Intense Embodiment and Women’s ‘Weather Work’ in Motorcycling

Abstract

This article aims to develop the underexamined lived experiences of ‘weather work’ via the motorcycling ‘weather world’, addressing the embodied and sensorial learning ways of knowing. Drawing on a phenomenologically inspired approach, I explore the haptic senses of heat and cold via heightening understandings of weather work, aiming to provide key conceptualisations of phenomenological mind-body-world nexus through auto/ethnographic data. This attempts to extend the small, emerging and under investigated literature that utlitises sociological phenomenology to examine the ‘sensuousities’ of ‘intense embodiment’ experienced as a woman on a motorcycle. Key themes that were identified as salient: temperature work, touch, and skin wetness perception. These themes offer novel insights into the intersection between gender, embodiment, and sensorial experiences in motorcycling, enriching sociological phenomenology with a nuanced understanding of the ways ‘weather work’ shapes and is shaped by lived, gendered practices.

‘When I was on my bike, it did give me an amazing sense of freedom, and nobody couldn’t touch me, and nobody could stop me. It just, sort of, empowered me’. (Elspeth Beard, 2020)

Women have been riding motorcycles since they were invented in the late 1800s and as the quote from Elspeth Beard notes, women, like men, often report feelings of freedom, excitement, and empowerment (Thompson, 2012). Motorcycling, as a traditionally and stereotypically male-dominated ‘biker brotherhood’ activity and sport, means that women are often riding on the back of motorbikes rather than in the driver’s seat (Spurrell, 2020). As Taylor (cited in Spurrell, 2020) argues, ‘motorcycling gives you that space. It’s the one space where you’re allowed to be self-centred, because while you’re on a bike, you can’t afford to have anyone else in mind but yourself’. Indeed, women riders say that learning to ride was a life changing experience and that freedom and adventure continue to be motivators to carry on riding a motorcycle feeling a sense of empowerment, strength and increased confidence (Spurrell, 2020). There is a sense of risk associated with riding a motorcycle not only as a dangerous activity due to the high nature of fatalities in general, but also specifically for women.

As Allen-Collinson noted in her research on running (2023), there may be times where feelings of vulnerability and danger inform ‘women’s geography of fear’ (Wesely & Gaarder, 2004). Allen-Collinson (2023) argues that isolated rural spaces are often deemed dangerous and ‘out of bounds’ for women, particularly lone women; a similar argument could be made for motorcycle spaces. Like running in ‘public’ spaces, motorcycling, equally, could be viewed as a gendered and contested space. This motorcycling space for women could be constrained by dangers, fears, harassment, and violence as well as generating intense pleasure and embodied freedom, adventure and empowerment. Given this contested and complex sense of spaciality for women, I draw on feminist phenomenological perspectives to examine the identified themes as a lens to consider the politics of sensation.

As I have documented in previous writings (Owton, 2021), riding a motorcycle is what one does, not who one is, and there is a continuous attempt to redefine what has been commonly and widely accepted as a ‘deviant identity’ associated with ‘sensation seekers’ (Thompson, 2012). Motorcyclists, like other extreme sport participants, accept that it is not always possible to control the future, face fears that are acute and intense, and engage fully in the action of intense moments, making decisions that involve reducing risk and enhancing personal control (Brymer & Schweitzer, 2013; Crust et al., 2019). These individuals who participate in extreme activities, such as riding motorcycles, can often be highly trained with extensive self-knowledge who seek life-enhancing moments (Brymer & Schweitzer, 2013). How fast or slow a person is physically moving, however, can signal different meanings connected to their identity (e.g., age, sex, gender, class, ability), personality (e.g., confident, reckless) or their emotional status (e.g., stressed, angry, happy); this can signify a multitude of meanings around engendered bodies associated with speed (Miyake, 2018). Indeed, speed associated with automobiles, usually indicates a ‘transgression from the automobile norm: terms like, ‘boy racer’ or ‘speed junkie’ point toward the connection between speed and normative questions of identity’. The motorcycle, as a machine, is ‘infused with cultural significance, tied up with complex issues of history, technology, engineering, consumerism, psychology, aesthetics, gender, and sexuality’ (Alford & Ferriss, 2007, p. 8).

