By Sam Klugherz
This Saturday, August 24th, one of the most popular Philadelphia cycling events will take place as hundreds of naked and almost-nude cyclists gather in the city for the 11th-annual Philly Naked Bike Ride. PNBR is a 10-mile bike ride on a mostly flat route through Philly that encourages cyclists from all over to come and join others in riding as “bare as you dare” to promote “fuel conscious consumption, positive body image, and cycling advocacy.”
The pre-ride festivities start at 2:30pm, and the ride begins at 5 PM. The starting location will be FDR Park at the Broad & Pattison entrance. The ride will end at Eakins Oval.
If you are coming in from out of town or a surrounding suburb and planning on driving into the city, PNBR recommends you park near the ride endpoint (or you could take SEPTA Regional Rail and the Broad Street Line to NRG Station if you are coming from the suburbs).
If you are planning on spending the entire afternoon and evening with other PNBR riders, there are activities both before and after the ride on Saturday.
Starting at 2:30 PM, the organizers will host pre-ride festivities with body paint and other fun activities at the starting location. Participants are encouraged to get creative with paint, costumes, hats, and other accessories. Note that body painting closes at 4:30pm, so get there early to partake! After the festivities, the ride begins at 5 PM, lasting about 2 hours.
Because of the diverse skill levels of the participants, the ride will be slow and conversational. After-parties will follow the ride at three bars, two of which are clothing-optional events. The names of the bars can be found on the PNBR Facebook page.
PNBR is free and no registration is required, and we highly encourage all those interested to join. If you want to participate but don’t have a bike, PNBR has offered the following suggestions for places to rent a bike: Fairmount Bicycles, Transport Cycles, Wheel Fun, and the Indego Bike Share.
If you are renting, PNBR strongly recommends wrapping your bike seat with a towel or t-shirt. Also, you are by no means required to go completely nude. PNBR wants all riders to feel comfortable and have a good time.
More information can be found on the Philly Naked Bike Ride website. Any specific questions can be directed to phillynakedbikeride@gmail.com. Remember to check the Facebook event sometime this Friday for the official route and starting point!
I still don’t know where the gathering place is for the start.
Kindlly keep this event out of family neighborhoods.
How are the rented bikes cleaned after the race? The increase rise of STD’s especially in the Philadelphia area, Hepatitis A local epidemic, I am concerned for the safety of the community most especially the next bike renters who will be exposed to a potential dangers, unknowingly.
Something must be done other than the rain showers.
Philadelphia is supposed to be a place of diversity. That means there are people of all ages, ethnicities, creeds and ideologies here. In a place where Gritty decries street harassment because it makes the target feel uncomfortable and violated, so too does exposing others to public nudity against their will. Such conduct is likely to frighten or confuse a child passerby, be deeply offensive to a visitor from another country and culture, violate the code of conduct prescribed by the Qur’an or other holy scriptures devoutly adhered to by many of Philadelphia’s residents, or just be plain contrary to “the average person, applying contemporary community standards” to quote the U.S. Supreme Court.
And while we’re quoting the law, a person violates section 3127 of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code’s prohibition against indecent exposure when “expos[ing] his or her genitals in any public place or in any place where there are present other persons under circumstances in which he or she knows or should know that this conduct is likely to offend, affront or alarm.” The grading of that criminal conduct is higher when “the person knows or should have known that any of the persons present are less than 16 years of age.”
The Naked Bike Ride used to invade only Center City. That was bad enough. Last Saturday, commencing at 5 pm — which seems too calculated to be a coincidence — it invaded Passyunk Avenue, offending unsuspecting diners for blocks. This conduct was the height of intolerance. One dining customer of a restaurant on that thoroughfare made no bones about expressing how horrified she was to see this offensive display. And this woman was not the only one to express this sentiment. It’s just plain mean to shove one’s ideology in the face of someone else without regard for the differing sensibilities of others.
Contrary to those who would respond, “Well, whatabout…” just remember: two wrongs don’t make a right. We learned that in kindergarten, or should have.
Contrary to those who would respond with the tortuous argument that people shouldn’t be ashamed of the human body, there’s a HUGE difference between shame and modesty. The former is a burden that requires compassion; the latter is a virtue.
People who go around imposing their naked bodies on those who don’t want to see that are just plain mean. Such conduct demonstrates a vile intolerance of others’ differing sensibilities. To confront people en masse with a horde of nudists on a public street is a form of oppression. It’s an act calculatedly designed to drive people with different ideologies out of and away from the city, and, therefore, a violent blow against inclusiveness and diversity in Philadelphia.
A polite and tolerant society strives to appeal to the greatest common denominator. It means being tolerant toward different sensibilities and inclusive of different ideologies. Actions speak LOUDER than words, and just as Gritty reminds you that we don’t want to be harassed verbally on the street, we wish EVEN LESS to be harassed physically by this indecent action by hordes of nude bicyclists.
If your constituents truly want a more tolerant, kinder, more compassionate environment for EVERYONE, including their children, people of faith, inter-cultural visitors and the like, they would not allow such a criminal display. I adjure you put an end to this offensive activity; let 2019 be the last Philadelphia has ever seen of the annual, en masse violation of the criminal proscription against indecent exposure.
I am pretty progressive, but this bike race is really inappropriate and I find nearly nude riders to be only appropriate perhaps on the “Gold Coast” of southern France, and perhaps at a beach site, but to promote it as an event of the Bicycle Coalition in Philly- a travesty! I do not find it humorous nor do I believe that it promotes the Bicycle Coalitions purpose and actually alienates a section of those cyclists that would never take their family downtown to ride now. I guess you are targeting an audience that is not of my variety. Hard to believe the Bicycle Coalition Board ( look at the names mentioned) would promote this type of event. You will never get my supportive dollars.