THE OG BOND

You were a badass and you will be missed

REST IN PEACE SEAN CONNERY
1930 - 2020

1 A Digital Smartwatch with Swagger $75 Bond your comms with this waterproof, rugged, digital smartwatch with oodles of functions including: Calls; messages; commands; ECG, oxygen and blood pressure readings; pedometer and exercise monitors; sleep monitor; bluetooth music; camera, move your ass (sedentary) reminder; lost watch or phone finder etc ... all the functions you'd expect of an A-game smartwatch (IOS + Android compatible). What we like most? A high precision gravity sensor to accurately measure your activities. A two-day battery life on low-consumption mode. A lightning fast processor. And a choice of metal or leather straps.

2 Supercar Watch $70 Look like you just stepped out of a supercar's suicide doors after a 007 car chase (even if your broke ass can't afford a Yugo). It doesn't get any faster than our supercar rim replica watch, replete with ceramic brake pad. Stainless steel and shockproof for your lifestyle. Stylish for your swagger. Water resistant for when things get wet. Swiss quartz movement, stainless steel casing and band, water resistant to 3Bar, and shock resistant.

3 Rechargeable Watch Lighter $45 Light your smoke Bond-style. This badass rechargeable usb wrist watch doubles as a secret lighter. It's a survival tool, a smoker's failsafe, and a great conversation-starter, resulting in 9,999 friendships, 999 babies and 99 problems created (but a bitch ain't one). Plus it'll come in handy at birthday parties, firework discharges and book burnings. To use the lighter, just slide the watch open. It's a fully functional watch, so you can also time street racing trials, your wife's contractions, or how long it takes for someone to realize "holy fuck that dude's lighting up with his watch! He must be a secret agent".

4 Self-Winding Aviator's Watch $55 A standard, mechanical, self-winding chronograph. Classic and badass like the Bond in us. Three chronograph dials, water resistant to 3 bars, luminescent dials, in a stainless steel casing. Bond would agree there's something classic and elegant about a mechanical, self-winding watch. Like a suicide clutch. Except for telling time.

 

5 Chronograph Studded Leather Cuff Watch $275 If Bond were to biker rock 'n roll it as part of his mission, he'd rock the shitoutta this one. A hand-crafted cuff made of vegetable tanned leather, which is used for high-end leather goods. Handmade by a master craftsman in the USA, it's hand-tooled and hand-stitched with natural thread. The leather cuff is 2 1/2 inches wide, and closes with a heavy duty buckle. It includes a mechanical watch with a second timer, which is removable and interchangeable with other watches. The coolest part is the transparent face - get mesmerized by the moving gears of its precise Japanese movement. 'Cause you know Bond be like 'look into my watch' and then karate chop their asses.

6 Classic Military Aviator Watches $40 Was 007 a military man? You bet your Walther PPK he was. He was a Commander in the Royal Navy before entering the British Secret Service. A classic aviator watch like this (yup Bond was a pilot) would be right up his alley. This rugged, aviator's chronograph is water resistant to 30 ATM, has a genuine leather strap, and comes in six colors and styles. Most importantly, it's large-sized dial will give you the information you need at a glance, including a 24-hour display, a calendar, and minute and seconds subdials with stopwatch functioning.

7 Classic Aviator $40 This durable sport watch follows a timeless classic aviator design. Rock it on your top secret missions, at Q Branch, or whenever. the hell you want. Versatile, sporty and swag as fuck. Quartz Movement and shock resistant. We can see Bond rockin' this one.

8 Man of Action $50 A water resistant chronograph for swag spies, fly guys and men of action. Why? Because you have to cope with shocks, rain and all kinds of shit trying to terminate your timepiece. Not with this bad boy. It's water resistant to 30m, and its Japanese quartz movement is guaranteed for 12-months. It has a calendar plus 3 chronographs for seconds, minutes, and a 24-hour dial. Plus its clean military styling and genuine leather strap will keep you looking swag as fuck.

9 Paradise Watch $200 What's an (albeit striking) girly watch like this doing in our Bond collection? Whether you're Octopussy or Tatiana Romanova, badass bitches need badass time pieces too. These strikingly beautiful, self-winding watches feature a large 39mm diameter casing, a high bubble crystal glass case, and a vibrant tropical motif. The raised glass creates an optical illusions of movement. Its many hidden surprises make this one of our favorite women's watches—a comfortable arc-shaped closing mechanism, a winding ball with a rubber ring, a calfskin leather band imported from Italy and patterned in the shape of a crocodile, and highly accurate chronograph movement. Did we mention an all-stainless steel case, a transparent bottom, and being waterproof to 50m?

