If you want a blissful sex life, don’t ride a bike. I am not a keen biking enthusiast, particularly of the black mamba or Indian type, those old type ugly contraptions that are the primary mode of transport in most parts of Africa, other than human feet.
While walking is good for health and the environment, when you do it for miles and miles on end with a heavy load on your back or head as most men, women and children do in Africa, a bicycle comes in handy for it is in black Africa what a camel is in Arabia or a Llama is in some parts of South America.
Those who can afford a taxi ride take not the yellow cabs you’ll find idling on any street corner in New York City but a boda boda, as they are known in East Africa, literally a bicycle taxi that would take you from one border to another.
But the bicycle taxi riders here have learned the hard way and have taken to heavy drinking of cheap, traditional brew to drown their troubles. Becoming sexually inactive or rather a man who cannot sexually perform is the worst thing that can ever happen to a man, especially if his wife starts looking for fun elsewhere, risking catching the HIV/ Aids virus in the process.
That is the predicament of these hapless bicycle taxi riders and now women are openly campaigning here for the government to help their husbands find other income generating jobs.
Said one: “We are concerned about the problem, and we want the Government and non-governmental organizations to support our husbands to set up more appropriate income-generating projects.”
The proposal at a recent forum that traditional herbs be used as stimulants was rejected by the women, who said it would render the men “even more useless“.
So biking is good for the environment but is there choice between a blissful sexual life and less carbon emission? Is biking bad for your sex life? The truth can be very uncomfortable. Some studies have suggested that male cyclists run a serious risk of becoming impotent because their saddles are exerting too much pressure on their manhood. There is likelihood that bicycle seat impotence is being suffered in silence by thousands of men.
However, traditional saddles are now being redesigned by modern manufacturers. When a man sits on a saddle, his weight is focused on the main penile artery, compressing it and temporarily inhibiting the blood flow. In the short term this results in numbness – but repeated over a number of years it can lead to complete dysfunction.
But the trend toward fashionably thin saddles comes with its disadvantages too because a cyclist’s weight is even more concentrated on one particular area, leading to even greater risks. Other studies have suggested that an improperly adjusted seat angle or incorrect seat height can lead to male impotence too. Which is bad for both the environment and your sex life too…
Further reading:
Erectile Dysfunction Blog, LA Times, The Independent
Other Articles in Ecolocalizer’s Bicycling Series
- Forget Sky-high Gas Prices, Biking Beats Them All! by Sam Aola Ooko
- UK: Bike Week 2008 by Pem Charnley
- Bicycle powered water pumps and filtration systems by Nayelli Gonzalez
- Italy’s Two-Wheeled Cities Speed Up Your Life Quality by Eva Pratesi
- In Chiang Mai, Social Attitudes Crush Bicycling Prospects by Masimba Biriwasha
- Google’s Sexy Bicycle Giveaways and Africa’s Versatile Bike Trucks by Sam Aola Ooko
- South Korean Bicycle Ninjas Do Battle Against Asthma by Gavin Hudson
- Of Course Cycling in Australia is Healthy, But What To Do With the Cars? by Ross Kendall
- Cheer up! Bicycling in Italy is a Daily Adventure by Eva Pratesi
- If You Want a Blissful Sex Life, Don’t Ride a Bike! by Sam Aola Ooko
- Bicycling in Peru: An Art of Adaptation by Levi Novey
Image Credit: Geordie Mott at Flickr under a Creative Commons license
There is the short-lived phenomenon of being temporarily numb when you’ve been on the bike too long and the fit isn’t quite right. This should not be mistaken for impotence. Take a look at this talk given at NYU Medical Center: http://bicyclehabitat.com/page.cfm?PageID=97 and this talk
This article about the need for a good fit on your bike: http://www.4-men.org/erectile-dysfunction/bicycle-seats.html
The cycle-rickshaw has been in use for over five decades in most towns and cities in India and south east Asia and china;it is used for carrying people and goods;hundred of thousands of poor have found employment ;no reports of impotence have been reported though some studies have shown its ill-effects on the lungs.
(quote)Other studies have suggested that an improperly adjusted seat angle or incorrect seat height can lead to male impotence too. Which is bad for both the environment and your sex life too…(/quote)
impotence is not bad for the environment, quite the contrary. Less people equals less pollution.
But the trend toward fashionably thin saddles comes with its disadvantages too because a cyclist’s weight is even more concentrated on one particular area, leading to even greater risks.
Basic engineering will tell you that pressure is force divided by area. Thinner saddles don’t cause a more concentrated area of pressure. However, saddles with a smaller top surface area do. Be careful with your wording, as you are currently speaking incorrectly about this.
Other studies have suggested that an improperly adjusted seat angle or incorrect seat height can lead to male impotence too. Which is bad for both the environment and your sex life too…
How are the improper seat angle or heat bad for the environment? Causing people to ride less because they are uncomfortable?
Improperly adjusted saddles are very bad for the environment: if the saddle leans forward or backwards too much the cyclist slides down and have to repeatedly push him-/her-self back into the correct position. All this fidgeting produces much friction and, as consequence, heat; the latter in turn contributes to the melting of the arctic ice caps.
At the risk of oversharing, I’m a very, very active cyclist, and the “risk” you are talking about is not something I think is very real…
I have a highly active love life, & am pretty happy biking almost non-stop
I think the reality is that the burden of hauling others for hours on a bike is making these men very tired. Isn’t that a possibility?
I think, especially as you yourself aren’t very interested in cycling, you should probably do a little more research on this topic for the article. There is a ton of research suggesting that the impotence theory is a theory created by companies that make new saddles.
Spending as little as 5 seconds out of the saddle completely restores all blood flow to the crucial region
Ummm, I guess this makes sense to a certain degree. People should ride bikes that fit them. But on a bike, it’s pretty easy to listen to your body.
It’s pretty lame to blame impotence and lack of sexual pleasure on bikes. This article should have been about the social and economic circumstances that force people to ride bikes that don’t fit them, or carry weight that is too heavy for them. Bikes aren’t the problem here.
Bikes = physical fitness, cardiovasular wellness, and minimize heart attacks and other illness people get from eating poorly and never getting off the couch or driver’s seat. Most cyclists will tell you that their sex life has never been better.
I also do not agree that “becoming sexually inactive or rather a man who cannot sexually perform is the worst thing that can ever happen to a man.” I can think of many things that one should be more afraid of than this in one’s lifetime. Maybe that is a cultural, “masculine” thing, though, in Africa.
Maybe the cyclists are enjoying their mobility and exhausting themselves in sexual activities with their passengers, reducing their urge with their wife.
au contraire, mes amis… I have found biking to do just the opposite of what the article says. Proper fit of the seat and seat height in relation to the pedals are imperatives. Get these right and your wife or girlfriend will be happy campers.
Once I read that if you bike ride a lot than sex less enjoyable because like when yuou bike ride it cuts off circulation….blah blah…I think, that would be false. If anything, it would be better as you would be healthier from the exercise.
http://www.maleok.com
As for the ladies, riding a bike can also tear the hymen, as well as using tampons and playing other sports. That’s why they should also be careful and not just us men.