Naked Bike Ride 2008

[crispus]

Okay, here's a bunch of the ones from that set, as big as I can make them per notes above.

[crispus]

... some more.

[Pedro the Fisherman]

Fremont's bodypainting session has moved indoors this year, so I won't be able to cover it.

Damn, your best ever shots were of that, I just hope some of the participants will help us out. What about the gathering in the park afterwards? I have seen some great shots from there?

Thanks for getting those Chicago pics guys, I can do the old 'b' for 'm' trick, but those had me stumped!

[P2003]

Holy shit these are amazing. I would practically KILL for pics of the girl with the musical note on her big bush - without the musical note on her big bush. I'm in love.

[Pedro the Fisherman]

Time for a little post event de-brief...

The London pics are now drying up (after about 900 of them) and several things are quite noticiable.

The Flikr postings concentrating on women are down about 50% from last year and those on men up about 50%. Is this a direct effect of the restrictions on taking photos in the bodypainting area (brought in after some complaints of intrusive cameras in 07) or the fact that there were less women this year, or even the possibility that the ride has become a big 'gay fest' event?

A prominent rider from 2007, Erica Bower (Naturegirl) has posted a load of shots from the 2008 ride, which proves she was there, but I have seen nothing of her on the Flikr pictures. In the groups of men that fill this years ride, other naked girls can be seen (very much in the background), but those quality photos of girls on the web seem to concentrate on the same few ladies, time and time again, I wonder why?

I also know that on a big event (London was the only UK ride that did not grow by about 50% this year, but stayed the same at between 1000 and 1500 riders) you can miss things. On the Brighton ride pics I see fully naked women that I did not see on the day and I feature myself only on the odd occasional photo. So, if anybody actually witnesssed the ride London, do the photos give a true picture?

Having rambled on, here is my favorite sort of photo, the first taken at the start, the second at the finish......did you you lose something miss?

[swat4]

Not mine.

[Klondike]

Originally Posted by Pedro the Fisherman

Damn, your best ever shots were of that, I just hope some of the participants will help us out. What about the gathering in the park afterwards? I have seen some great shots from there?

I'm not surprised they moved it back indoors. It was flickr pics of this from 2006 that first alerted me, and probably others, to the outdoor pre-ride bodypainting session. But they have never been completely comfortable with photogs there nor with the idea of holding it outside.

There should still be nudes in the park, but I don't want to get a lot of hopes up. I have commitments on Sunday and its going to have to be "in and out" for me this year. With the weather forecast not too good and me having some transportation issues, too - lets just say - I'll try..

Your comments about the London ride are noteworthy. The same number of photogs + fewer women would translate to more pics of men.

Good thing we had a fantastic output from Chicago to help pick up the slack.

Klondike

[swat4]

Still not mine.

[flanker7]

Originally Posted by stevin6

I'm a bit curious about the amount of riders in the Chicago ride, because someone in a Dutch WNBR group posted the following message:

The fifth annual Chicago World Naked Bike Ride on Saturday June 14th 2008
was an overwhelming success, with an official participant count of 1700


I don't know what to believe right now, and if there were 1700 participants, there must be much more pics (coming out) even biggerones.

From the offical WNBR site:

The fifth annual Chicago World Naked Bike Ride on Saturday June 14th 2008 was an overwhelming success, with an official participant count of 1700!

This count was calculated using a stationary elevated video record of the entire mass from head to toe passing a fixed point early in the ride, counted using slow-motion, repeated four times and averaged. The video was taken at the North East corner of Washington and Racine as mass left a traffic signal, using a crosswalk line as count point. Point was about 1.5 miles into ride from gathering area, about .5 miles from Union Park check-in point. Mass there averaged a dozen deep, passing about ten a second. Margin of error could be high, but certainly over 100 more joined the ride well after the count (many intentionally merging at the half-way viewing point) making 1700 a safe figure.

Others may review the count using the reference video on our photos page. Several preliminary photo albums, route map, and more are also there.

Cheers to everyone for their tremendous courage! I'd guess that over 90% were in briefs or less (and paint), and 5-10% of those were nude or bare-breasted despite risk, with gender mix not far from even. The mass included a marching-type band and several large music systems, over a dozen inline skaters, several skate boarders, many art bikes, and a rear-guard of trailers. As usual, participants have trouble describing the experience, with even gushing words like magical, miraculous, incredible, unbelievable, transcendent, and "best time of my life" barely sufficing.

Route covered about 14+ miles, and for our first time a text messaging group was used to broadcast our progress live. The throng of fans at viewing point (Belmont and Halsted) was exceedingly thick (compressing and lengthening the mass) and we arrived there fashionably late. Some 24,000 informational handouts were distributed en-route. Accidents, flats, and altercations with cars were few.

Huge kudos to the volunteers and coordinators who gave outstanding performance and dedication under pressure. Body painting capacity was more than doubled, and additional activities and more snacks and water were added. Also for the first time we rented porta-potties, and had a large after-party.

1700 nearly triples Chicago's 2007 turnout, and I would presume sets another US record. This year we intentionally under-publicized, to save on printing and distribution, to throttle growth and filter for earnest and repeat participants, and to focus on safety instead of growth. In modesty, Chicago's WNBR benefits greatly from sheer population, an active bike culture and clubs, 10 years of Critical Mass, bike friendly city government, good weather on ride day, and especially being a night ride.

ANYONE WITH PRESS clippings or TV NEWS captures of the Chicago ride PLEASE retain and reply. Don't assume we already have it. I'm told I was on TV again this year, but have yet to see it.

Finally but foremost, boundless sincere gratitude goes to mayor Richard M Daley and to the Chicago Police for their acceptance and facilitation of this ride. This and other massive local rides tangibly show Chicago's ongoing commitment to being a notably bike-friendly U.S. city

[flanker7]

Originally Posted by phaserboss2003

Holy shit these are amazing. I would practically KILL for pics of the girl with the musical note on her big bush - without the musical note on her big bush. I'm in love.

No unpainted bush pics, but unpainted nips are better than nothing. You've probably seen these already but just in case.