WNBR 2010

The World Naked Bike Ride for Britain kicks off next week with Southampton and Manchester on Friday 11th June. London and Cardiff have their rides on Saturday 12th June with Brighton, Bristol and Edinburgh on 13th June. Sheffield and York follow on 19th June.

This is yet another year when I shall join in. Having already ridden at Southampton twice, London five times and Brighton twice, 2010 sees no lack of enthusiasm for these events that have become firm fixtures on my naturist calendar.

The WNBR is a worldwide protest that takes place in more than 50 cities in the world. The UKs website http://www.worldnakedbikeride.org/uk/ has this to sum it up;

A peaceful, imaginative and fun protest against oil dependency and car culture. A celebration of the bicycle and also a celebration of the power and individuality of the human body. A symbol of the vulnerability of the cyclist in traffic. The world’s biggest naked protest: 50+ cities and thousands of riders participate worldwide, including around 3,000 in the UK in 2009.

Will there be many other people taking part? You bet! Southampton will probably have 200+, London 1200 and Brighton 1000 so you will blend with the naked crowd rather well unless, of course, you want to paint yourself brightly when you’ll really stand out. Will people in the street be happy to see all these naked men and women? We are invariably met with disbelief which rapidly turns to smiles and laughter. It is rare to see anyone claiming to be outraged or offended.

These events have a real carnival atmosphere, particularly in Brighton. In case you were wondering they are entirely legal and we are usually escorted by the police in London or Brighton. That is so they can stop the traffic in order for us to get along with safety. In Southampton they don’t do anything at all – they just let us get on with it.

So, if you’re up for a personal challenge or you agree with the aims of the ride and wish to participate, a World Naked Bike Ride is coming to a city near you over the next two weeks. See you there!

WNBR Girls

It’s now been a long time since I rode in the World Naked Bike Ride in Southampton in 2009. The photo here was taken on that evening after the ride had finished and we were all assembled once more on Southampton Common for the post-race wind-down. A while later I posted it up on Flickr as it was one of the better shots that could probably be shown anywhere.

Now, most of my pictures don’t draw too much attention – perhaps a hundred or two viewings for the more popular ones – but this has now been selected More than 8000 times and shows no sign of going out of favour just yet. Obviously, there are nearly-naked women here and one who is completely stripped off so it has to be said that there is some appeal. The title probably gets picked up on search engines too so now we know what people spend their time Googling for. But it is colourful and bums are usually good to look at and these are no exception. Oh, if any of the girls in the photo is reading this you look great and I hope to see you in the WNBR this year too.