10 Military Watch $50 It's no surprise this waterproof military-grade multifunction watch made it to our Top 10 Bond list. It'ss one of our best-selling watches. Why? Because it not only looks dope and has features Q might envy, but it's built to take a beatin' and keep on tickin'. That's right. Wherever you're deployed--in the jungle, infiltrating enemy HQ, or drinking Martinis by the pool--this rugged Military Watch will help you perform your missions in Bond-like (active mission) style. Features - back light, alarm, 50M waterproof, shock proof, dual display, water resistant to 5 bars, luminous, multiple time zones, chronograph, repeater, stop watch, auto date, LED display.

Check out this Bond-worthy training video on close-quarter disarms.

© 2020 Proud And Free Biker™ / Biker Dope™ / Biker Entourage™ LLC
(except for our logos, images contained herein are not owned by us)

We are not affiliated with the Fleming/Bond property in any way other than we think it's dope.

A number of behavioral studies have validated the mental health benefits of motorcycling. But beyond the conventional explanations, is there a neuro-biomechanical basis for why, and how, “wind therapy” works?

Biker Dope’s CEO, Deme Spy, says he may have found the answer while looking at research on Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR). The same remarkable mechanism that makes EMDR so effective against anxiety and depression also appears to explain the psychological benefits of motorcycle riding.

New therapeutic technique offers surprising explanation why riding is great for your mental health

By Deme Spy*

When I stopped riding during the cold Jersey winters, my partner at the time would remind me why that was a bad idea. “You’re turning into a grumpy, anxious a-hole. Get your ass on that bike and go for a ride already!”

You’ve heard of the psychological benefits of motorcycling; dubbed “wind therapy” by bikers. A popular adage says it all:

“You never see a motorcycle parked in front of a psychiatrist's office, unless it's the psychiatrist's.”

Another one goes:

“Some do drugs, some pop bottles, we solve our problems with wide open throttles.”

Dan Aykroyd famously said "you do not need a therapist if you own a motorcycle, any kind of motorcycle". Keanu Reeves admitted during a GQ interview “when I don’t ride a motorcycle I go through withdrawal, it’s not good for my health”1

Not surprisingly, research supports what motorcyclists (and their significant others) have known all along. That riding reduces anxiety and depression, and contributes to a general sense of well-being.

TWO WHEELS GOOOOD, FOUR WHEELS BAAAAD

Studies have shown that the dopamine release, heightened state of awareness, and immersion in the moment help riders bypass negative thoughts, lower stress and promote a more positive life outlook.

Research conducted by Dr Ryuta Kawashima with Tohoku University found that riding reduces anxiety, enhances emotional health, and improves cognitive functioning--especially prefrontal cortex functions that relate to memory and spatial reasoning.2

Another study found that off-road motorcycle riders have higher levels of mental functioning, lower levels of stress and depression, and a higher overall life satisfaction.3

More compellingly, a 2021 study published in Brain Research reported pronounced neurological and physiological benefits after measuring motorcyclists’ brain activity and hormone levels. Riding increased alertness and decreased hormonal biomarkers of stress by 25%. Moreover, operating a motorcycle vs a car enhanced focus and resulted in similar effects to those observed in experienced meditators vs non-meditators.4

The insurance industry backed that up. A UK study found that riding a motorcycle was six times less stressful than driving a car--scoring even better than bicycling (cars scored 41%, buses 37%, trains 35%, subway 26%, bicycling 8% and motorcycling at just 6%).5

Given that stress is one of the most serious health issues facing society today, figuring out why motorcycling does such a good job of reducing it seems a pretty important thing to get to the bottom of.

EMD-WHA?

While behavioral and existential explanations have been rightly suggested—like moto-camaraderie, feelings of freedom, and the creation of a “flow state”--the exact neurological mechanism by which this happens remains elusive.

Some theories make sense. Like the adrenaline rush and dopamine release contributing to a general sense of well-being.

Other theories maybe not so much.

One motorcycle blogger suggested that the open-legged posture required to ride is akin to “power posing” which, according  to social psychologist Amy Cuddy, can balance hormone levels by triggering the brain to reduce cortisol and increase testosterone.6

The most likely explanation may be even weirder.

Insights into the neuroscience of PTSD treatment may have finally provided an answer in the form of a newly recognized therapy called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

EMDR involves a patient visually following a therapist’s hand as it moves left to right, while recalling traumatic experiences. The result of this repeated horizontal eye movement is that the patient engages trauma from an anxiety-free, detached emotional state, without experiencing the fearfulness and stress that normally accompanies their recall.

Despite EMDR’s controversial beginnings, and an uphill battle for acceptance by the medical community, clinical findings validate its efficacy. Or put another way, it works.

EMDR is now recommended by the World Health Organization, the American Psychological Association, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as an effective treatment for PTSD.

How and why does this quirky treatment work? And what does this have to do with motorcycles?

