BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

This month's ride is Thursday, June 27

Rain or shine?

Yes rain or shine

Ahhh! What to do? What to do? 8pm has a 0% chance of rain and 9pm has a 50% chance of rain that dwindles through the night.

J.Str. wrote:Ahhh! What to do? What to do? 8pm has a 0% chance of rain and 9pm has a 50% chance of rain that dwindles through the night.

Do you care in underwear? :)

Touche. I'll probably be there. Would be nice to put faces and names to some of yous.

Well, I am not going to be there. I am going to try to get to EDS meeting.

@Mikhail, I plan on doing both. I was only going to stay at the meeting until 7:30 or so, then head to L'ville.

the ride meets @ 8:30, leaves @9, the weather will be cloudy, but stable & dry. whooo hoooo

Here is a picture posted on Facebook (I didn't take it) for those who don't use FB

Soooo glad I went! Fun times!

We watched you ride through downtown. It was great fun. It seemed like the line of riders went on for a long time, but that FB photo really shows the size of the turnout. Very neat!

Anyone know if there is a ride this month? It's been real hot riding in clothes lately....

Marko82 wrote:Anyone know if there is a ride this month? It’s been real hot riding in clothes lately….

from FB Description Thursday - July 18th @ 9:00pm Meet at the corner of 46th and Butler around 8:30pm and plan to start the ride around 9pm. The ride will be ending at OTB. The underwear bike ride is about having fun and promoting a positive self body image while demonstrating responsible road sharing. Underwear, lights, and helmets are encouraged!

Thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydL0zo1dIPs

After the Underwear Bike Ride, 5/29/2014. The crowd outside of OTB. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUveu-x0Lzs

This is tonight, too.

I guess there is some automatic or maybe genetic sense that I am missing that _everyone_ should know where "OTB" is? Too bad my bike was stolen yesterday.

Sorry, Pittsburghers are always falling into directional "shortcuts." Two you should know: OTB is "Over The Bar" a bicycle themed restaurant/bar on the South Side. It is on Carson Street at about 27th Street. You'll know it by the bikes that are outside practically every moment that it is open. (Try their burgers, or their seitan. Both are delicious. Dippy is the meeting location for many group rides. Dippy is the dinosaur (statue) that graces the entrance to the Carnegie Museums/Library in Oakland. Located across Forbes Avenue from the Cathedral of Learning on the U Pitt campus.

Great ride last night! I think we had over two hundred riders with a 60/40 gender split. Minority riders were few, but more than we've had in the past so hopefully this continues to trend upward. Does anyone have any good video or pics?

OTB is also easily identified by its having a bike corral out front. On the gender split on last night's ride: I'd put it at 64% male, 35% female, 1% other. On videos and pics: There are a few up on Facebook, but I haven't tried to track any independent sets on Instagram, YouTube, or the like.

question: why is the "split" a necessary statistic for this ride?

I don't think it's come across as "necessary," just as an observation.

*giggling* I was mainly putting that out there for the "other" category. Define that as you like.

I mean no disrespect, but most of the group rides I go on are dominated by white guys. We've had many discussions on this board on what we need to do as a community to get more women and minorities involved; so when I see increased women/minorities I tend to comment on it. The first few undie rides were mostly male - what caused the change? Is it facebook? Time of ride? Fun factor?

yeah - observation, but still -why? This might be just very personal to me, but it just bothers me the distinctions -that's all. The ride is for people to go out and enjoy a bike ride with a bunch of people with less clothing on; it is about having fun and promoting a positive self body image. However, when people start breaking the gender/race, or when I hear people making comments about "yeah, there were some good looking bodies", etc... I don't know, it just cheapens the experience for me and it creeps me out. Maybe my approach to it is very philosophical about it, plus don't want to feel like an statistic.

^Fair enough. I'll try and refrain from commenting on splits for this ride in the future.

I think it's a matter of intent, being "the underwear ride" by nature, complicates things. I think you are reading into it too much bikeygirl, although your point is certainly noted. If the underwear ride is attracting 200 riders, then it would appear to be Pittsburgh's biggest regular ride. What better time to gauge ridership in the city? The gender split tends to be a common topic with any ride, not just one of this nature... as group rides in general tend to be more of a boys-club in many places. The same discussion, coming from a stranger may have raised an eyebrow from me too... but we know that Stu and Marko are more interested in the statistical analysis than who looks best on a bike with minimal amounts of clothing. Kudos to all participants, personally, it's not my thing.

