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World Naked Bike Ride

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World Naked Bike Ride
Participants in the World Naked Bike Ride in Philadelphia, one of the largest and most famous internationally. Other non-motorized riders including skateboarders and unicyclists, as well as runners, are also welcome to participate.
Statusactive
Genremanifestation, bicycle ride
Frequencysemi-annually
InauguratedJune 2004; 20 years ago (2004-06)

The World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) is an international clothing-optional bike ride in which participants plan, meet and ride together en masse on human-powered transport (the vast majority on bicycles, but some on skateboards and inline skates), to "deliver a vision of a cleaner, safer, body-positive world." The first ride happened in Zaragoza (Spain) in 2001.[1]

The dress code motto is "bare as you dare".[2][better source needed] World Naked Bike Ride Portland organizes the Portland Oregon ride as of 2024.

History

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A woman at World Naked Bike Ride, London, 2017
Zaragoza and Vancouver hosted the first NBR. Pictured are participants in the 2009 WNBR in the Spanish city.
Woman and a man riding at the Cardiff WNBR 2018

In 2003, Conrad Schmidt conceived the World Naked Bike Ride after organizing the Naked Bike Rides of the group Artists for Peace/Artists Against War (AFP/AAW).[3][better source needed] Initially, the message of the WNBR was protesting against oil dependency and celebrating the power and individuality of the human body. In 2006, there was a shift towards simplifying the message and focusing on cycling advocacy.[citation needed]

The 2004 WNBR saw events in 28 cities, in ten countries on four continents.[4][better source needed] By 2010, WNBR had expanded to stage rides in 74 cities, in 17 countries, from the United States to the United Kingdom and Hungary to Paraguay.[4][better source needed]

Two male riders were arrested during the 2005 WNBR in North Conway, New Hampshire, and charged with "indecent exposure and lewdness". The two riders agreed to having the charges reduced to "disorderly conduct" and paid a $300 fine, the majority of which was paid for by the WNBR Legal Defense Fund.[5][better source needed] Six male riders were charged with public indecency during the 2005 WNBR Chicago ride and later prosecuted with sentences ranging from fines and non-expungeable conviction to three months of court supervision.[citation needed] In 2007, during the first World Naked Bike ride in Denver, Colorado police surrounded the bike riders and wrote several people tickets.[6] During the WNBR held on June 12, 2010, two men were arrested by campus police at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.[7]

Simon Oosterman, the organizer of the 2005 WNBR in Auckland, and the first to be arrested during a WNBR event, is credited with going further and refocusing on the issue on moving away from fossil fuel dependency in the context of climate change. He urged: "Stop the indecent exposure to vehicle emissions."[8][better source needed]

The largest WNBR event is held in Portland, Oregon, with over 10,000 participants.[9]

Films

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  • "World Naked Bike Ride Thessaloniki Greece" (Βγήκαμε από τα Ρούχα Μας; 27' Greece, 2009) Greek language with English subtitles, won the Audience Award at 11th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2009[10]
  • "World Naked Bike Ride: The Documentary" (Toronto) 4 minute short
  • World Naked Bike Ride (31 minutes, UK, 2006) directed by Johnny Zapatos of High Altitude Films, narrated by Jon Snow
  • Indecent Exposure to Cars: The Story of the World Naked Bike Ride, produced by Conrad Schmidt[11]
  • Bare As You Dare: Portland's World Naked Bike Ride (Portland, OR) Directed by Ian McCluskey[12]

See also

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References

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Notes

  1. ^ Naked cyclist demonstration in Spain - Manifestación ciclonudista en España
  2. ^ Artists for Peace/Artists Against War, a non-profit group in Vancouver popularized the motto "Bare as you Dare" and "Naked Bicycle people power" during their Naked Bike Rides Archived 2005-10-31 at the Wayback Machine in 2003 that led up to and became early models for WNBR.
  3. ^ Artists for Peace/Artists Against War's archived web page is currently hosted by The Work Less Party of British Columbia
  4. ^ a b Official WNBR global web site
  5. ^ More information about the case can be found at WNBR North Conway website Archived 2005-12-18 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Preston-Watson, Crystal (11 June 2007). "World Naked Bike Ride - Denver". westword.com.
  7. ^ "Whatcom County Jail Report". Bellingham Herald.[dead link‍]
  8. ^ Simon Oosterman printed this on a protest banner as documented on Enzyme's WNBR web site Archived 2005-12-14 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ "Portland's World Naked Bike Ride". Travel Portland. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  10. ^ Διεθνής Γυμνή Ποδηλατοδρομία (22 May 2012). "1st World Naked Bike Ride Thessaloniki Greece - Documentary Trailer". Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 29 September 2016 – via YouTube.
  11. ^ "The World Naked Bike Ride Movie". Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  12. ^ McCluskey, Ian. "Bare As You Dare: Portland's World Naked Bike Ride"

Further reading

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to World Naked Bike Ride.
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