Research has shown that the horizontal eye movement of EMDR triggers a suppression of the amygdala--a part of the brain that performs the (or a) primary role in the processing of fear, threat detection, anxiety, aggression, memory and emotional regulation.

Pretty much that part of our distant ancestral selves built around fight or flight--and that hasn’t been coping well with modern society’s persistent, abstract and uncontrollable pressures.

Researchers report that “[t]he amygdala has been identified as playing a critical role in stress responses, including fear acquisition, emotional regulation, and the learning, conditioning, generalization and extinction processes of the fear response mechanism. Alterations in fear response are proposed to lead to intrusive memories, flashbacks, and automatic hyperarousal, with avoidance and emotional numbing reactions acting as coping strategies for such symptoms.”7

The evolutionary explanation that has been posited to explain why horizontal eye movements disable the amygdala, along with its anxiety response, goes something like this.

Horizontal eye movement triggers this response as a result of our eye-brain hardwiring.

When our early ancestors moved from the jungle to the open African savannah--and walking upright gave them a distance and sight advantage over other animals closer to the ground—scanning the horizon must’ve been a frequent biomechanical function associated with situations that would require vigilance.

When we become vigilant, and move our eyes left to right, this accompanies the shutdown of the amygdala, which in turn gives us more bandwidth to focus on being aware while we scan the environment for prey or foe.

Similarly, working-memory tasks that require more bandwidth for goal-directed attention are accompanied by “robust deactivations of the amygdala.”8

While visually scanning the environment for threats (predators) and opportunities (food or sex), it was important to our survival that our heightened attention be fully immersed in the moment--without interference from anxiety and fear.

This “orienting response” in the brain not only results in increased arousal, vigilance and focused attention, but also in the suppression of the amygdala’s anxiety response. This in turn allows us to be more fully present, and better able to assess and act in the moment.

Anxiety, fear and hypervigilance were built to hijack all the brain’s processing power in high-stakes situations. Which is why their intrusive effects in PTSD interfere with attention, goal-directed cognitive processes, and information-gathering and assessment.

The magic behind EMDR is that this process has been reverse engineered. The scanning eye motion is what shuts down our amygdala and its anxiety-producing effects--which in turn tells our brain to focus and be chill--instead of the other way around.

This explains the anxiety-reducing benefits people feel while riding a bicycle or taking a stroll. In fact, EMDR therapy was discovered when it’s inventor, Francine Shapiro, noticed that looking left to right while walking in a park reduced her negative feelings.

This also explains why being immersed in constant horizontal scanning for threats and opportunities may very well be the neuro-biomechanical basis for “throttle therapy”.

Moreover, riding a motorcycle requires a more rapid scan, corresponding to the faster change in environment and higher risk a motorcycle ride brings with it. As a sportbike rider I can attest to the fact that the faster I ride the calmer I feel after.

Given that this highly effective form of therapy has gained popularity in treating not just PTSD, anxiety and other trauma-related symptoms--but also depressive, dissociative, obsessive-compulsive and personality disorders—horizontal eye motion appears to be a prime candidate for explaining why “throttle therapy” has been so ubiquitously effective.

The strong connection between motorcycling and veterans, first responders and others with traumatic experiences may, therefore, not be surprising.

The first biker clubs and outlaw motorcycle gangs are said to have been started by World War II veterans, and particularly pilots, many of whom were still processing the horrors of war.

Motorcycles have intentionally been used to help groups with a high incidence of trauma cope. These range from groups like Motorcycle Missions and Operation Combat Bikesaver--helping veterans cope with PTSD--to Bikes Over Bang’n, helping at-risk inner city youths.

A Revzilla Common Tread article commented “[t]he recent explosion of riding-as-therapy groups seems unprecedented, but instead reflects the also seemingly unprecedented rise in PTSD.”9

We may now have an answer regarding why riding is so therapeutic, and effective in reducing stress, approximating a mindful state, and increasing well-being: horizontal eye movements during the fully-immersed state of vigilance required to ride a motorcycle.

_____

*Deme Spy, is CEO of Biker Dope, an innovative biker & festival gear & lifestyle company (bikerdope.com).

1 GQ Interview with Keanu Reevs youtube.com/shorts/-4fwQ10BCdY

2 Riding A Motorcycle Affects Cognitive Functions of Healthy Adults, Ryuta Kawashima et al, International Journal of Automotive Engineering (2014) - www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jsaeijae/5/2/5_20144193/_pdf

3 The physiological fitness, cardiometabolic health and quality of life outcomes of participation in recreational off-road vehicle riding as an alternative mode of physical activity, Jamie F. Burr, Health & Fitness Journal of Canada (2010) - www.academia.edu/18884578/The_physiological_fitness_cardiometabolic_health_and_quality_of_life_outcomes_of_participation_in_recreational_off_road_vehicle_riding_as_an_alternative_mode_of_physical_activity

