PART THREE: THE ESSENCE OF BEING BIKER
WHY RIDE?
Why do people ride bikes? Even if that question ever crosses a Biker’s mind, it might be dismissed as too analytical. But understanding how our heads get round riding can add to the pleasure, just as some knowledge of the bike’s behaviour helps to improve the ride. From racing circuits to the back-streets, biking has become part of human social history. Voltaire said: “If there hadn’t been a god, we’d have invented one.” Out of a more quintessential need, we invented the bike.
Biking is a passage into a completely other world. People have written descriptive pieces with heartfelt ardour, like T.E. Lawrence, who said: “A skittish motorbike with a touch of blood in it is better than all the riding animals on earth, because of its logical extension of our faculties, and the hint, the provocation, to excess conferred by its honeyed untiring smoothness. Because Boa loves me, he gives me five more miles of speed than a stranger would get from him.”
Usually, before an object comes into our possession, something has to create the need or desire. In consumerist societies, children are brought up in the birthday-Christmas syndrome. It nurtures an element of want that can over-rule our need. What do you want for your birthday, I want this for Christmas. But it isn’t entirely sinful. People’s creative minds naturally invoke dreams of desire, guided by something called the cognitive process - which is basically the way our mind learns and stores information.
Our parents own many things that we wish to tarry with. Some are assumed to be masculine, like the electric drill or the pool table. Some are gendered female, like cookers or make-up. Our parents might inadvertently impose gendered situations onto us; the apparent violence directed towards Barbie dolls comes from females who wanted a bicycle, thank you very much. An encounter with a creature as impressive as a bike can spark desires more intensive than a train-set or talking doll ever could - you cannot become a part of such toys. Biking is (unconsciously) viewed immediately as an inter-active concept. Not every child is impressed this way. It requires a certain kind of mentality for someone to ache for the biking experience. Once you own a motorcycle, you have the tools to expand your cognitive process. You begin to converse more intelligibly with other owners, and have a bona fide admittance to the shed.
We also play instinctively, and play is part of learning and character building. We often play games that represent our desires. Biking day-dreams start with a desire to ride, and until a bike is acquired, some form of substitution usually occurs. Visions are shared among pre-Bikers concerning where, how and what they will ride. The play area becomes a road, racing circuit or whatever. In the time before we get our own motorcycle, the next best thing is a bicycle, and many would-be Bikers have fitted a clothes peg to their bicycle so that it clattered on the spokes, simulating engine noises. Stripping a roadster of its lights, mudguards and other accessories is popular. It gives them an aggressive, no-nonsense appearance that has a similar animalistic temperament to motorcycles. These dirt-bikes can be used anywhere, but fields, colliery spoil-heaps and other open spaces provide more excitement than the road.
The bicycle is like a surrogate motorcycle; it’s good therapy and preparation, because at least you’re learning to balance - and fall off. The rolling and tumbling of bicycle games is like learning how to tame wild animals, in preparation for a maturing onto motorcycles.
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Riding a motorcycle causes a metaphysical experience; a kinetic emotion. As the speedometer needle dances round the clock, time speeds up, and the future charges towards you. Thinking ever more quickly is key to survival, and the brain recalibrates itself accordingly. Nothing else matters; it’s a rush of independency, though speed isn’t everything. The simple sensation of being transported along has a direct effect on your well-being. Defying gravity as the clutch bites, and the smells and sounds all contribute to a kind of rapture. The first time we plunge into this world of movement, we become impressed like animals at birth. From then on, little reminders like a whiff of oil or leather evoke memories.
Authoress Melissa Holbrook-Pierson, noted that in the cradle, or in our parent’s arms, we are rocked instinctively. She compares riding with the rocking motion, suggesting that this has a similar, pleasurable effect. This may seem a little too far-fetched, even if it’s probable. It has been long recognised, however, that our bodies have natural gyros, that adjust to the circumstance we’re in. What could bring credence to her point, is that people with kids will instinctively sing to them while they rock them. Rather than cause excitement, it is more often associated with sending us to sleep. But before we doze, a condition of euphoria overtakes us. It could be that, the motion, plus the noise of a motorcycle, recreates a similar condition. Sound and motion go together naturally throughout our lives. Children play at singing and dancing games, and tribal people sing and dance for various reasons. People enjoy sound and dance so much, that they become mainstay components in culture. They create feelings within us that can be difficult to describe, but are crucial to who we are.
Researchers at Manchester University in the UK have made an important discovery concerning sound and behaviour. A team of psychologists and experts in Music Perception discovered that one part of the ear has nothing to do with hearing, yet it is linked to the brain. Called the sacculus, it is part of the balance regulating system in the inner ear. It is tuned to respond to sound frequencies that predominate in music. The researchers noted that the part of the brain to which the sacculus is connected, is responsible for sex and hunger drives, and hedonistic responses. They have associated this function to the pleasurable buzz we get from music. So it becomes conceivable why for example, people enjoy fair-ground rides, or head-banging to rock music. Such activities involve movement and sound, as does biking. It also sheds further light on why many enthusiasts like unrestricted exhausts.
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Because the biking experience is similar to other exciting stimulation, it causes our bodies to release mind-altering biochemicals. Adrenaline is a powerful stimulant, associated with excitement. After the adrenaline rush, we might experience a strange calmness. This is induced by natural opiates called endorphins, that inhibit pain. People describing near-death and out-of-body experiences have encountered the effects of endorphins. Bikers riding at the edge of their ability have also felt this gut-warming invincibility.
Another biochemical, dopamine, is released in anticipation of and during pleasure. Alone, it gives us a natural high. It kicks in and causes arousal even when we’re just thinking about something we like. Combined with adrenaline and endorphins, dopamine produces a heady but useful cocktail. People usually freeze in life-threatening situations, but on a bike you learn to control your instinctive reactions. The most invigourating ride can be enjoyed as a mixture of calm and excitement. By being relaxed, you can read situations calmly and effectively. The pleasure enjoyed in biking makes those media images of hard looking Bikers unreal; a permanent grin shines under every crash-helmet. After a good ride, we remain infused with biochemicals, and an after-glow can be celebrated. Once you’ve tried biking, there is an ever-present desire to repeat it, partly because our bodies supply us with addictive drugs.
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Power can be a sexual turn-on. It might be power over other people, or the sheer power of a bike. We might enjoy a particularly fast or invigourating ride, thereby enjoying a sensation of power. This power can be enjoyed for itself, and can enrich other aspects of our lives. However, riding as a means to an end is regarded as egocentric. By flattering the self (or attempting to impress someone) some use the bike to obtain that which they cannot acquire under other circumstances. When we compare such phenomena with pure enthusiasm, it is logical to exert that any perversion of the true biking experience is not biking proper.
The bike - a simple, yet strange device, has become a human companion. For the enthusiast, owning a bike is like having a wild animal for a friend. You either earn its respect or get mauled. It is probably one of the most gratifying experiences you can indulge in, because it satisfies the mental, emotional and physical demands our bodies make upon themselves. There are few other activities that can do all these things to the same degree, and for that reason, biking has been equated with sex. Living at the edge of probability as you cling to a projectile, is why we ride; the cycle of emotions, is why we ride; and the heroic feeling that biking generates, is why people ride.