Additionally, motorcyclists are often faced with moments of acute stress during a constantly moving and unfolding environment at speed, which requires the rider to be attuned and cool under pressure and position the body-motorcycle for effective cornering (Owton, 2021). Owton (2021) demonstrated that intense feelings of pleasure and ‘flow’ (Csíkszentmihályi, 1997, 2002; Csíkszentmihályi & LeFevre, 1989) means that one may not be able to attend to other things apart from the bodily ‘here and now’, this may also be true when experiencing intense feelings of fear at speed; the mind–body-self is in a sense of ‘thrownness’ (Heidegger, 1962; Merleau-Ponty, 1962). Jackman et al. (2022) explores the concept of flow in running, describing it as the ‘flowing’ feeling of movement, where bodily actions occur without conscious or deliberate control. Jackman et al. (2014) note, as opposed to ‘flow’ feelings experienced at speed on a motorcycle might be more closely linked to ‘runners high’ which occurs during or post intense endurance activity. Jackman et al. (2017) highlights the distinct bodily sensations that were experienced by jockeys during flow states. During these moments, they described alterations in their perceptions of kinaesthetic ‘feel’, balance, arousal and strength of touch in relation to sensory information received from the horse. My previous writings (Owton, 2021) have explored how ‘tests of experience’ can cultivate a sensuous self by sharpening awareness of all the senses and extending the mind–body-self to interconnect with a motorcycle. This sensory attunement can give rise to epinephrine levels, heart rate, and lower cortisol levels; replicating positive results associated with exercise and the reduction of stress levels, more closely linked to the understanding of ‘runner’s high’ (Jackman et al., 2022; Vaughn et al., 2021). Therefore, the mind–body-self-motorcycle nexus is inevitably entwined and is one novel context in which a myriad of haptic senses can be understood in overlapping and greater depth.

Pirsig (1991) articulates:

In a car, you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it you don’t realise that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You’re a passive observer and it is moving by you boringly in a frame. On a cycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.

Associated with this engagement is the enhancement of risk. Indeed, motorcycling is associated with the notion of ‘edgework’ and the fragility of the motorcycling body. Lyng (1990) describes ‘edgework’ as a temporary escape from social boundaries, which takes different forms: ‘life versus death, consciousness versus unconsciousness, sanity versus insanity, and ordered sense of self and environment, versus a disordered self and environment’ (Lyng, 1990, p. 857). Indeed, the stakes are high if a mistake is made in motorcycling at speed, which makes motorcycling such an intense embodied experience. ‘Intense embodiment’ (Allen-Collinson & Owton, 2015, p. 247), here, refers to ‘periods of heightened awareness of corporeal existence’ and ‘connotes a positively heightened sense of corporeal “aliveness,” of the sense working at an intense level’. Similarities can be drawn to individuals who participate in equestrian sports who ‘aspire to achieve partnership (Wipper, 2000) and “oneness” (Birke and Brandt, 2009, p. 196) with their horse’ (cited in Jackman et al., 2017, p. 94). The difference is the aliveness of the horse, and whilst there is a sense of liveness with the motorcycle is it’s through a mechanical sense, which equally produces a complex and embodied experience. Like horse riders, not only do motorcyclists attempt to attune oneself to the motorcycle, but there is a need to attempt to attune the motorcycle with the environment, to account for the potential elements, such as rain, cold, heat, wind, traffic, road conditions, and ‘sudden moments’ (Jackman et al., 2017; Owton, 2022). Commensurate with Merleau-Ponty’s (1969) interpretation, consideration is given to how the body-self-motorcycle responds, regulates, and adapts to these environmental changes by opening one’s senses to the world. In this sense, women’s motorcycling experiences should be understood in the context of the person’s existential grasp of the world (Leder, 2001; Merleau-Ponty, 1962).

Auto-ethnography and the Sensing Body

I respond to the call for more corporeal and ‘fleshy’ perspectives of positive embodied learning through the exploration of the sensory auto-ethnography in the mind–body-self of motorcycling. To continue developing autoethnographic research on motorcycling (e.g., Austin, 2010; Wiggen, 2019) and specifically to address the lack of research and autoethnographic accounts of women’s motorcycling (Owton, 2021, 2022), I employ a phenomenologically inspired approach by endeavouring to ‘bring the body back in’ (Allen-Collinson, 2009, p. 279). This approach begins with the lived body and recognises the intertwinement between body and close objects. To situate the study with the lived body as central, is to understand the physiological as always intertwined with, and an expression of, the body’s intentionality. Consciousness is always consciousness of something, and thus intentional – always directed towards something (Leder, 2001; Merleau-Ponty, 2001). Merleau-Ponty (2001) focuses on bodily intentionality, perception, and action which, for him, are entangled in our existential grasp of the world. For examples of Merleau-Ponty’s existential approach and the concept of intentionality see Allen-Collinson (2011, 2016).

