Ride Naked, Las Vegas!

Everybody has a body, born nude and soon thereafter wrapped in shame for its naked existence. Everybody has to be able to get around in a city packed with cars leaving room for few other options. Its time to take back our bodies and our streets. Its time for the 2nd annual Las Vegas World Naked Bike Ride!

This is a global event held to fight body shaming, patriarchy and the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. The ride is "As Bare As You Dare" so wear as much or little clothing as you desire on your bicycles, skateboards, or any other form of human-powered transportation to celebrate human-powered locomotion.

Due to the Las Vegas heat, the museum will be hosting indoor activities including a craft tables, body painting, and more, beginning at 6, with the actual bike ride starting at 9 pm.

 

Crank and Grind has agreed to support riders before and during the WNBR. Minor bike repairs will be provided for by donation. Bad Ass Coffee and Hot Diggity Dog will keeping the riders fueled and ready for action and free water will be available to everyone.

ReBAR is hosting the official Las Vegas WNBR afterparty (pasties required) and will be giving a free beer to anyone on the ride. Bike Smut is providing technical support and coordinating entertainment, including a set by Fans of Jimmy Century as well as some special guest appearances and a yes, we even have a pool to cool off after the hot ride.

"For the second year in a row, The Erotic Heritage Museum is supporting the Las Vegas World Naked Bike Ride," said museum Director, Dr Victoria Hartmann. "As a longtime Las Vegas institution, part of our mission is to advocate for sex positive culture. It's ironic that one of the most sexualized cities in the U.S.-Las Vegas-criminalizes non-sexual nudity. We hope to bring attention to these hypocrisies and help to change the laws in Clark County, bringing them in line with other cities like Chicago, Portland, and New York. We believe nudity as a form of protest should be a 1st amendment issue and thus a form of protected free speech."

Dr. Victoria Hartmann

Naked rides have existed a long time. The origin of the wheel is not exactly known but its safe to say that someone was naked on a wheel shortly after the wheel was invented. 5 thousand years later organized rides are common in select places such as Seattle´s Freemont Festival. Then in 2004 Conrad Schmidt asked friends to organize bikers and nudists across the world into what was officially named the World Naked Bike Ride. 13-years later hundreds of rides happen every year, some with only a handful of riders others with more than 10,0000 riders.

The WNBR is a protest against oil dependency and a celebration of body positivity. For years bikers have struggled to be recognized on the road. All too frequently the simple defense of ¨I didn´t see em¨ was enough to relieve an innatentive motorist of any culpability. Thankfully, the WNBR has a simple solution: RIDE NAKED & BE SEEN. If being naked is necessary to be safe on a bike then we are morally obligated to bike in the buff as much as possible.

¨The bike is the unabashed vehicle of the revolution. By cycling naked we declare our confidence in the beauty and individuality of our bodies and the bicycles’s place as a catalyst for change in the future of sustainability, transport, community and recreation.¨-  pdxwnbr.org

For more details visit the Erotic Heritage Museum

http://www.eroticmuseumvegas.com/ 
or call Call 702 794 4000
--

Special thanks to Glitterguts who took these pre-ride photos of this year's World Naked Bike Ride in Chicago! 

World Naked Bike Ride, Las Vegas, Baby!

Its naked bike ride season! Get your bewbs and your butts and your bodies ready to ride!

We have been covering and uncovering the World Naked Bike Ride since our inception in 2007. The future of Bike Smut is still unknown but we are confident the ideals inherent to biking naked will carry on!

This weekend for the first time ever the denizens of the City of Sin are encouraged to bare their bodies to the reality of modern living which include (but are not limited to):

• Shame and ridicule for having bodies that are not up to Hollywood standards
• Exposure to auto emissions
• Sunburns
• Traffic
• Seeing others naked bodies
• Others seeing your naked body
• Fun times

Its an odd thing but when enough people gather together to do something that would normally be dangerous or even off-putting, it suddenly becomes acceptable... even patriotic! Such is the nature of  community standards. If the community decides that it doesn’t find nudity offensive then its not offensive. Shall we just blindly inherent our sense of morals from our fore-bearers, who inherited theirs from some stuffy Victorian sense of puritanical propriety? NAY! We must proudly examine our taboos with great trepidation (and a pinch of zeal) so as to avoid continuing lame traditions that at best may have suited a community for its time but were never meant to be carried on so long and at worse should never have been considered in the first place.



The Erotic Museum has made a pledge to help protect our individual right to explore sexuality freely and without shame or coercion. So the "Bare As You Dare" idea of the World Naked Bike Ride fits in perfectly. This idea has not escaped our local media. Rosalie Spear of the Las Vegas Weekly made it their front page story this week:

In our society, the human body is highly sexualized, and its public baring is usually deemed a criminal offense.  The World Naked Bike Ride already occurs annually in more than 75 cities in over 20 countries. This peaceful political protest celebrates our natural form in a non-sexual manner while calling attention to the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. Riding nude suggests a dichotomy, between being vulnerable yet empowered.

That may be the most concise, intellectual way that idea has been expressed. Take a moment to imagine being a driver in a car and seeing many naked bikers. You likely would give them more room because, "I don't want to hit them, they are naked!" Yet you could pass every other biker without a second thought about their safety. As if clothes offered sufficient protection. A case study showed that drivers passed closer to cyclists wearing bike helmets, presumably because they were less concerned about hitting them so it stands to reason naked bikers would be even safer!

Moreover, Las Vegas may be the most difficult place to bike in North America. Having traveled across much of the country we can say with certainty that there are aspects that are absolutely brutal. Most major roads feel more like highways with more active traffic entering and exiting from all the businesses. They both often have 3,  4 or more lanes of travel and lights that are timed for travel at speeds that are near impossible for bikers to maintain. The neighborhood streets in between major arteries often result in dead ends leaving the unwary biker right where they started, only more dehydrated as the endless asphalt keeps the desert heat long into the night. This compounded with half the population visiting from elsewhere, being encouraged to drink and gamble all day and night with the comfort that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

YIKES!

Though all this we find a way. Like many bikers in other cities we learn techniques for mitigating risk. We ride in packs when possible. We learn safer routes and times but there are still a lot of people on the margins. People who haven't been riding long, or haven't thought to look for a different route. By building a stronger community we make it possible for us to organize and improve the conditions for everyone.


This is actually really important because this joyous parade is protected part of our freedom of expression. The people have the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Say it proud what you think, or better yet, show up early and write your ideas on your skin. You know loads of people will be reading your thoughts (as long as its not too wordy).

This is a WORLD naked bike ride. It happens in dozens of places all over the world. We can help each other by letting people know where to join a naked ride in

 Portland,


Chicago,

Vancouver,

Mexico City,




London,


If you would like to host a ride of your own you can start it by adding your location to this ever expanding list of rides.

While at the museum ask to ride the world's largest sex bike 

Its no wonder that the WNBR and Bike Smut are such good friends. It is only with the autonomy of our own bodies independence that we can feel free to explore freely (or conversely, give up that freedom to a trusted dominant partner).

Its your body! Its your life! Expose it as you will without the burden of patriarchal norms that should have been phased out more than a century ago. Bring a friend and join us as we take to the streets in Las Vegas' First ever World Naked Bike Ride!

Saturday, June 11th
Erotic Museum
3275 Sammy Davis Jr Drive
6PM  Free food, Free beverages, vendors, bike mechanics, tabling, body painting and live DJ!
8PM  RIDE!

Please register here so we have enough goodies for everyone!