Notso_fastLane

I don't mean getting annoyed at drivers, although that's entirely understandable.

I have had some really bad **** happen recently in my personal life.

Riding is my therapy. There are times when I'm riding and it's not for fun, it's not really for enjoyment, it's to vent rage, depression and other negative **** in a somewhat constructive way.

Rage rides almost always have a few personal records involved. Yesterday was no different. I felt better.

rumrunn6

I have done similar riding, for emotional reasons, not necessarily rage, so I feel you man. just don't be so distracted by your emotions, to lose sight of safety. bikes are a great release! then go home & eat a big meal, including animal protein & fall into a blissful meat coma

jimincalif

I wouldn't call it rage riding for me, but it is mind clearing. Works for me with both riding and sailing, I can get my head totally into it, and temporarily let go of all the other stuff that's bogging me down. Sometimes while riding home afterwards I can visualize a way forward on some situation that was not necessarily clear before the ride.

CAT7RDR

Better than punching holes through drywall and kicking the dog? I'm with you; I notice I can start a ride agitated and after grinding up a few hills it goes away. Marvelous anger management exercise this activity we call cycling. Recently bought a second used road bike just to add variety for my pedal therapy.

JohnDThompson 

I always felt my bike commute was good therapy to get the stresses of work out of my system before I got home.

friday1970

When I was in my teen days and if I had a problem and I needed my mind cleared, bike riding always did it for me. Thinks like a break up with a good looking girl, argument with friends, etc.
Even now in my late 40's, after a s****y day at work, a good ride allows me some "me time" to get away from it all.

If you're going to take out a days rage on something, I can't think of a better way than a bike. Just focus on being safe when you do it.

Rajflyboy

Yes

riding is awesome therapy 👍

indyfabz

Absolutely! Even riding to work can help deal with the stress for me.

delbiker1 

I, also, would not call it rage riding. But I do know if something is bothering me, mentally getting me down, tired and depressed, I cannot stay in a bad frame of mind when I go for a bike ride. It really isn't even that I vent, I just get a feeling of calm, things are ok and I will be fine. I have stated this in threads before; "When riding a bike, I feel most like I am who, what and where I am supposed to be at that moment." That never gets old.

Theypeedonmyrug

It’s not just rage, oh my brothers in biking. The joy of cycling for me is that it’s an activity that I enjoy and that absorbs all my attention. For the two or three hours I’m out there pedaling down the road, I’m not thinking about anything beyond what I’m doing right at that moment. I’m watching the road, watching for cars, glancing at my Sprintech mirror, looking to see what cog I’m in, planning how to attack the next hill climb, checking various numbers on my bike computer. I love it. I am hardly aware of myself, or my problems, or what’s for dinner, or my retirement fund, or cleaning my gutters, or anything else beyond the road in front of me. That is the nature of all the things we do that bring us genuine joy, putting us in touch with our deeper true selves.

Notso_fastLane

I guess you're all right, it's not always 'rage', but yesterday's ride was. I even did a little primal scream therapy going up the good hills....

I have to be much more careful about it on my motorcycle. As a matter of fact, I actively avoid riding the motorcycle in that state of mind, but the physical exercise and focus of riding is much more calm inducing, even if just through sheer exhaustion.

2cam16

Not rage for me either. Mind clearing, peaceful, and get away from it all time for me.

ironwood

Maybe it's related to our "fight or flight" response. Our bodies have to do something in response to stress or conflict

Steve B.

On occasion I have, while on a ride, told a few co-workers what I really think of them. Fortunately they don't ride and were not present. Maybe unfortunately.

BobbyG

When I was younger I would take out my anger and rage on my bike...mashing a bike pedal is much safer and more therapeutic than mashing a gas pedal, both mentally and physically.

But here is my cautionary tale...

Cancer, death, job insecurity. All three had been circling over my life casting shadows in the day, and keeping me up at night for five years. Biking to work was a godsend. When fear, insecurity, sadness or rage took control of my mind, I could keep them at bay by following my mantra...

"Pedal harder!"