Beyond the ‘classic five’ sensorium (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch), researchers have started to explore not only how these sense act in concert to assist our embodied perceptions of space (Paterson, 2009) but explore further the sensation of temperature and the concept of proprioception and peripersonal space. Riding a motorcycle is a total-body experience working relentlessly and at the same time seamlessly with the machine (Cole, 2017). Peripersonal space is this sense of space immediately surrounding the body expanding to include interaction with the machine (Cole, 2017), which is informed through the sensorium and can create a newly discovered body-self through ‘somatic learning’ (Owton, 2021). This also involves interaction with the weather elements, such as rain, wind, and varying temperatures, which the body must regulate while interconnected with the motorcycle. Indeed, our bodies are ‘fundamentally linked to the elemental world as a central structure of our physical-cultural experiences’ (Allen-Collinson et al., 2019, p. 14) and one must engage in ‘weather work’ to learn how to face all its aspects to avoid collision or injury.

Allen-Collinson and Hockey (2015) argue that sensing is a ‘multisensory’ or ‘intersensory’ process. To navigate through environments and engage in ‘weather work’, I draw on a combination of senses; the body is physically transformed as part of this process, which provides embodied knowledge and skills. The sense of heat and ‘temperature work’ has been conceptualised as both a recognisable sensory modality and a form of touch (see Allen-Collinson et al., 2019; Allen-Collinson & Owton, 2015; Potter, 2008). Allen-Collinson et al. (2019) portrays how other forms of heat-sensing, including senses of inner heat and energy can be taken into account through engagement with ‘temperature work’ and thermoception. Part of this learning involves how different individuals are socialised into specific ways of knowing and engagement with contending with temperature (Allen-Collinson & Owton, 2015). For example, Allen-Collinson et al. (2019) considered the role of temperature in shaping ‘intense embodiment’ by investigating the experience of swimmers. They found that swimmers built a reciprocal relationship with the water whereby they are both touched by the water and actively touch it. Temperature appeared to affect the ‘feel’ of the water and they found swimmers used their hands and feet to ‘feel’, ‘grip’ and ‘hold’ on to the water in order to facilitate locomotion. Even very small changes in temperature seemed to strongly shape their experiences of water, which had an impact on their performance. Understanding the sensation of water touching skin while swimming resonates strongly with Merleau-Ponty’s (1969) problematisation of any neat distinction between the body and the surrounding environment, and his theorisation of a continuous ‘flesh-of-the-world’. Additionally, understanding embodied experiences as mediated by culture and power means understanding embodied forms of ‘temperature work’ through the politics of coldness, where the body can dys-appear by feeling vulnerable through suffering, feeling threatened by weakness, feeling betrayed by the body, and a feeling of sense of shrinking through powerlessness.

It is ‘temperature work’, the absence of heat, the sensing of coldness and touch where learning happens about the portrayal of skin wetness perception. The portrayal of skin wetness perception has not been focused on distinctly, particularly in sociological theorisations in sport. As Filingeri (2022) notes:

Wetness is one of the most common sensations we experience, so people don’t question it. You can trick your brain to feel wet when something is not wet, or trick it to feel dry when in fact something is wet.

Skin wetness is defined as ‘the fraction of the body covered by liquid at skin temperature (e.g., sweat), and it represents a biophysical measure of the degree of wetness involved in the process of evaporation’ (Filingeri & Havenith, 2015, p. 88). Skin wetness has received a great deal of attention regarding the context of predicting the body’s heat balance (e.g., Gagge, 1937), contributing to understanding the biophysical role of skin wetness in furthering thermal homeostasis. Knowledge on the sensory integration on human’s ability to sense wetness on their skin is limited.

