English Rewind - Weekender: Naked bike ride 🚲

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Hello, I'm Jackie Dalton and you're listening to Weekender

with BBC Learning English dot com.

Do you enjoy cycling, taking your bike out and getting some exercise or fresh air?

What about cycling with absolutely no clothes on?

Well, I've never tried it myself,

but hundreds of people all over the world have, and they think it's lots of fun.

This weekend, the World Naked Bike Ride takes place.

People in cities from Vancouver to London

will be getting out their bicycles and taking off their clothes.

The question is: why?

Conrad Schmidt is the man who's linking up

cyclist groups from around the world for this event.

He spoke to me over the telephone from Vancouver

and he's going to give us some answers.

What reasons does he give for the naked bike ride?

It's about getting a message out there that cycling is good for people

and it's good for the planet and that if we're going to be sustainable,

we've got to think about other things besides car culture

and just making a happier, healthier planet.

Well, Conrad said cycling is good for people and good for the planet.

He uses the word 'sustainable' —

a word we often hear in connection with the environment.

It means 'to do things without causing damage to the environment'.

A nice phrase he also used was 'getting the message out there',

which means 'making sure people know',

or you could also say 'making people more aware' —

'aware' — a word that Conrad will use next when talking about climate change.

Listen out for it.

I know that people in London are very aware of global warming,

but, believe it or not, in North America,

there are still a lot of people that don't even believe it's real.

There's a whole lot of different levels of awareness around the world.

So, the naked cyclists want to raise awareness.

But why do they have to take their clothes off?

Couldn't they just do a big bike ride with their clothes on?

What reasons does Conrad give?

Well, OK, to be really honest, it's just a lot of fun!

But it's also there to symbolise how frail the human body is compared to a car

and the whole idea of simplicity and also a nice challenge.

There's something kind of empowering about riding your bike naked.

The whole world tells you, and it's always got these rules —

don't do this, don't do this and one of the silly rules in this world

is that somehow nudity is really, really dangerous, which it just isn't.

Conrad said the nakedness was symbolic.

The idea is to show how 'frail', or how weak, the human body is

compared to cars and the idea of simplicity.

He said there's something 'empowering' about riding your bike naked,

'empowering', meaning it makes you feel good and strong.

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Aurora is from the United States.

She decided to link up with other groups

and organise an annual naked bike ride in Chicago.

What kind of message does she want to get out there?

Just basically saying we can have fun for free.

And we can bring into question all of these kind of consumerist habits.

Aurora used the phrase 'bring into question', which means 'to challenge'.

She talked about bringing into question 'consumerism' —

consumerism, the idea that it's good to spend money on products or services

and own lots of expensive things.

So, what was it like organising a naked cycling day for the first time?

What did Aurora's friends think? Listen to find out.

Nobody believed me that it was gonna happen, not even my friends,

they thought it was ridiculous.

But then everyone managed to show up

and I think they thought no-one was really gonna be naked.

But then we all just dashed our clothes away

and I think it was very liberating for a lot of people

and the mood was very joyful.

Everyone just seemed so happy to be there.

So, no-one believed it was going to happen at first,

but when it did, it was 'liberating' — liberating.

We heard the word 'empowering' before, meaning 'to make you feel good and strong'.

'Liberating' means 'to make you feel free and happy'.

So, that's what the cyclists thought.

What about everyone else?

What about ordinary people on the streets and the media coverage'?

'Media coverage', the way the media reacted to the event.

Was there a good reaction?

The response was overwhelmingly positive.

The media coverage was very positive.

Everyone on the streets just cheered and screamed and applauded.

Aurora says there was a good reaction — 'overwhelmingly positive' —

very positive, including the media coverage.

That's all for Weekender. I don't know what you'll be doing this weekend,

but you could always get your bicycle out and go for a ride.

Whether you would dare to do it without any clothes on though, is another matter.

BBC Learning English dot com.