The Naked Bike Ride

Streaking to the finish.

by Brian Howard

About an hour into their weekly meeting, gathered around a table in the sweltering heat of a Devil's Pocket dining room, the organizers of Philly's first Naked Bike Ride are atan impasse.

"How lawfully are we going to break the law?" asks Clifford Greer. Presently on the agenda is whether participants in the "as bare as you dare" ride they've scheduled for Sept. 6 will be instructed to obey traffic signals or if, a la Critical Mass, they will be encouraged to bike through red lights and stop signs.

A step back to paragraph one: Maybe it's a semantic quibble, but the organizers do not like to be called organizers. The word sounds too controlling, authoritative. The ride, Greer repeats like a mantra, is about the riders. They don't see the Philly Naked Bike Ride as a ride they're putting on as much as a thing they're letting happen. So the point of much of the discussion, paradoxically, is to make it seem as if there hasn't been any discussion at all. As such, Greer prefers that he and the small group gathered on Monday be referred to as facilitators.

Back to the issue of running red lights. Greer is adamant that while it might be easier to just tell riders to obey traffic signals — as fellow facilitators Mark Andrews and Bill Horton are inclined to do — that's not what the ride is about. Not for Greer, who, as the guy who keeps the agenda on his BlackBerry and runs the meetings, is like the de facto lead facilitator. He sees the rideas its own entity. The ride should do what the ride wants. There should be no proclamation, no official stance.

"So we've been arguing about semantics for the last 20 minutes," says Will McCormick, the facilitator charged with coordinating pre-ride body painting.

The ideas behind riding naked are numerous and ranging in the degree to which riding naked is required. They ride, as per the literature, "to promote cycling advocacy," "to raise awareness about fuel consumption and environmental impact of the car culture," "to promote positive body image," "to promote economic sustainability as a way of life and a corporate responsibility" and "because riding naked is fun!"

"This is why I'm doing this," says Greer, conspicuously taking the floor. "Community building like this is really, really important. I don't know if my opinions are right, but I have a feeling that tells me what to do to make it happen. It's important in cities, especially when people walk and ride by each other every day and never say 'hi,' — I've been riding up to people and talking up the ride and people just get freaked out — to build a community that understands itself."

But why?Greer chimes in with something toward the end of his declaration that makes as much sense as anything else. The cycling community is full of subcultures. There are the lycra-clad louts and their $5,000 bikes. There are the messengers and their fixies. There are the punks. The hipsters. There are the retirees on their springy-seated cruisers. "We too often hide behind subcultures and posturing," says Greer. "There's a link between nakedness and not pretending to each other."

As the ride dateapproaches, the facilitators (some of whom count me as a facilitator, as well) stressthat the biggest things they need are volunteers, business support and riders.

"We need people volunteering not to make it bigger, but to make it better," says Greer. "And we need businesses to say they support us and help in a non-reciprocal way."

What that means is they need riding and non-riding volunteers, and they need riders to commit to doing the thing in the first place. And they need local businesses to display their posters and distribute their fliers.

If you're looking to volunteer, visit phillynakedbikeride.org, e-mail info@phillynakedbikeride.org or find the ride on Facebook.

(bhoward@citypaper.net)