Why is bike riding so important?

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Unless it's a fatbike!

http://surlybikes.com/bikes/moonlander

Or a snowbike!

http://surlybikes.com/bikes/pugsley

I am about 20lbs overweight still and had life long issues with hypertension. I used to be 50lbs over my recommended weight. Ever since I started riding a bike daily about 7 years ago I dropped 30lbs without any major changes in diet and my blood pressure went down significantly. I used to be on two meds, now I only take half of one of them and I think even that is no longer necessary. When resting, assuming my anxiety is low, my blood pressure can be as low as 115/65 and pulse below 60 and I'm hardly someone you would describe as sporty looking. All because of riding a bike. I don't do any other exercise. Well, I hike too sometimes.

I ride to work, I do long weekend road rides, I did some multi-day self-contained touring and I do trail riding. I think trail riding is my favorite due to being alone out in the woods. Beautiful stuff. Stop often. Lie down on grass. Listen to the birds. It's like hiking only on a bike, but a little more satisfying as you cover longer distances quicker than on foot and can see more.

There is something about riding a bike that just feels better than driving too. I like to drive on quiet country roads and long fast highways too, but when you ride a bike you see stuff that you'd miss in a car. And there is the sense of self reliance, connection with the road, powering the machine with your own body, I just find it fascinating and highly satisfying. A bike is probably the most perfect and elegant machine humanity has ever invented.

There are easy trails that are pretty much safer than being on the road. If you fall, you fall on dirt or into bushes which is less painful than on asphalt and there are no cars around. Mountain biking is a very wide, inclusive term that includes many mountain biking riding types from extreme downhill and all-mountain rock hopping to easy trail riding. What I do is called trail riding or cross country riding. It involves forest trails, fire roads, country roads, some bumps and some mud, but no rock hopping. Nothing too extreme, quite safe and enjoyable although physically more demanding as riding a full suspension bike with fat, soft tires on soft surface is much harder than riding a skinny road bike on a road. For me 20 miles of forest roads is as tiring as 50 miles of asphalt.

Adam

It's NOT necessary.

Thousands of years of human history proves it.

THE single most efficient exercise is WALKING, and THAT is important.

The question was not if it's "necessary," but rather if it's important. Huge difference.

How exactly is walking the "most efficient" exercise? It's slower than biking, in terms of energy expenditure and distance covered. Yes, you'll burn more calories per mile walking than you will riding a bike, but you'd burn more per mile running than you would walking.

Of course it's not necessary, but that wasn't the question Although, walking is nowhere as efficient as riding a bike both as an exercise and a form of transportation. I really don't think this could be argued. I can carry 60lbs of gear on a bike for 50-75 miles a day for couple of weeks on a tour. I hauled 50-100lbs of groceries or hardware in a bike trailer for over 10 miles many times. Try that on foot! I mean walking is definitely good and better than nothing but it can't beat running, biking or swimming. By no means I urge anyone to start riding a bike or do I play down the importance of long walks but don't play down the importance and effectiveness of biking.

Necessary/Important. Kind of splitting hairs there. If it isn't necessary, it's not important.

Walking:

a - Requires no equipment.
b - is most frequently advised by doctors as THE number one exercise everyone should get.
c - Almost everyone, by the time they need to schedule regular exercising, already knows how to walk
d - All you have to do is get up and do it.

It's been around as long as human feet have been around. Far more important than bike riding. Without walking, there would be no history.

BTW: I was not using the term "efficient" with physics or physiology in mind. I was applying it in a much broader sense than that.

That's a very false statement. Necessary does not equal important. Necessity may imply importance but importance may not imply necessity and both are subjects to the context they're used in.

A.

I did not say Necessary = Important. I said that if something is not necessary, it is also not important. If you really want to split hairs, it's not the same statement.

If Necessary were equal to Important, that would mean not only that if something is not necessary, it is also not important, AND that if something is not important, it is also not necessary, which is not "necessarily" true.

But I did not say that. What I did say, you [practically] just said yourself, so I'm not sure why you're arguing the point.



However I do disagree with the inclusion of the term "may." In my mind, necessity IS importance, just as apples are a fruit, but fruit does not necessarily have to be an apple.

If you really think the logic here is incorrect, then I challenge anyone to give an example of something, anything, that IS necessary, but NOT important.

Almost everything I do at work. It's "necessary" in that I have to do it because it's my job and because the people above me say so. Most of what I do could be skipped with no actual negative impact. Really though, your reasoning on that matter is pretty sound.

