Author: dbcgreentx

The largest World Naked Bike Ride in the whole bike-ridin’ world has chosen the second weekend of August for this year’s event. The Portland, Oregon, ride has happened in late July for the past several years.

This will be the 20th running of the ride in PDX, one of the cities that participated in the inaugural ride in 2004. Even the COVID-19 pandemic did not prevent the event from occurring, although that summer it consisted of multiple small-group rides rather than the usual mass gathering. Recent iterations of the ride have seen as many as 10,000 riders, possibly more.

The Homepage of pdxwnbr.org has been updated with the scheduling information, although (as of this posting) several other of its pages have not been updated for a year or more. For last year’s ride, the requested that out-of-town riders not come into Portland just for the ride. That request no longer appears there; however, in the spirit of WNBR as a protest against fossil fuels and the resultant climate chaos, it’s best not to fly there or drive a personal vehicle for that purpose alone.

Also, the PDX organizers have expressed a desire to keep the ride to a manageable size and maintain the protest angle (sorry, can’t find a source for this) rather than merely having a party on wheels.

The ride also appears on the calendar for the expanded Pedalpalooza, aka Bike Summer, which lasts through June, July, and August. The organizers of PDX WNBR work in conjunction with local cycling advocacy group Bike Portland.

As of now, rides in 12 North American cities have dates selected, three of those in Canada. The New Orleans and Halifax rides do not have official FB Events or announcements on dedicated websites, but they both have (or will soon have) official flyers.

More than a dozen additional cities that have hosted rides in recent years have still not announced.

USA: Buffalo, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Madison, Milwaukee, Montpelier, New Orleans, and Saint Louis. San Francisco has a monthly ride scheduled for Earth Day, but not an official big ride for the summer months.

Canada: Halifax, Montreal, and Toronto.

México: ya nada.

Waiting for: Austin, Bellingham, Boston, CDMX, Columbus, Edmonton, Eugene, Guadalajara, Las Vegas, Ottawa, Philadelphia, Portland OR, Seattle, Vancouver.

WTF and Why TF Not: What’s up, Berkeley, Boulder, Burlington VT, Calgary, Denver, Ithaca NY (thx for the reminder, @YeshuahuXX2 on Twitter), Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New Haven, New York, Victoria BC, Washington DC?

Any other cities in CANMEXUS that you’d think would have a ride but don’t? This includes cities where rides have taken place in the distant past, as well as cities that have never had an official WNBR.

In 2021 and ’22, some representatives of H-Town’s WNBR community traveled to Austin to participate in two superb nights of Ciclonudismo. We love our ATX comrades. This year, however, there is a move afoot to try something different: New Orleans! It’s an opportunity to ride through the Crescent City during daylight hours.

The New Orleans WNBR organizers have set Saturday 10 June as their ride date for this year. As of this writing there is no official Facebook event. Austin’s group has not yet set a date, but it will likely also happen on the 10th.

Things to know about WNBR NOLA:

• The ride begins and ends at Mickey Markey Park in the Bywater district.
• The usual launch time is 4 pm.
• It is shorter than H-Town’s ride, with maybe one pub stop and an after party.
• The ride hires a police escort, which eliminates a lot of the fear-of-being-arrested factor. This is not cheap, so the organizers are asking for donations to defray the cost. (Riders can still be arrested if they do something blatantly illegal, such as public lewdness or vandalism.)

In order to make the journey as fuel-efficient as possible without actually biking to NOLA, the plan is to travel via Amtrak’s Sunset Limited line. This is a chance for an additional adventure, especially if you’ve never traveled by train in the United States.

Here is what you need to know about the trip there and back:

• The Sunset Limited runs three times a week in each direction between New Orleans and Los Angeles, unlike almost all other Amtrak long-distance lines with trains running daily.
• The Houston to New Orleans train is scheduled for departure Friday 9 June at 12:10 pm, arriving at 9:40 that night.
• The return train leaves New Orleans Monday 12 June at 9:00 am, reaching Houston at 6:18 pm.
• As of this writing, coach seats cost $46 each direction. These seats offer far greater comfort and legroom than coach seats on most airlines, as do the on-board lavatories.
• Sunset Limited trains have (limited) bicycle storage in the baggage car. There is a small fee for trainside bicycle check-in. Other restrictions apply, such as maximum weight of 50 pounds, so please read and digest Amtrak’s rules thoroughly.
• Lodging accommodations for three nights in Greater New Orleans will depend on the number of travelers.

Any additional information will appear in a follow-up post.

If you plan to join this trip, please let us know in the Comments; if you don’t, please don’t.

There have been no objections from H-Town’s WNBR constituency to scheduling our ride for Saturday 9 September. So we’re putting it on our calendar for that night. Gather & paint up at 6 pm, ride at 8 pm.

No other details, such as the theme or the official start/finish location, are available at this time.

Here’s a minor update to our North American Rides for 2023 page. Toronto joins Montpelier VT in kicking off Northern Hemisphere WNBR season on Saturday 10 June.

Meanwhile, nearby Buffalo NY is going with a July ride, like last year. Buffalo’s facilitator(s) quietly announced the date back in January, apparently.

The page listing World Naked Bike Rides in North America for 2023 has been created. Expect frequent updates; when a major update occurs, we’ll post a note about it.

Rides that have listed dates so far are all in the US: Chicago, Los Angeles, Madison WI, Milwaukee, Montpelier, and Saint Louis. San Francisco continues its more-or-less monthly WNBR, the next instance of which happens 22 April.

Attendance for last night’s ride was about 75, one of our biggest turnouts ever. And it was glorious, of course. Thanks to all who made the ride, to the crew at Super Happy Fun Land, and to the four pubs that welcomed us along the way.

Your friendly facilitator, and his facilitator, were interviewed for this story that made it onto KHOU’s 10 o’clock news.

Reminder in case you need it: Unless you want to completely lose your faith in humanity, never scroll down to the comment section, if there is one, especially for articles with a hint of controversy to them.

https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2022/09/09/world-naked-bike-ride-houston and

Prepare to see scantily clad cyclists during Houston’s World Naked Bike Ride on Saturday night

It’s a rolling protest. And it’s a party. And it’s happening this weekend!

Your humble facilitator and blogmeister is tempted to say, “I’ll just leave this right here for your interpretation.” However, a few brief comments are warranted.

2022’s Best Cities for Naked Biking

It’s at least semi-appropriate that the home of Rice University and Baker 13 comes in 13th in this survey. Baker 13, aka Club 13, does not involve bicycles, but it does feature students running around the Rice campus wearing only sneakers and shaving cream.

Please note that the article is not saying that Houston has the 13th best ride, but that, all factors considered, it is the 13th-best US city for a World Naked Bike Ride. With your active participation, comrades, we might move up in the standings of best rides as well!