Sensing skin wetness, however, has been a topic of discussion in biophysical and neurophysiological domains and a recent neurophysiological model of human wetness sensitivity has been developed (see Filingeri et al., 2014). Human’s largest sensory organ, the skin, does not have skin humidity receptors (e.g., hygroreceptors) s) or sub-serving humidity detection (e.g., hygrosensation) like insects (Filingeri & Havenith, 2015). The ability to perceive thermal changes in the surrounding environment is critical for human survival (Filingeri & Havenith, 2015). Humans, therefore, appear to ‘learn’ to perceive the wetness experienced when the skin is in contact with a wet surface or when sweat is produced through a complex multisensory integration of thermal (e.g., heat transfer) and mechanosensory (e.g., mechanical pressure and skin friction) inputs generated by the interaction between skin, moisture and (if donned) clothing (Filingeri & Havenith, 2015). The portrayal of skin wetness perception could emphasise the intersected trans-boundary capacity of temperature and touch perceived both within the body and integrating with the external world. Wet skin perception is less familiar to those working with the traditional five sense model but is another strand of distinctive embodied wisdom that composes the ‘sensescape’ (Classen & Howes, 2006).

All these bodily (somatic) senses inform our perception of ‘inside’ and ‘outside’, of inner and outer space (Paterson, 2009). Through learning to ride a motorcycle, one can develop an attuned awareness to the environment and an interconnected attachment to the motorcycle while experiencing intense pleasurable feelings. Intense feelings of pleasure or pain means that one may not be able to attend to other things apart from the bodily ‘here and now’. This could sometimes be a complex experience for women in a contested space.

The Research Study

Since 2020, I have kept detailed critical field notes in a research log and reflective journals examining the interconnectedness of the mind-body-world nexus self through my participation in motorcycling. During this time, I have ridden approx. 100,000 miles, which equates to approx. 2000 hours on a range of difference motorbikes (Yamaha ER5, Honda CB500, Yamaha MT09, BMW S1000 R) on a leisurely basis, and have ridden on roads mostly in the UK. For this project, I draw on the last 12 months of reflective diary accounts, general field notes, collected data as near to ‘real-time’ experience as possible to cover a range of seasons and explore sensorial experiences. I draw on phenomenological principles such as epoche to reflect and attempt to identify core structures or themes in my experience of motorcycling and the haptic senses. During these 12 months, I acknowledge that my ‘ideas, assumptions, and prepositions, meanings, and interpretations are always inevitably with’ me including in my ‘observations, sensations, and experiences of the (auto)ethnographic field, so that these can never be totally “neutral” or value-free’ (Hockey & Allen-Collinson, 2023, p. 97). Here, I develop my previous auto-ethnographical accounts (Owton, 2015, 2021, 2022), where ‘tests of experiences’ have been associated with self-transformation, self-reinvention, and metaphorical rebirth (Frank, 2013) and involve transcending gender roles, developing acute and sharp sensory attunement with mind–body-world (Owton, 2022). I attempt to continue exploring the lived experiences of motorcycling via vignettes that aim to capture the essences of ‘intense embodiment’ (Allen-Collinson & Owton, 2015). I acknowledge that the way I record my ‘observations and sensations, and any subsequent “write-up” documentation, such as articles and reports, is replete with (my) values and biography’ (Hockey & Allen-Collinson, 2023, p. 98). As Hockey and Allen-Collinson (2023, p. 98) argue, I make my best effort to ‘stand back’ and view data with fresh eyes to maintain a critical perspective and analytic distance on my own situatedness in this project. Henceforth whilst I am not focusing on gendered embodiment specifically (see Owton, 2015), I do maintain critical awareness of my position as a woman on a motorcycle whereby I am entangled in a space that is gendered and contested with conflicting complexities around fears, dangers, empowerment, and adventure. A rigorous challenge, here, is to approach this ‘phenomenon under study with an open, questioning, inquisitive mind-set and an attitude of wonderment’ (Allen-Collinson & Owton, 2015, p. 594).

With the adoption of this phenomenological attitude (Giorgi & Giorgi, 2003), I engaged in data analysis through an exploration of core structures or patterns of my own, the researcher’s, experiences of phenomena. A phenomenologically inspired approach was employed to analyse the data, drawing on Giorgi and Giorgi’s (2003) empirical-phenomenological guiding principles. This included impressionistic readings of the data to gain an overall ‘feel’ for emergent themes, which was followed by a closer re-reading and data-immersion, to identify key themes and sub-themes.