I can't agree though that if something is unnecessary, that it's automatically unimportant.

It's seems pretty clear that it's all a matter of perspective.

On the other hand, try this for a few weeks, and see what happens:

Stop doing everything you think is unimportant, but necessary at work. See how long you continue thinking it's unimportant.

I bet your employers would not agree with you at all.

And once they impress their disagreement upon you, I bet you my life savings it all suddenly becomes VERY important to you.

Admittedly, the meaning of both terms is very subjective. Obviously to some of you riding a bike is very important. To the OP, and myself, it's not.

There are plenty of other ways to get good exercise too, so why should it be such an issue?

Human beings lived without bicycles for thousands of years, and manage to get plenty of healthy exercise before they were invented. I don't see any problem with anyone choosing to feel bicycle riding is not important.

Why should it be a big deal?

We're not telling anyone else it shouldn't be. If you love it, and feel it's important to you, go ride your bikes!

Certainly many things that are necessary are also important because they have lasting effects on your life. Like it's necessary to pay taxes, and it's important too because if you don't pay your taxes you can lose money, property or even freedom.

Air and water are necessary and important because without air and water we'll die.

However, there are things that are necessary due to the immediate circumstances but not important since they have no lasting effect on your life, no consequences or can be replaced with something else or entirely skipped or nullified due to other initially absent circumstances. And yes, it's all matter of perspective, perception and circumstances.

Things that are important usually remain important, like calling your mom on her birthday, taking care of your baby or paying taxes regularly. Things that are necessary, may no longer be necessary if the circumstances change, something may be, or seem, necessary one day and be no longer necessary the following day, therefore they carry little importance due to lack of lasting effects. Like removing snow from your driveway may seem necessary today at 10 am because you need to drive somewhere at noon. But if it turns out around 10:30 that you no longer have to drive for whatever reason, or you decide the reason for driving wasn't important enough to spend an hour shoveling the snow so you leave the snow alone, it melts away the next day and the necessity is gone. It was never important to remove the snow, it was only perceived necessary. A matter of changing circumstances and perspective.

On the extreme end, education is necessary, but not important as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and many other successful dropouts proved. The necessity of education can be overcome with one's ingenuity. A matter of perception.

It was necessary to change our travel plans due to the road and weather conditions, but it wasn't important, it was just a distraction without major consequences, we still reached our destination. We would have still reached our destination even if if we didn't make the change, although a day later which would not be huge deal. Necessary? Yes. Important? No. A matter of perspective.

It was necessary to change my credit card number due to the privacy breach at the Bank of America. It wasn't important though because it was an insignificant event with no impact on my life. It wasn't even important because of credit card protection and because of chances of having your credit card number compromised are tiny. It was simply required by the bank, but totally not important. Necessary? Yes. Important? No. A matter of perception.

Clothing is necessary but not important for me. A matter of perception.

Paying bills is necessary but not important for me. I can skip couple of months and the worst that will happen I'll get charged late fee. I don't care. A matter of perspective.

My printer run out of toner so it's necessary to replace the toner. Is it important? No. I rarely print and I can live without a printer for weeks or use a printer in colleague's office if I really need to. A matter of circumstances.

Even buying groceries is necessary but not important, if you don't buy your groceries today, you can just do it some other day, or just have a simple dinner. Necessary? Yes. Important? No.

Riding a bike is important for me because it provides much needed exercise while being fun, it provides utility. It gives me much needed control and freedom of movement. It improves my physical and mental health. There is no other activity that I enjoy as much as biking that provides equal or better benefits. A matter of perception and perspective.

Is it splitting hairs? Sure

Exactly. And as such, subjective, as are many things in life.




Can't argue with that. Since splitting hairs is neither necessary, nor important to me...

I'll leave it at that.

I may add a little, ignore it if you like. Walking with regards to health and keeping is just as good, or maybe a tiny bit better than running or cycling, though it does not look like it, as you use more different mustles, and you get steady circulation from it,, but mainly if you maintain a steady pace.

I think that most of the time "necessary" and "important" are just labels we assign to things, not actual, inherent properties of those things. Except for universally necessary and important things like air, water or taxes.

But keep in mind that walking doesn't burn as many calories nor doesn't increase your hart rate as much as running, biking or swimming or other sports and that is a fact. Walking is a good maintenance, warmup and recovery exercise but it adds little to overall strength and endurance or weight loss. Unless, we're talking something like backpacking when you carry 20-30 lbs of gear all day for tens of miles.

I would have never been able to drop my blood pressure just by walking alone. That requires serious aerobic exercise.