However, on a sunny September afternoon in 2010, I was stopped at a light a mile into my ride home from work. It was a particularly stressfull, grim, sad, frustrating day. I was on my old 12-speed road bike, with its original tallish gearing. The light changed, I grabbed the lower bars and pulled up as I mashed down with my right foot in an effort to stuff all of life's badness down to h*ll.

A bear-trap clamped onto my upper left chest with a shocking suddeness...at least that's what it felt like. "Oh (crap)", I thought..."I'm having a heart attack. But wait...the pain isn't radiating down my left arm." But then it began radiating down my left arm. "But I'm not short of breath, and I'm not sweating"...well I couldn't finish my thoughts because of the pain. I was only 48 years old, but my Dad was 50 when he had his first known heart attack, and then they discovered he had had one a few years before. But I was in much better shape than he ever was. I coasted across the street, stopped and stood straddling the bike and the pain vanished! But as soon as I leaned back down to grab the handle bars, the pain returned.

Turns out I slipped a disk in my neck which then bulged out aganst a nerve which causing pain down my left shoulder and arm. The pain was constant and didn't let up for weeks. Eventually, it would cease for a few minutes, then a few more, then an hour, then a few more hours. After 6 months I got on the treadmill to build up cardio. Finally, after a year, I got back on the bike.

I still had to deal with cancer, death and job insecurity, but now I had pain and the possibility I'd never ride again. I never needed cycling more, and yet, I couldn't ride.

Since then I don't mash with total abandon, and I don't strain with abandon on the bike. Life got better, and then there were more problems, and then resolution and good stuff and more of everything good and bad.

Now I'm 58, and I've lowered the gearing on my bikes, I spin more than mash. I still bike to work most days. It still is the best thing for stress, et al...

But I no longer "rage against the machine".

My corporal "machine" can't bear it.

rseeker

Yes, some of my best rides. Motivation has to come from somewhere.

Sorry you're going through things, I hope it stays manageable.

Lemond1985

Rage Riding was invented by Bernard Hinault, if I recall correctly:



I'm a big fan of his. I have a short 8% grade right outside my door, so at the end of every ride, I always stomp up it in my big ring, and make sure I burn up every last trace of anger, stress, or frustration I have remaining in me.

Rajflyboy

thats funny coming from LEMOND1985 😜

Wileyrat

I've gone out a few times to clear out a bad attitude.

Litespud

I try not to ride angry. There's a spot maybe a half-mile from my house, so pretty much at the start of every ride, where right-turning fast traffic crosses over the straight-ahead bike lane. Most of the time, with clear signaling, cars slow up and cross behind me, though occasionally some jackass speeds up to try to zip across in front of me. Last time a guy in truck went for it and finally hit the brakes a couple of feet from my left hip. There was yelling and horn-blowing, possibly a bird or two flipped, and a big jolt of adrenaline, which completely threw me off for the first half of the ride (although I did climb the first hill pretty quick!). However, somewhere 20-30 miles out in the country, calm resumed. This is what a ride - especially a long one that wrings you out - does. Allows you to empty your mind and think of nothing but the bike and the act of cycling. Just being able to leave it all behind even for a few hours is truly wonderful.

bpcyclist

I work very hard not to be angry. It solves nothing and is bad fo rmy health. That said, my riding is absolutely critical to managing my sometimes quite nasty bipolar disorder. I would really be up a creek without it. Somehow, when I am out there on the road for awhile, all that stuff swirling in my brain just kind of melts away. And the voices magically all stop. It has really saved me.

canklecat

Yup. As other folks have shared, it helps me cope with stress from illness (cancer, auto-immune disorder, injuries with chronic pain from being hit by cars), uncertain financial stability, loss of most family (I'm the last of my immediate family and pretty close to the last of my extended family whom I know of), etc.

I try to put all that stuff out of my mind during a ride and just... be there.

ropetwitch

you get to enjoy the ride even if you're alone lol

Kabuki12

Cycling gets me out of my head and into the world around me. I focus on my personal performance and the traffic around me. I do not listen to music while I ride, for me, it makes me jumpy and I feel less in touch with the environment. It is all about the ride .

subgrade

Head clearing, sure. Rage? Don't think so, but then again, being a phlegmatic by nature I don't think I ever have rage/anger more than for a couple minutes tops.