Naked Bike Ride

Every June, there's a large naked bike ride in Portland associated with Pedalpalooza (basically bike month).  Naked bike ride was this last Saturday.  Since the naked bikers don't typically stop for red lights/stop signs, and since everyone who isn't naked/on a bike is usually stunned on the sidewalk staring at passing genitalia, the city essentially shuts down.

I'm all for expressing yourself/furthering public education regarding how bike-friendly Portland is, but I wonder if my complete lack of desire to participate in the naked bike ride really differentiates me from the rest of the Portlandians as much as I thought it did.

I first encountered naked bike ride last year when I was trying to drive home from work and got stuck at an intersection while the flesh parade passed.  I still wasn't entirely on the Portland bandwagon at that point, and wrote the bikers off with the bad drivers as yet another excuse to move back to California.

However, earlier this year, I fully converted to enjoying Portland and almost everything it has to offer.  A handful of my coworkers participated in this year's NBR, and unlike last year, I knew it was coming and was able to decide whether or not I was going to participate.  But naked bike riding still doesn't sound fun to me.  First of all, I don't think I could do that to my poor bike (that I bought used).  Second, I'm cold all the time.  I don't think riding a bike around Portland at night with clothes on sounds fun, why add the coldness factor?  Especially when you get to the end and you have no clothes.  That's a LOT of time spent freezing.  Third, the bike ride is pretty dangerous.  Drunk people on bikes/skateboards/rollerblades flying down hills = can't end well.

After mulling over all the reasons not to participate in Pedalpalooza, I wondered if I was too hardened for Portland.  Why don't I want to participate in the utopian summer naked bike ride?  (Well, I know why.  See: above)  But then I realized, only 1000 people do naked bike ride.  AND there are non-nude events associated with Pedalpalooza, with fewer participants and more clothing, like the never-nude ride...  So, maybe next year.