Frozen Hands

As I ride along, I start to feel a chill on my hands and have the luxury on this bike of working heated grips. I turn them on to top heat and feel the heat sink into my hands through my gloves. I think back to the time when I had my first bike, which kept having issues with a draining battery. The battery just wouldn’t recharge, which I finally established was due to a broken regulator. One time, I was riding home on a cold day in November and the battery started draining again, this meant that my heated grips just wouldn’t produce any heat. The crisp coldness felt hard against my hands, and they started to lose feeling, sensation; I feel the pain from the numbness creep into my hands as they started freezing up. I tried to wriggle the hands and fight off the pain as I rode along, but the pain eventually won. My body started giving in and I cried with pain and feel even more vulnerable as a lone rider. All I could do was to continue to ride at a steady speed and eventually get home. I know I’m not as alert so I’m at a greater risk when I ride in this freezing state. When I arrived at my house, I can’t even park up properly. I leave my bike at the top of the drive, hobble into the house as I’m crippled with coldness, and shiver up the stairs to the shower to thaw out with warm water.

Merleau-Ponty’s work on spatiality begins from the body, but the sensation of temperature is not considered. Pandya (2008) argues that the sensation of cold is embedded in race, class, and gender politics. Through ‘a world captured in the thermal energy of particles’, this helps to demonstrate how the sensation of coldness is ‘entangled with a shrinking sense of spatiality’ (Clare, 2013, p. 169). Leder (2001) notes, there are forms of dys-appearance as well as differentiating between forms of eu-appearance ‘intense embodiment’, where an individual can attend to her or his body as something positive, reflectively, and pre-reflectively without resulting in a sense of discomfort or alienation (Zeiler, 2010). Indeed, runners described the ‘eu’-appearing body as ‘feeling light, strong, bouncy, and smooth’ (Jackman et al., 2022, p. 472). Feelings of coldness here, however, seem to interconnect with emotions of fear and vulnerability; I can only think with my body and nothing else around me until I have returned my body to a state of thermal balance. The bitter coldness has heightened awareness in the body of discomfort and ‘dys-ease’; as I feel this threat of coldness on my body, I feel vulnerable and my sense of spaciality shrinks around me. Here, the body becomes fragile, ‘dys-appears’ and is brought acutely and intensely to consciousness until homeostasis is achieved; the physiological process of thermoregulation is working intensely assisted with heat transfer until the body ‘disappears’ (returns to normal temperature) and becomes absent from our conscious thought in everyday life (Leder, 2001).

Screen Blast

I spent this morning tinkering with my new screen for my new bike. Instead of buying a new screen for my new bike I wanted to adapt and use the one from my other bike, which I’ll be selling. It’s not just about saving money, but it’s about being able to savour something from my past bike; something to remember my MT09 by threading memories and attachments together from old to new. Attaching my screen to my new bike had its difficulties, trying to fit something, which wasn’t made for it. It required a bit of fiddling and squeezing into shape but eventually I managed to fix it into position.

Later this afternoon, I prepared for a venture out to put it to the test. I rode out along the infamous Rutland TT, a familiar route. It was a bit of an overcast day but dry enough. I am accustomed to the twists and turns and feel myself wrapped around the newness of the bike. I’m adapting quickly to the new feel as there’s a sense of familiarity. The mechanical advancement of the bike looks after me and I can feel myself attuning to the manoeuvrability and agility of the machine. My body is leaning more forwards and more IN to the bike so i feel a sense of enhanced and intense connectedness. I match the anticipation of the machine curling round the corners and feel an embodied sense of pleasure settling into my veins.

As I approach the main road where I can test the power and acceleration on a straight road, I feel my heartbeat faster and my body sweats in preparation of the anticipated foreboding speed. With the need for cognitive alertness my body percolates with a sense of aliveness. I see the open road, and automatically squeeze the throttle and feel the power of the wind race past my helmet and body. Suddenly, I feel a huge blast of wind hit my head with such a force, my vision blurs and I’m stunned in shock for a split second before I know what’s happened

I’m frozen in position, which means my hand is still squeezing the throttle and I’m racing along at speed with the wind buffeting against my helmet with immense strength. I gather composure at speed but slowly release the tight grip of my hand on the throttle and see that the screen has fallen towards me in response to me speeding up; the sudden force of the wind hitting the screen, which wasn’t properly secured caused a sudden gust of gale force pressing against my chest and head. The strength of my neck was tested to keep my head from being thrown backwards in that sudden moment of power and speed. Once the shock of the moment has started to subside, I think about pulling over to fix the screen back into the correct position.

Luckily, I have my tools with me. But the moment has disrupted my flow and sense of trust in the bike for now. I secure the item on the side of the road at a lay-by, but I’ll need to build up trust in the equipment again to ensure it’s not going to scare me again. I ride home a little more sceptically and don’t feel that same sense of freedom and security I had. Perhaps my giving of trust came too freely.

