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b'PORTLAND, OR - Oregonian\'s Steve Woodward has hopped aboard today with multi-media coverage
\\nof the WNBR. He\'s reporting 800 riders.
\\n
\\nVIDEO
\\nSTORY LINK
\\n
\\nRiding cheek to cheek Not for naught nor for naughtiness do 800 cyclists
\\npedal naked, but rather to do the globe some good
\\n
\\nTuesday, June 12, 2007
\\nSTEVE WOODWARD
\\nNaked was the fashion Saturday night, and bikes were the luxury vehicle of
\\nchoice.
\\nAbout midnight, with only the glow of streetlights draping them, an
\\nestimated 800 men and women pedaled madly across the Hawthorne Bridge into
\\ndowntown Portland, up Northwest 23rd Avenue, down West Burnside and back
\\ninto Southeast Portland in what has become an annual Portland tradition: the
\\nWorld Naked Bike Ride.
\\nWhooping and honking bicycle horns, the riders drew waves, cheers, laughter,
\\ncamera flashes and favorable comparisons to Portland\'s "other" parade that
\\nvery morning. Gawkers abandoned drinks and poured out of bars. Teenagers
\\nleaned out of a white stretch limousine to offer riders high-fives.
\\nAccording to reports from bikers, some spectators even joined the ragtag
\\nparade, shedding clothes and hopping on their own bikes.
\\nWhat\'s the occasion? The bare facts: Since 2004, Portland-area bicyclists
\\nhave participated in a global event in which riders showing more skin than
\\nnot ride in public to protest oil dependency. Their nakedness demonstrates
\\nbicyclists\' vulnerability to cars.
\\nLast year, the Portland event drew about 500 "naked" bikers, the largest
\\nsuch ride in North America, according to organizers.
\\n"Portland is just a very great place," Erin Downs, a 17-year-old Northeast
\\nPortland high-school student, said at the warehouse party after the ride.
\\n"I want to be part of Portland," she said, dressed in blue hair, a blue
\\nkerchief and two studded leather belts slung low. "This is the life, blood
\\nand veins of Portland. If I didn\'t show up, how could I be a Portlander?"
\\n"I expected more naked people," said Mick Arrell, a 19-year-old Southeast
\\nPortland man with red, blue and green paint smeared randomly across his
\\nchest and arms.
\\nIt\'s true. Many people stripped only as far as their skivvies.
\\n"I didn\'t strip down at the request of my roommate," explained Jimmy
\\nSchmierbach, 25, of Northeast Portland. "She said she didn\'t want to look at
\\nmy junk."
\\n
\\nHis roommate returned the favor, riding in her bra and panties.
\\nAlthough she was wearing frilly orange underwear with blue trim when
\\ninterviewed, April ("like the month") Wiza said she was less modest during
\\nthe ride.
\\n"All the good parts were showing," said the 27-year-old Southeast Portland
\\nresident.
\\n
\\nWiza also displayed a poetic message for anyone behind her: "LESS GAS MORE
\\n(rhymes with \'gas\')." The hand-painted message included an arrow pointing
\\nreaders to her (rhymes with "gas").
\\n
\\nOn the blocked-off street outside the Organics To You warehouse party after
\\nthe ride, several men had added ties to their birthday suits. One woman wore
\\nnothing on her chest but a red Superman logo. "Green power," declared a
\\nman\'s back. One woman dressed provocatively in cheap black lingerie -- cheap
\\nbecause it was painted on.
\\n
\\nUnlike many riders, friends Eric Miller, Kyle Kelley and Robin Jackson were
\\nfully dressed in something other than facial hair: Miller in natty beret;
\\nKelley in full-on pink-and-maroon ensemble, complete with pink, feathered
\\nskateboarder\'s helmet; and Jackson in black fedora, dark pinstripes and
\\nred-and-white checkered vest.
\\n
\\nMiller launched his ride with a figurative fig leaf or two to preserve his
\\nmodesty.
\\n
\\n"I started out not all the way," Miller said, "but I was feeling it." And,
\\napparently, if one is feeling it, there\'s naught to do but shed the remains
\\nof one\'s modesty -- even in the middle of the Hawthorne Bridge.
\\n
\\n"It\'s nice to let go," said Jackson, an erstwhile Naked Bike Rider and a
\\nmember, with Miller, of Portland\'s Marchfourth Marching Band.
\\n
\\nActually, Jackson was dressed during the ride, too.
\\n
\\n"I was hanging out with my parents," he said sheepishly.
\\n
\\nSteve Woodward: 503-294-5134; stevewoodward@ news.oregonian.com'