Riding is good for you
We all know that riding bikes feels great – and it’s good for your brain, too.
Non-riders just don’t get it. Why have a hobby that’s expensive and physically dangerous, for no apparent reason, they ask. Meanwhile, we hit the road on a sunny day (or for most of us, any other day) and return home with a glow that flows right into the rest of our lives.
Just what is the mental magic in motorcycling? Over the past couple of decades, scientists and psychologists have been studying this question. They conclude that the thrill of two wheels fires our neurons with an array of brain-spritzing stimuli that can fill us with deep happiness, teach us career-boosting skills, get us over deep trauma – and even help us to fend off brain ageing. Here’s how.
One of the best-known biker-brain studies was performed in 2021 by neuroscientists who got 77 experienced bikers to wear electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors to read their brainwaves while they rode motorcycles on the street. Riding notably got their minds into what sportspeople call ‘the zone’, and what the neuroscientists here call ‘high sensory focus and resilience to distraction’.
The riders’ EEG waves resembled those of experienced meditators in the midst of meditating, says the report in the journal Brain Research.
Lower stress levels
Hormone tests showed that the riders’ levels of stress hormones such as cortisol were reduced by a quarter. That might seem odd, given that biking is an adrenaline sport, but experienced riders will know that sense of calm laser focus which comes when you’re really on it. (Years ago when I was motoring editor of The Times, we got Michael Schumacher to wear a heart monitor while taking an F1 car on track. After two laps, his heart rate actually went down towards a normal resting level.)
Only one potential ointment-fly in this study: it was funded by a grant from Harley ‐Davidson. Science journalists rightfully worry about bias when reporting sponsored studies – something called the ‘gratitude effect’ can sway even the straightest of researchers.
Fortunately there’s a wealth of other expert evidence to bolster biking’s brain-boosting credentials. Just ask Dr Helen Owton, a lecturer in sport and fitness at the Open University, who has studied the psychological benefits of riding so closely that she now owns a three-year-old Yamaha MT ‐09.
Feeling alive
Dr Owton s