Feeling startled evokes an immediacy of attentional focus (cognitive) and actions (physiological) needed towards the task of surviving. This ‘sudden moment’ (Owton, 2022) can be understood through the notion of ‘thrownness’ and ‘intense embodiment’, which describes ‘periods of heightened awareness of corporeal existence’. This can denote a form of dys-appearance or ‘a positively heightened sense of corporeal “aliveness,” of the sense working at an intense level’ (Allen-Collinson & Owton, 2015, p. 247; Leder, 2001; Merleau-Ponty, 1962). Of note, is the ‘touch of wind’ felt against the face; the environment both touching the body and actively touching the wind. This unexpected ‘touch’ by the wind exhibits an intense sense of astonishment and fear; a feeling of surprise. This feeling of intense embodiment evokes a greater level of conscious awareness of the body and bodily processes; after the immediacy of fear, a heightened sense of corporeal ‘aliveness’ is experienced with the senses working at an intense level. There is a sudden risk associated with the response to surprise, which could lead to a performance decrement as well as an attentional shift interrupting the ongoing processes of a parallel task (Reisenzein et al., 2019). The urge to focus on the immediate ‘touch of wind’ helps to evaluate the situation but there is a risk that the most prominent information might not be the most helpful or significant at that time (Rivera et al., 2014; Sapolsky, 1994). Whilst I may have ‘lost myself’ in thought and was not conscious of the ‘here and now’, this feeling of surprise and sudden touch in the face physically startles me back in the present, which elicits feelings of ‘thrownness’ (Owton, 2022). This fear could be linked with the politics involved with gender, feeling threatened by startle, weakness and a sense of shrinking of power. Whilst this incident could startle anyone, as a woman, the politics of fear surrounding my motorcycle experiences are shaped by broader societal narratives about vulnerability, risk, and safety, which intersect with gendered expectations of behaviour (Hollander, 2001). These politics often manifest in concerns about physical danger, such as accidents or exposure to harm, and societal scrutiny (Hollander, 2001). For example, my presence in a traditionally male-dominated space may challenge norms and provoke discomfort or hostility. This fear is further intensified by the embodied nature of motorcycling where exposure to the elements and the unpredictability of weather amplify feelings of vulnerability, making my navigation of these spaces both a physical and sociopolitical act of resilience.

During these “intense embodied” moments (Allen-Collinson & Owton, 2015), however, is when the body may eu-appear; where one can attend to her or his body as something positive and that this attention may not result in discomfort or alienation (Leder, 2001). When the sense of touch that one takes for granted undergoes significant changes, so does one’s sense of engagement with the world. For example, a motorcyclist may experience a certain amount of pressure on their body associated with the level of speed they are going, but a significant change may be a positive or negative feeling, which can shape the experience of other emotions. Whereas surprise is a feeling that arises when something is unexpected, startle is a physical reflex that can be experienced regardless of whether the individual is expecting it. Eu-appearance of the body implies pleasure, comfort, and harmony (Leder, 2001), which can quickly be disrupted by the sudden ‘touch’ of the environment. In this sense, touch is a matter of relatedness between body and world, rather than of experiencing one in isolation from the other. In touching something, a bodily feeling is also a perception of something other than the body (Ratcliffe, 2008). Indeed, the phenomenology of touch does not respect the distinction between bodily feeling and world-experience; the feeling of cold wind against one’s face, being touched unexpectedly by another person, the feeling of having clammy hands may shape or even ‘disrupt’ the very feel of our engagement and sense of thrownness with our immediate body-self-world ‘sensescape’.

