonBaden » Thu May 13, 2004 10:00 pm

Excellent post Phil,

I agree about the freedom, and it's definitely a big part for me. Ihave never felt more free than the times when the road and the ride combine to make all right with the world.

Jim 8)
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Postby RocketMan » Fri May 14, 2004 10:16 am

hollywood wrote:So, RM, your article about freedom is VERY relevant. However, for me I love music and like hearing the change of the tracks in the CD player. It is like each song change or curve, or road change is a new ride or new adventure for me. With each mile I travel and each song goes by, I get further and further away from the stress and closer and closer to pure pleasure of the freedom your article mentions.

:?: :twisted: :?:


Yup I know a lot of folks who like taking the music with them, I even tried it a few times on the bike, and when in the car i have music up way loud! But then the car is new and I can't hear the motor anyway! :D On the bike though the motor makes the only music I need, I used to sing while riding till I swallowed to many bugs, that is! Thou now that I've taken to riding with a full face....
So if you hear a song being sung way off key in the far distance, that's probably me. :roll:

RM
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Postby hollywood » Fri May 14, 2004 11:45 am

RM, I so understand your point as well. Sometimes to my wife’s dislike and throwing all caution to the wind (DO NOT think I condone this, kids DO NOT try this at home) I actually go up and back on my street just to hear the bike and the changing of a few gears without my helmet. Don’t tell anyone.

Also, I have to admit I have sung (although you can’t consider what sounds I produce singing) in my helmet as well, but mostly I have to admit to yelling or screaming (sometimes profanity) in my helmet. This is usually at the beginning of a ride after an ugly day or week or just at those times you want to yell, but not bother others. By the end of the ride, life is good! Again, don’t tell anyone :oops:

One piece of advise though, make sure you have your ear plugs in if you yell, it can really echo in that full face helmet :twisted:
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Postby Qijote » Fri May 14, 2004 9:12 pm

Funny... I also sing to myself when I ride, especially in the rain, that Gene Kelley song. I love riding in the rain.
My wife sings when she showers--it's the only time she ever does it. I sing when I ride--its the only time I ever do it.
Roy
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catchin up

Postby MrE » Sat May 15, 2004 11:53 am

For me it is being in the environment. If I am not on the bike, I love being in the woods. Alone with the sounds and smells of the forest. The concentration trying to figure out if that sound was a squirrel, a deer, maybe a turkey. Identifying the different plants and birds.

The bike is the same... Inside the car you miss out on the smells, the temperature fluctuations. On a bike you can smell the difference between dairy, beef, pig, and chicken farms. You can smell the fresh cut grass, the clean after a rain.

In other words, the awareness of the environment is one of the main reasons I prefer my bike.

And I agree with Roy's original post about the concentration being cleansing.
The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.
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Postby MrE » Thu May 20, 2004 9:11 pm

So first, let me start this post by saying I am a heterosexual (not that there is anything wrong with that). Really, I am. This statement will make sense in a second.

So I am sitting here, WITH MY WIFE, watching Gypsy, which is a musical staring Rosalind Russell and Natalie Wood. There was one song called "Some People" that for some reason struck a chord. Figured it fit in to this thread. Google found the lyrics
------------
Anybody that stays home is dead
If I die it won't be from sitting

It will be from fighting to get up and get out!
Some people can get a thrill
knitting sweaters and sitting still.
That's okay for some people
who don't know they're alive.

Some people can thrive and bloom
living life in the living room.

That's perfect for some people
of one hundred and five.

But I at least gotta try
when I think of all the sights that I gotta see
and all the places I gotta play,
all the things that I gotta be at.

Come on, papa, what do you say?

Some people can be content
playing bingo and paying rent.
That's peachy for some people,
for some hum-drum people to be,
but some people ain't me!
--------------

So really, I am not a geek. Well, ok, maybe I am. But when I heard that song, figured I had to post it here. Besides, Natalie Wood was a hot babe. And the Ayinger was tasty and plentiful. mmmm. beer. Wish I had made the RTE.
The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.
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