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The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Riding Motorcycles is Smart and Keeps You Smart

By Paul Crowe

Any rider will tell you, riding demands a lot more from you than driving a car. Protected in a steel cage, surrounded by sound, drinking coffee, talking on a cell phone and blissfully unaware of his or her surroundings, the average driver isn’t fully engaged in the task at hand. On a motorcycle, that level of disengaged riding would result in injury or death. Beyond that, riding takes more coordination and balance, the ability to operate a variety of controls, usually by feel while avoiding that dozing driver in the next lane. You might think all of that mental exercise would keep you sharp and now, a Japanese brain training software expert, Ryuta Kawashima, with a research team working in conjunction with Yamaha, agrees.

One experiment involved 22 men, all in their 40s and 50s, who held motorcycle licences but had not taken a ride for at least a decade.

They were randomly split into two groups — one asked to resume riding motorcycles in everyday life for two months, and another that kept using bicycles or cars.

“The group that rode motorbikes posted higher marks in cognitive function tests,” Kawashima said.

Of course, we already knew that. Now, let’s see, if you could just tell your doctor you felt your mind was getting a little sluggish, do you think he could just prescribe a new motorcycle? “Honest Honey, the doctor said I had to go for a ride every day.”

Link: AFP

Posted on March 4, 2009 Filed Under: Motorcycle Safety


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Comments

  1. Chris says

    March 4, 2009 at 8:51 am

    Shoulda broken it down into motorcycles, bicycles, and cars, instead of lumping the cages and non-motorized two-wheelers together. Riding a bicycle — and I mean seriously riding a bicycle, using it the way you’d use a motorcycle, not as some weekend beach cruiser or up and down the dead-end streets in some suburban neighbourhood — has to be comparable to riding a motorcycle in terms of mental effort, with the added bonus of getting exercise. I think lumping those two groups together probably dragged the bikers’ score down and the cagers’ score up :-p

    cl

  2. Phoebe says

    March 4, 2009 at 9:55 am

    Interesting study. One thing I know for sure is that taking the motorcycle safety course makes you a better rider and a better driver as well. I always tell people that if you want to improve your driving skills, you could certainly do worse than to take the motorcycle safety course. At worst, they’ll learn to look out for us and will realize just how much skill it takes, at best, they’ll become riders themselves and maybe even leave the car home more often. And that to me, is smart =)

  3. Gordo says

    March 4, 2009 at 10:54 am

    Riding has definetly made me a better driver. If I get into traffic I refuse to answer my phone or get off the phone if I am on a call. I was taught to ride like drivers are out to get you, and a lot of tehtime it seema like they are. A good habit I have developed because of that is I now DRIVE like others are out to get me and I am very aware of motorcyles. My wife loves to ride with me and she is more aware of motorcycles on the rode now too. We have nto takenthe MSF course yet but we both plan to so we can both improve our skills.

  4. todd says

    March 4, 2009 at 3:32 pm

    I know that I’m not tired after a long commute on a bike like I am when I’m in a car. Actually, I feel stimulated, much like how some people require coffee.

    -todd

  5. FREEMAN says

    March 4, 2009 at 5:13 pm

    Just my personal opinion, but I am a firm believer that riding your bicycle in traffic makes you more stupid. If you read into the results of this study, it kind of supports that. :-p

  6. Chris says

    March 4, 2009 at 5:48 pm

    They forgot to factor in the idiots that ride in sandals, t-shirt and shorts.

  7. Ry_Trapp0 says

    March 4, 2009 at 7:24 pm

    So, how hard will it be to convince the Doc to perscribe me a bike? I was thinking maybe a Buell or Aprilia. Will my health insurance cover this? lol

  8. Chris says

    March 4, 2009 at 9:58 pm

    Needs a bigger study group, not just 22 men (and not sponsored by Yamaha)! But I guess it needn’t be said that having to maintain a high level of co-ordination in riding a bike leads to better brain function

  9. chris says

    March 5, 2009 at 8:46 am

    I still see people without helmets and appropriate riding gear; which leads me to believe that this is not an accurate study. I don’t even want to know how stupid they’d be if they didn’t ride. Oh wait a minute….that explains the lady in front of me during my commute this morning, in her SUV, putting on her eye makeup, while talking on her cell phone. And another dude that passed me, was shaving while reading some small booklet of some sort resting on the steering wheel. Why in earth did automakers think it was wise to put vanity mirrors in vehicles?

  10. Don says

    March 5, 2009 at 9:29 pm

    Where I live in Asia it is common practice to carry your helmet on the handlebars and send text messages with your cell fone in your left hand (automatic clutches) while zooming in and out of thick traffic dodging more idiots in cars doing similar antics. T shirts, sandals, no mirrors are par for the course not to mention having anything up to seven passengers on your 125

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