For many dedicated cyclists, "riding naked" is a euphemism for leaving all the gadgets -- speedometers, watt meters, GPS devices, etc. -- at home and just enjoying the ride. Not so for twenty-one year-old Portland, Oregon resident Bobby Hammond who was arrested one evening last June for spinning through his neighborhood au naturel.
Rather than throwing the proverbial book at Hammond, Multnomah County judge Jerome LaBarre last week recognized the display as "protected expression." The judge went on to say that it's "well-known since Lady Godiva that the shock value of nudity can be a very important protest."
Hammond, unfortunately, is a less-than-articulate advocate for transportation change, as became painfully obvious in his recent interview on NPR. He's definitely pro-bike, anti-car, and in favor of "acting like a dork."
His isolated stunt is child's play compared to the global outreach of events like the World Naked Bike Ride. In Portland alone, 1200 cyclists shed their lycra to make a rolling statement through the streets.
From the World Naked Bike Ride website:
We face automobile traffic with our naked bodies as the best way of defending our dignity and exposing the unique dangers faced by cyclists and pedestrians as well as the negative consequences we all face due to dependence on oil, and other forms of non-renewable energy.
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