Pedestrians Want to Infiltrate World Naked Bike Ride

Bikers tell naked pedestrians to take a hike

​Pedestrians and cyclists stripping down and getting naked together? Now that sounds like a party to join. Or maybe it's the grossest-sounding idea ever. Regardless of what you think, that's exactly what San Francisco pedestrians want to do this weekend -- home in on the action at the World Naked Bike Ride.

But if previous pedestrian interloping at this event has proved anything, it is that walkers can't keep up. They'll be abandoned, only to wander the city pointlessly in the buff and left to decide if and when to give up and get dressed.
A recent discussion on the World Naked Bike Ride San Francisco message board pointed out what might happen to these nudists on foot.

"If there are a few that are bold enough to walk, I'd be open to that. Hopefully, the police wouldn't mind," Dan Houston says in one post.

But another poster, Rusty Mills -- which is also the name of the Castro-loitering nudist profiled by SF Weekly -- noted that trying to keep up with naked riders doesn't lend itself to a festive event.

According to Mills:

"In 2006, I tried it myself. But the bicyclists were too fast, and I was left behind within one block. I decided to walk down Market Street anyway ... naked."

Undeterred, he and some friends tried walking with the naked cyclists again in 2008.

"We had several encounters with the police, who were willfully ignorant of the law they were trying to enforce, but there were no serious consequences. We just debated the law with them, put on a cover-up until they went away, then proceeded with our walk."

Who knows? Maybe someday, nude walkers and bare-skinned bikers will popularize the hobby. If that happens, expect to continue seeing many lost pedestrians wandering about in their birthday suits, traversing backroads after being stranded by riders on events.

Or perhaps these pedestrians will come to understand that bike rides aren't for walking.

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