Have you been looking for a good enough reason to get on your bike? Well, there are many reasons you can start cycling. Cycling offers a wide range of benefits and usability in every day to day life. Below are 10 reasons to get on your bike today that can motivate you.

1. Improve your brain capacity

Various research studies have indicated that engaging in cardiovascular exercise regularly can significantly improve one’s brain functioning by improving memory and enhancing concentration among other brain functions. This is because cardiovascular exercises increase blood flow into the brain, therefore, ensuring that the brain has an adequate supply of oxygen for its optimal functioning. You can incorporate cycling as your preferred form of cardiovascular exercise. Other studies have linked cycling with rebuilding the hippocampus brain cells which begin to deteriorate at the age of 30.

2. Save time

Reasons to Get on Your Bike - Istanbul traffic
How do you feel when stuck in traffic?

Do you feel that you waste too much time on traffic every day on your commute to work? You can save time by cycling to work. Unlike driving to work, you will be able to easily maneuver traffic. Many people have reported that cycling to work takes up to half the time taken when driving to work in peak hours.

3. An easy exercise option

Robert Marchand's 103rd birthday ride
Reasons to get on your bike: you can continue riding even when you’re old and grey.

Biking will give you the much-needed cardiovascular exercise while being easy on your knees and joints. Unlike jogging and running that can be quite hard on your knees, cycling will get your heart pumping and work your lower body without causing injury on the knees. If you are recovering from a knee or lower-body injury and looking for an exercise option that will work well, consider cycling.

4. Take care of the environment

The talk on going green has become common across the globe yet it feels like only a few people have the ability to go green. Well, here is your opportunity. Cars and automobiles have been linked to up to 20% of carbon emissions in the world that has significantly contributed to the depletion of the ozone layer. If more people would take up cycling, it would significantly reduce noise and air pollution as well as congestion and aggression associated with traffic congestion. Be proactive about environment preservation- cycle whenever possible instead of using your car.

5. Connect with nature

After a long day at work wouldn’t it be nice to ride through the woods on your way home. Better still, wouldn’t it be so inspiring and rejuvenating to start your day with the smell of the autumn leaves and the smell of fresh air?

6. Connect with yourself

Riding alone
Reasons to get on your bike: connect with yourself

In the modern world with bills to pay and so many things to do, it is easy to lose touch with yourself. However, you can take up cycling as a deliberate measure to connect with yourself. As you ride through the quieter routes, you will have a chance to hear yourself breathe, notice your thoughts and think about life. You will feel free and connected with yourself. This will significantly boost your creativity, freedom, and gratitude for life.

7. Explore

Have you been wanting to explore your city or a destination of your choice? What better way to do it than on your bike? You can join a cycling group if you prefer to explore the unknown in the company of others. Otherwise, just pick a route or a street and follow it. Remember to bring your GPS or a map along.

8. Lose weight and tone

If you are looking to lose weight and tone, cycling can be your exercise of choice. You can create a weekly cycling plan to help you achieve your fitness goals. If looking to lose weight, incorporate both high impact and low impact cycling techniques on your weekly plan to help you blast the excess fat.

9. Save money.

Cycling is a cheap form of exercise. Apart from the initial cost incurred to buy the bike, cycling gear, and the occasional maintenance cost, there is no more cost associated with cycling. You will not need to pay gym membership fees every both. All you need is to hop on your bike and explore the routes near and far from you.

Also, commuting to work on your bike instead of driving will save you the cost incurred daily on fuel. Maybe, you can take up cycling as a way to save up for your dream cycling holiday.

10. Meet and connect with people

Cycling connects people
Cycling is great for connecting new people


There is a big community of cyclists across the world. If you have moved to a new location or relocated back home after a long time and are looking to meet and connect with people, joining a cycling community in your neighborhood could be a great option. Even though you do not cycle in a group, you tend to notice people you encounter on your everyday ride. With time, these people may develop to be acquaintances and later friends.

Cycling offers numerous benefits. Whether you are doing it for fun, to get from one place to another, as a means of attaining your fitness goals, or for socialization purposes, you will benefit in more ways than one from cycling.

M. Özgür Nevres

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1 Comment

  1. Helmets make sense, but focusing on helmets is putting the cart before the horse.

    A helmet will not save you from a right hook from a panel truck. A helmet will not make it any safer on highly congested streets where token bike infrastructure is poorly thought out and shoehorned in. A helmet will not teach/recall the basic rules of the road and rights of cyclists to an entitled, aggressive motorist.

    A helmet is an affordable, reasonable safety precaution. But using the lack of a helmet as an argument for or against cyclist rights sound a lot to me like “She was asking to be raped, dressing like that.” The problem of bike safety is structural and systematic, and no amount of molded polystyrene is going to change that.

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