4 Modulation of attention and stress with arousal: The mental and physical effects of riding a motorcycle, Don A. Vaughn et al., Brain Research (2021) - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33482998

5 Your average commute in numbers, Lexham Insurance Blog (2016) www.lexhaminsurance.co.uk/blog/your-average-commute-in-numbers

6 Motorcycle Therapy Is Real, Meghan Stark (2021) - www.meghanstark.com/post/motorcycle-therapy-is-real

7 Potential of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, Tracy M McGuire et al, Psychology Research And Behavior Management (2014) - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4189702

8 Eye-Movement Intervention Enhances Extinction via Amygdala Deactivation, Lycia D. de Voogd et all, The Journal of Neuroscience (2018) - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6596227

9 Ask the doc: Is riding a motorcycle a form of therapy? Dr. Lewis Kaplan, Revzilla (2018) - www.revzilla.com/common-tread/ask-the-doc-is-riding-a-motorcycle-a-form-of-therapy

BIKER DOPE'S 1-STEP RECOVERY PROGRAM

Dope, meth, crank, heroin, alcohol, coke, pain, fear.,money, pussy, dick, sodium, whatever it is you've got an issue with, whatever it is that's killing you, or keeping you from leveling up, there's a solution out there made just for you.

ONE STEP...

Think of it as a custom bike—built to your specs—that you can jump on and ride past whatever it is that's holding you back.

Your only job at any given moment is to take a step towards it. That's it. One step.

It could be a little step. It could be a big one. And you know you're gonna take a step anyways, so it might as well be towards that custom ride. All the time reminding yourself that, when you jump on it, you can wheelie past the bullshit while you're flippin the bird and ride on to where you're supposed to go.

Never underestimate the power of a step, because it can change everything.

Whether that step is onto your first motorcycle, into a pool for Olympic gold, away from a cliff, or a triumphant launch onto a summit, your next step can change everything.

It may take a while after repeated tries. Or it may happen in a moment. But it always takes just one step.

So what's a next step you can take?

An intention to love and help yourself, thereby loving and helping those around you.

To trust in the process of your life--no matter how fucked up it may seem at this moment.

To accept where you're at, and know that you've got power over where you're going.

To focus now on your only job, which is taking your next step.

We've found the most effective modalities are based on mindfulness techniques (meditation), Native American/First People's vision quests and similar medicines, Ketamine therapy and, especially, the new entheogenic healing movement founded on Indigenous Peoples' animal and plant-based medicine like Kambo (which is not illegal), Ayahuasca and Ibogaine.

This NY Times article discusses the effectiveness of psilocybin. Studies have found the most powerful anti-addiction medicine is Ibogaine, taken from the Iboga plant in Africa.

Unfortunately, most of these incredibly effective ancient healing modalities are still (mostly) illegal in the US and beyond (eg. Ibogaine treatments are legal in Mexico). For info on how you can help decriminalize psychedelics/entheogens, or to learn more about them and the many efforts that are arising from them, contact The Psychedelic Assembly.

Below are some great resources and info, the videos are worth watching and sharing to folks you think could benefit from seeing them..

Rubber side down <3

Other good causes we support are our innovative traffic safety org Biker Guardians, parole reform org Reform Alliance and Biker Down.

🤍

More Than Meets The Eye

Consider this your invitation to your personal moto-adventure, Biker Quest—a groundbreaking, sketchy as fuck, app-driven real-life adventure for motorcyclists.
Our player operatives' motto?:
"Do good, ride everywhere, NFG".





Get text alerts for last minute rides in your area, or host a ride yourself, with this free group sms service. Anonymous, no spam, no bullshit.

We're pioneering a new traffic approach, training badge-carrying motorists to help keep bikers safe

Our flagship startup, Biker Entourage, brings snowflake-proof biker pics and vids, motorcycle manuf updates, custom builds, biker news and stupid fun straight to your screen on the daily.

Stay proud and free my friends. And to our riding brothers and sisters,

Shiny Side Up 🤟

Deme, CEO & Grand Poobah

Phew! That was a mouthful, but we think it was worth it. Why? Because this windproof coil lighter is dope as fuck plus it's guaranteed to keep you out of Hell.

How? Well, you know what they say about the devil's work and idle hands (also about tripping out to bright spinning lights while you're driving a school bus or performing surgery).

A multifunction survival tool, a conversation piece, and a spinner to keep your hands, and eyes, occupied. Light your smoke? No problem! See in the dark? No problem! Fidgety? No problem! Like to take mushrooms and trip out to spinning LED patterns? No problem!

This usb-charged lighter's heating coil is windproof, and it sports 18 light patterns when it's spun. It'll also keep you lit, your fingers busy, and your hands out of the devil's workforce (including from playing pocket pool at inopportune times).

Want it? Click here.