Wet Through

I want to ride faster to avoid getting wet; the less time I’m in the rain perhaps the less wet I’ll get but the faster I go the wetter I feel I get. My protective motorbike gear is supposed to be waterproof, but I can feel the smooth coolness of dripping rain penetrating through my trousers and jacket. Initially, I feel trickles of cool water drip down my neck and down my boots into my feet through my socks. The chillier I feel, the heavier my gear starts to weigh me down, the wetter I feel I am getting. I can feel a puddle of water between my legs, which start seeping through my jeans flooding my skin with shivers. My gloves are soaked through, drenched in rain, which I sense through the increasing tightness, chilliness, and stiffness wrapping round my fingers. I can sense a battle from the warmth to my hands from my heated grips against the raining elements of the environment. I wriggle my fingers to try and avoid my hands clamming up stiffening with coldness, but each movement removes my contact with the heat from the grips so it’s a tricky balance whilst trying to remain alert to the dangers on the road. My ambivalent body seems to swing between hot and cold in an attempt to fight off the feelings of wetness. On the one hand I feel trapped in my gear that’s tightened around my wet skin, but on the other I feel contained by it to try and hold in any warmth as protection. My upper body feels warmer from the heated jacket have on underneath; I feel like I’m more protected by the heated jacket and don’t feel as soaked through but when I get home, I see my phone, which was in my upper pocket, has been water damaged. As I peel off a multitude of clothing, I feel a sense of betrayal as my waterproof gear has failed me in a sudden and unexpected torrential downpour. I take a deep breath and head for a hot shower to warm me up.

The concept of wetness may be more of a ‘perceptual illusion’ based on prior experiences with stimuli that one has learned are wet. Skin wetness perception is intertwined with our ability to sense cold temperature and tactile sensations such as pressure and texture (Science Daily, 2014). Some research has found that wet perception increases as temperature decreases meaning participants were much more likely to sense cold wet stimuli rather than warm or skin temperature wet stimuli. Here, there is a feeling of withdrawal and shrinking through danger as well as a sense of powerlessness from being unable to demonstrate bodily competency and temperature regulation. Skin wetness perception is a sensation, which can be taken for granted but is crucial for survival when associated with thermal regulation (Filingeri, 2022). This topic is of great interest to the clothing industry given that skin wetness perception greatly affects thermal and sensoria’s discomfort in clothing (Raccuglia et al., 2018), for example, the stickiness feeling from heat one can experience when wearing leather motorcycle clothing.

Sticky Leathers

In the UK, there are rarely days where the heat and humidity overwhelms us, however, today was one of those days. Having opted for my leather clothing, I find myself overheating with feelings of nausea and have to stop in a garage along the way in respite for some shade and shelter from the burning sun. As I’m riding along I can hardly concentrate as the thumping in my head starts feels like blood pumping around uncontrollably under my helmet and I have to rush to remove it, giving my head some air and space. I unzip my jacket and have to peel the sleeves from my arms as it sticks to my sweaty overheating body. I’ve always loved the heat more than the cold but experiencing it on the bike has caused me to feel sick and exhausted and I worry about risking safety with further cognitive and physical deterioration. I take stock in the garage and buy a drink in an attempt to replenish any fluids and energy I’ve lost. I hadn’t realised how much I was sweating until I attempted to tear off my jacket. I take deep breaths but struggle to get enough air into my lungs; the atmosphere feels warm and lacking. Eventually, I have to garner the energy to peel my jacket back over my moist skin, leaving the jacket slightly open so as I ride, I feel the breeze of air trickle down my neck and chest keeping me cooler. I ride slower resisting the temptation to ride faster to feel cooler; I have to balance the warmth with my reaction time, which is probably slower than normal with this heat draining me.

Jiang and Wang (2020) argues that wet fabric clinging to human skin may cause stickiness perception and facilitate wearing discomfort and found that friction was considered the main contact mode that evokes stickiness perception. The stickiness of the leathers and the friction associated with the stickiness is a sign I am wet with sweat from the heat. Whilst some sportspeople may seek out hot-weather training, there is an enhanced risk associated with motorcycling that cognitive functioning may suffer with fatal consequences. The theorisation of heat has been explored as a form of ‘touch’ both inwardly and outwardly through experiences of inner heat, body burn as well as a form of heat engendering unpredictability through a sense of thrownness (Allen-Collinson et al., 2019). Here, the layers of connection between clothing, environment, internal body heat and the exposure of heat serves to note the centrality of interaction between temperature perception, the notion of touch and wet skin perception enhancing the somatic learning of thermoception. As a motorcyclist, the physical labour of sweating acts as an obstruction to mobility, and possibly female empowerment, which affects the experience of riding a motorcycle. The intense form of heat is experienced interoceptively as opposed to the body being touched by the elements, such as wind or coldness.

