The Philly Naked Bike Ride Is Less Than Two Weeks Away

The Philly Naked Bike Ride is back for its annual celebration. Naked bikers will take on Philadelphia streets on September 9, to promote a clean earth, body positivity, and cycling advocacy.

The 10-mile route is yet to be revealed and festivities will kick off with a pre-ride festival to then kick off the Philly route.

Naked biking for a good cause

The Philly Naked Bike Ride returns on September 9, for its ninth consecutive year. The event aims to celebrate body positivity, cycling advocacy, and fuel conscious consumption. The ride also aims to desexualize nudity.

A week prior to the event the organizers will reveal the starting and the end locations of the 10-mile ride. No registration is necessary for the free event.

Riders will warm up with the pre-ride festival starting at 3 p.m and then hit the road at 5 p.m.

Around 3,000 riders are expected to pass by iconic sites including Independence Hall and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Sylvester Stallone ran up the steps while training as Rocky.

While the name suggests it, it’s not mandatory to go naked to the event.

Ride organizers say participants can go as bare as they dare. Last year some riders wore nothing at all or sported body paint while others wore underwear.

The event is affiliated with the World Naked Bike Ride, which holds naked ride events worldwide.

Bare as you dare

The World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) is an international clothing-optional bike ride in which participants plan, meet and ride together en masse on human-powered transport mostly bicycles but skates too, to “deliver a vision of a cleaner, safer, body-positive world.”

The dress code motto is “bare as you dare”. Full or partial nudity is encouraged, but not mandatory. There is no mandate to cover intimate parts; this is a distinguishing feature of the WNBR against other cycling events.

And, where did it all start?

In 2003 Conrad Schmidt conceived the World Naked Bike Ride after organising the Naked Bike Rides of the group Artists for Peace/Artists Against War (AFP/AAW) which had taken place in Vancouver, Canada starting in 2002; this and other high-profile political and media events led to the creation of the Work Less Party of British Columbia.

WNBR rapidly started to come to life through collaborations with activist groups and individuals around the world.

The first WNBR event in 2004 was a collaboration between the WNBR group riding on 12 June and Manifestación Ciclonudista in Spain riding on 19 June, establishing a precedent as a solstitial Saturday observance.

Since that time rides have also taken place in February and March.