In the future, the 2013 World Naked Bike Ride will be remembered as the year things got sophisticated.
Thanks to a permit to gather in the South Park Blocks and a deal with the Portland Art Museum to allow entrance to their bike-design exhibit Cyclepedia for the unique fee of $1 per piece of clothing, this year’s WNBR started with a stiff dose of urban energy and culture.
It’s safe to say Portland’s never seen a World Naked Bike Ride quite like this.
The ride started in the South Park Blocks, surrounded by Portland’s civic institutions, and it totally transformed the atmosphere before the ride, both for eager riders and curious onlookers. Unlike in past years, when the ride’s begun on the Central Eastside industrial district, the energy was arriving from all directions. Happy people in various states of undress swarmed through the trees of the park blocks and swamped the surrounding streets.
The fact that onlookers knew just where the ride began seemed to slow things down. The first couple of turns for riders became bottlenecks when mostly-well-meaning pedestrians left the curbs to offer high fives. [Read more…]
1) It’s not about sex. The WNBR is about loving your body, loving low-car or car-free life, demonstrating the power of bikes in mass motion, metaphorically conveying the vulnerability of people on bikes, experiencing the city in a new way and loving the friends and new friends you’ll see before, during and after. And although all of those things are almost certainly good for your sex life, you’ll be surprised how much fun nudity (or near-nudity) is without sex.
2) Nobody cares that your body is not perfect. Nobody’s body is perfect, so for one night, everybody’s body gets to be perfect.
3) Read the fine print. We did a post on Thursday with all the details. I really liked the Mercury’s brief Naked Biking 101 article, too — look for it in their PedalPalooza calendar.
4) It’s okay not to be into naked bike riding. WNBR is not everybody’s thing and you should not feel bad if it’s not your thing. But you definitely shouldn’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
5) This thing is going to be off the chain. The World Naked Bike Ride hasn’t seen this beautiful of weather in years. The crowd is going to be a sight to see.
Have fun, everybody. BikePortland’s coverage begins very early tomorrow morning.
At least five thousand people are expected to hit the streets on bikes Saturday night in Oregon’s biggest pay-what-you-wish bike ride of the year.
And maybe you’ve heard: Most of us will be mostly naked.
Naked biking and Pedalpalooza have gone together since 2002, when a group of visiting Canadians spliced the bare-as-you-dare tradition into Portland’s DNA. It’s since evolved into the World Naked Bike Ride, one of many happening around the world on Saturday.
This year’s WNBR (which is, for the record, 100 percent legal) will begin on the South Park Blocks in downtown Portland. No registration is required. The pre-ride is being hosted by the Portland Art Museum, which is offering ride participants a truly memorable deal: admission to their bike-design exhibit Cyclepedia for only $1 per article of clothing.
“The barer you are, the cheaper it is,” says ride organizer Meghan Sinnott.
The South Park Blocks, home to Portland’s grand theater venues, museums, and churches, will host the 2013 Portland World Naked Bike Ride on June 8th. Ride organizers have gained the blessing of the Portland Art Museum who will host the ride in the blocks directly in front of their building on SW Park between 9th and 10th avenues.
The Art Museum sees the Naked Bike Ride as a way to heighten awareness for their Cyclepedia: Iconic Bicycle Design exhibition that also happens open on June 8th. Here’s the official word from PAM’s Director of Public Relations Beth Heinrich:[Read more…]
Still from Bare As You Dare. (Photo: NW Documentary)
Bare As You Dare, a new documentary that goes behind the scenes of Portland’s annual World Naked Bike Ride will debut at Filmed by Bike later this month. The film was created by Ian McCluskey, Lilah Cady, and Jenn Byrne from NW Documentary, a Portland-based non-profit that teaches the “art of non-fiction storytelling.”
Bare As You Dare is a 17 minute film that features interviews with the volunteers who put on the ride. It also follows several subjects to show the diverse backgrounds of the people that participate. According to a statement from Filmed by Bike, the film, “follows a variety of subjects from a cancer survivor to a reserved homebody, who are surprisingly open in sharing their personal stories and motivation for participation.” [Read more…]
The sun is shining and bike fun spirits are high. Pedalpalooza is going strong and tomorrow night it will reach one of its many climaxes when thousands upon thousands of you get naked and pedal through our wonderful city. Yes, it’s time for the legendary Portland edition of the World Naked Bike Ride.
Let’s review the basics shall we?
Where and When The ride will happen Saturday night (June 16th) at 10:00 pm. The start location is the empty lot at the corner of SE Water and Salmon (same as last year, here’s a map). Folks will begin gathering at around 8:30 to 9:00 pm. [Read more…]
A local non-profit is looking for a few good subjects who aren’t bashful about participating in Portland’s annual Naked Bike Ride.
Portland-based NW Documentary teaches classes on documentary filmmaking (including one on how to film by bike) and they also boast a respectable track record in producing their own short films. Lilah Cady, a NW Documentary staffer, tells us their last short film was accepted into over 30 film festivals including major ones like Tribeca and London. [Read more…]