Summary

Whilst attempting to capture something of the phenomenology of motorcycling, this is not an attempt to represent a conclusive account of a woman’s motorcycling experience but aims to express a sensuous embodied being-in-the-world. These vignettes provide an insight into ‘weather work’, thermoregulation and the ways motorcyclists may respond when exposed to the elements. Through the exploration of heat, coldness, exposure to the elements, and wet skin perception, these sensorial dimensions are corporeally felt, and these experiences inform one’s ‘sensescape’. The exploration of skin wetness perception, though crucial in sensory experiences associated with temperature and touch, has not been extensively studied. This gap is particularly significant in the contexts of sport, such as motorcycling, where sensory inputs, including skin wetness perception influences comfort, safety, and overall riding experience. For women motorcyclists, further exploratory research is even more critical, as differences in physiology and gear design may affect sensory interactions. Being unable to demonstrate bodily competency and temperature regulation can render a sense of powerlessness and disempowerment. Indeed, skin wetness perception is a sensation often taken for granted but plays a vital role in human survival, particularly through its association with thermoregulation.

Motorcycling is recognised as a risky activity and when sensory awareness is heightened in a life-threatening context, this gives rise to ‘intense embodiment’ (Allen-Collinson & Owton, 2015). Furthermore, feelings of coldness interconnect and exacerbate emotions of fear and vulnerability. Sensory awareness is heightened in a life-threatening context. The body is in a sense frozen in a state of fear until feelings of thermal balance and returned. Discomfort and ‘dys-ease’ are perceived as a threat of coldness on one’s body and feelings of vulnerability shrink a sense of spaciality. The physiological process of thermoregulation is working intensely assisted with heat transfer until the body ‘disappears’ (returns to normal temperature) and becomes absent from our conscious thought in everyday life (Leder, 2001).

Women often navigate heightened anxieties about physical safety, stemming from pervasive narratives about gendered violence and harm. The gendered constructions of space, feelings of vulnerability, and danger can inform women’s geography of fear (Wesely & Gaarder, 2004). Given women’s sense of intrusion on a male-dominated space in motorcycling, feelings of ‘intense embodiment’ could be further intensified both positively and negatively. A motorcyclist must negotiate a continually unfolding environment as they become intercorporeally enmeshed and attuned to potential environmental threats. Feelings of fear could be intensified for a woman with the experience of ‘sudden moments’, especially if there is a fear of not surviving. In motorcycling, this fear is amplified by the exposure and visibility inherent to the activity, as well as the perception of motorcycling as a dangerous, masculine-coded practice. In this sense, the politics of fear also extend to the scrutiny of my presence in male-dominated spaces, where challenges to my competence or belonging may provoke feelings of isolation or hostility (Hollander, 2001). This sociopolitical landscape exacerbates the embodied experience of fear, as my awareness of potential judgement, harassment, or physical vulnerability through feelings of fragility becomes an ongoing negotiation with both internal and external pressures. This fear is not just theoretical, however, but lived – heightened by the visceral sensations of open-air travel, such as the chill of the night or the unpredictability of weather, the strength and power of the wind, which remind me of my exposed, gendered body.

The lived experience of navigating male-dominated motorcycling cultures further embeds fear as a relational dynamic. Encounters with scepticism about my skills, unwanted attention, feelings of fragility or outright hostility, shape my movements and behaviours, compelling me to adopt strategies to manage risk – whether through route planning, protective gear, or hyper-vigilance. I attempt to show how these lived moments of negotiating fear, both physical and social, illustrate how the politics of fear are experienced in the body, entwining with the sensorial and emotional dimensions of riding to shape my relationship with the motorcycling world.

Feelings of elation and intense pleasure, however, could be intensified by a sense of freedom, adventure, and empowerment by overcoming a deepened sense of fear as a woman riding a motorcycle. For example, when the ‘touch of wind’ was felt strongly against my face in a ‘sudden moment’ where the environment was both touching the body and actively touching the wind. I experienced this unexpected ‘touch’ by the wind as an intense sense of thrownness (Owton, 2022). This feeling of intense embodiment evoked a greater level of conscious awareness of the body and bodily processes; after the immediacy of fear, a heightened sense of corporeal ‘aliveness’ was experienced with the senses working at an intense level. Indeed, when successfully surviving threats, the body may experience a renewed positive heightened corporeal sense of ‘aliveness’, elation, and relief working at an intense level with our immediate body-self-world ‘sensescape’. Working at this level of intensity has been shown to positively enhance one’s mental health (Csíkszentmihályi, 2002). As noted, motorcycling involves much more than just seeking an adrenaline rush; there is a way of life, and there are hidden codes between riders; nods indicate we, as motorcyclists, acknowledge these risks but recognise the sense of aliveness that would not exist without riding (Owton, 2021).