RIDE NAKED!

The very first two-wheel, “petal-pushed” bicycle made its world debut in 1817, but the basic bicycle as we know it hit its stride in the 1890s “Golden Age of Bicycles.” The first chain-driven bicycle was developed around 1885 and a few years later air-filled tires and coaster brakes were added. Bicycling became both a popular pastime, as well as a practical form of commuting. Just as skinny dipping was a common form of swimming in rural lakes and streams at the turn of the century, no doubt some adventurous folks hopped on their bikes in the buff. Surprisingly, there is no real record of organized naked biking until a century later.

Organized naked bike rides seem to have taken off in 2001. In Spain, a naked bike ride was celebrated in Zaragoza, and naked riders joined the Fremont Summer Solstice Parade in Seattle. Naked riders have joined up with Critical Mass across the US, and other annual rides in Europe.

Although there’s an “official” World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) website, the overall trend of naked bike rides seems to be a grassroots movement. Commonalities between naked bikers are colorful body paint, creative costumes, and sometimes decorated bikes. Underlying the public nudity is not so much a united protest against gasoline vehicles, or against the often hypocritical and sexist indecency laws; in the color and show, seems to be a statement against as a celebration pro-bike traffic, pro-green energy, pro-healthy living, and the simple right to be in the buff. Otherwise, it seems to truly be a free-for-all, with only one guiding motto: "Bare As You Dare.”




For the past several years, my hometown has held an annual naked bike ride. I have never gone, because it seemed naked bikers were, actually, rather unsexy. Now, looking at images around the world and learning more about public nudity laws and just how conservative we’ve become as a culture, I am pro nude bikers. They make our streets a little more colorful, a little more fun, and—most importantly of all—a little more free. What a true democracy that we live in when protest can be non-violent, and naked.

Here’s to a second “Golden Age of Bicycles.”