Bright sun, full moon: Naked bike riders roll through Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) --The sun was shining brightly Saturday afternoon in downtown Portland but there was a full moon.

Hundreds of bicyclists ditched all or most of their clothes for the annual Naked Bike Ride, put together this year by another group of activists when the official event was canceled due to a lack of volunteers.

But another group stepped in to keep the tradition going for the 20th straight year in Portland.

Maximo Castro said the global nature of the naked bike ride doesn't belong to anyone but to everyone.

"When the community heard that it was going to be canceled a group of us came together and decided we were going to make it happen because, to us, it isn't another bike ride and it is our right to protest," Castro said.

While some riders began at Colonel Summers Park were there for fun, others rode for the message -- a protest against the dependency on fossil fuels.

Organizers say this protest is an effort to “protect residents, The Columbia Gorge and hundreds of miles of fragile environments.” It also seeks “greater protection for the workers, union members, engineers and freight workers who would be the first impacted by an accident.”

"It's just a great way to spend the day doing something you're not typically going to be doing and you meet a lot of people who are out having fun," rider Zephyr Griffin told KOIN 6 News.

One of the other elements of the ride is to promote biker-driver safety by making themselves ultra-visible as a way to combat deadly crashes with cars.

Griffin said he was hit by a car three months ago while riding his bike. His ride to Colonel Summers Park for the Naked Bike Ride was his first time back on the bike.

Griffin's tip for drivers: "Don't roll through stop signs."

Crowds gathered around 3:30 p.m. and the ride itself began at 4:15 p.m. taking bikers from the park across the river and onto Naito Parkway, then onto the Morrison Bridge for a return to Colonel Summers Park.

The event kicked off in the city in 2004 and is one of the world’s largest naked bike rides — drawing in 10,000 participants in 2019.