Tags
bike protest toronto, getting naked for the environment, naked cyclists in downtown toronto, naked cyclists toronto, naked protest toronto, nude toronto cyclists, photo of world naked bike ride in toronto 2010, world naked bike ride 2010, world naked bike ride 2012, world naked bike ride day toronto
Bike shorts don’t leave much to the imagination, but this picture is proof that they’re better than nothing!
As part of Saturday’s eighth annual World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR), over 100 Toronto cyclists stripped down and streaked through the city in protest against global oil dependency and the harm automobile pollution poses to cyclists, pedestrians and the environment. And they weren’t alone. The ride took place worldwide, with naked cyclists cruising through 70 cities in 20 countries.
I admit, I didn’t catch this year’s ride live. This photo is from 2010, when I’d just stepped out of a Kensington Market shop and was standing on Spadina, conveniently with my camera in hand. Suddenly, these naked cyclists rode by…and of course I couldn’t resist taking a peek, er, I mean pic.
This year’s 14 km ride started in scenic Coronation Park, by the lake, and did a loop, hitting major downtown landmarks, including city hall and Kensington. Cyclists were invited to gather together at noon to decorate their bikes and their bodies (body painting is a fun way to be a tad demure). At 1 p.m., riders of all shapes and sizes took off on what I imagine was a liberating albeit uncomfortable ride – for both the cyclists and onlookers!
I mean, really, how painful is it to ride a bike in the buff?
Apparently, not so painful that Toronto riders were doing so back in 1912, when this photo was taken of naked cyclists riding along the Don River (the original picture is from Toronto City Archives). As this year’s WNBR Toronto poster indicates, Toronto cyclists have been riding naked for a hundred years! Who knew?
But unlike the gentlemen in the poster, ride participants are asked to wear shoes and a helmet. They’re being models of safe cycling, after all. That, I think, is what’s so amusing about the sight: they’re au naturel but wearing gear!
So I ring my bell in solidarity. This city needs all the good cycling news it can get, what with our mayor, Rob Ford, wanting to remove bike lanes. While I’m fine riding with traffic (heck, I am traffic), I do appreciate bike lanes and would rather not inhale car exhaust while riding.
Info is already available for next year’s WNBR Toronto. If you’re keen on participating or you’re curious about the possibilities, visit the group’s Wiki page for deets on the June 15, 2013, event.
And remember, sunscreen is a must when all you’re wearing is shoes, socks and a helmet. Talk about cheeky!
loving the ride 
Can’t wait for next year’s ride !
I’m sure it’ll be bigger than ever! The body painting and decorations seem like such fun, too!
Looking forward already for next year’s ride. Got my new hat, and glasses and I’m sifting through some good slogans to put on the hat. I try to slightly distinguish myself from the different years so when I see a photo, I know what year it is by what I was wearing.
Hopefully, some of us have motivated others to get a little bit creative.
Nice website by the way. I’ve been busy putting together a WNBR Toronto photo archive. Hopefully, in a month or so it will look a bit better. It takes a while to write all
the coding. http://www.worldnakedbikeridetoronto,com
See ya’ naked next year !
Ohhh, so creative so far in advance! I’ll check out site. I sympathize with the coding. I’m taking a 9-week FREE coding course at the Yorkville Media Centre — we just finished Week 7 and I’m finally starting to not be totally lost in all that HTML/CSS/php jibberish!
All my coding is done from scratch. No utilities. I just use NOTEPAD, so you can imagine the time it takes to put something together. Patience… patience… patience…
1mm, the typical thickness of summer clothing, can not possibly make any practical difference, so I’m not sure where you get the weird “painful” idea from. If anything, especially on a hot day it feels better nude because your clothes don’t get in the way of the wonderful wind that you make yourself by riding! Nor is the WNBR “uncomfortable”; participants and spectators alike are simply delighted! You should join yourself next year and have a front row seat, the Toronto ride had at least 2 reporters embedded this year.
Hey Leif, I was thinking more of how uncomfortable I can get on my road bike, which has a cutaway saddle, when I’m not wearing bike shorts (yeh, I’m one of those cyclists). Chaffing and saddle sores are no fun. So it’s true – I can’t imagine riding that bike with nothing between me and that saddle! But I see your point and totally get that participants enjoy being unencumbered by clothing, luxuriating in the breeze as they’re zipping along! About riding next year…possibly…maybe…
Re: Chafing. Last year a reporter from the Sun asked me about chaffing. I was a little puzzled, but he insisted to stick to the topic of chaffing. The reason I was puzzled is that I ride all the time for many hours and even in the winter so chaffing is foreign to me. I guess I’ve become immune to it. I can’t even ever recall any chaffing and I’ve been riding a two wheeler since I’ve been 5 years old. As it turns out, the reporter put in his article that my fear was of chaffing, but even if the article was not correct, it at least got printed and that’s what counted !
That’s great about the article! Any, ahem, exposure is good exposure…even if he got that fact wrong.