OTB is right across the street from the old J&L mill.

I think it is important to mention gender split for the same reasons as above. It is good to see more women coming out for rides in general. Because the point of the ride is to promote positive self body image, I like seeing more women out and about.

It is way interesting that this is the most popular regularly scheduled ride in Pgh - and my interpretation of that is, this was a truly grass-roots activity prompted by a well-understood, local good cause (fund-raising for an injured cyclist) organized by a small group of friends. (I think there's a Margaret Mead quote along those lines) My takeaway is that the most popular ride (MPR) is organic and non-institutional and that's just intriguing to me. My compliments to all involved; can't quite bring myself to do it personally, which is much more about me than anything else. It does seem delightfully incongruous with the Burgh 1.0 image, all the better.

Not to beat this too hard, but if I had this info (locations etc) in time I might have attended. I found my ebike too late etc anyway. Maybe try next time. comment on the percentages thread I'm a member of an overwhelmingly white male hobby, Ham Radio. We're gaing ground and I personally do everything I can do to encourage every one, reguardless. But I don't see an issue with comments in the context of 'we need to recruit more x or y' or even 'other' I think that a bikini can be accepted as underware for the purposes of this event.

n3glv, add https://www.facebook.com/PghUnderwearBikeRide on facebook. also the ride always meets at 46th & Butler in Lawrenceville starting around 8-8:30pm for the 9pm ride. It's pretty easy to spot.

"can’t quite bring myself to do it personally" Well, they do say it's about promoting a positive body self-image... Wear a mask. If you rip it off half-way it's a win!

If you would go to a public swimming pool, this really isn't any different.

I have not personally done the underwear ride, so this is outsider observation, based on having witnessed the ride a couple of times from downtown/Strip District locations. 1. There is skin shown, but folks are pretty creative in their clothing choices. I can't say what the close up, off the bike view is, but as these folks ride down the street en masse, in the dark, it is almost hard to tell they are in their underwear. Ok, except for the guy in the thong last ride. 2. There are all sorts of body types on all kinds of bikes. 3. The reference to gender split (I think) has to do with the general understanding among readers of this board that women are an "indicator species" when it comes to urban biking. The higher the percentage of women, the healthier the local cycling scene. We report gender in our on street bike counts, other group rides, etc. 4. For this ride, reference to gender split might have unintended consequences, and perhaps is best avoided. Kudos to all those who do ride. It is a LOT of fun to see you all ride past!

Honestly, @Stu, with the exception of the moment when I jump into the water itself, I'd probably be wearing clothes at the public pool as well. I, personally, just don't like walking around without clothes on... it's not even a comfort-about-body-image thing so much as a comfort-in-general sort of thing. I'm the type of person that will wear a hoodie and jeans into the low 90's. It's like a safety blanket of sorts. I'll sleep with a sheet no matter how hot, I just don't like skin exposed.

@swalfoort is right on the money about counting. To each his own, I guess. I don't consider myself a nudist, though full nudity doesn't bother me, any more than seeing a bunch of men in bridesmaid dresses, and I've ridden in public in both conditions. Were it mine to do, I would repeal the nudity laws, just on principle. And anyway, I think the existing law already allows female topfreedom, though nobody who's tried it has gotten away with it. Disclaimer: IANAL. I've ceased to be much interested in people watching of either gender. Happens when you get to your mid-50s, I guess. Perhaps a mild eyebrow raise, followed by a "yeah so what". It's less a matter of propriety, and more a screw-the-prudes sort of thought, i.e., What the F does anyone care that I'm in my undies, a minimal thong, a maternity dress, a tux, a tweed suit, or my birthday suit? It's nobody's damned business what I have on display, be it skin or cloth. Beyond that, it's all that variation in human shapes, of either gender. Gaunt, svelte, muscular, pudgy, obese, tall, short, tanned, no-tan-lined ... none of it matters, really, and the more variation you see at one time, the less that any of it matters. I for one am happy as hell to see this ride taking off so much. I only hope its success does not become its downfall. And fwiw, I'm going to miss the July ride because of a prior commitment.

@Stu: Some thoughts: 1) Nudity (as opposed to nakedness) is just fine. As near as I can tell your skin seems to prefer it. Visit White Thorn to confirm. 2) A long-ago friend, a connoisseur of the naked form, once said to me "You know, most people shouldn't be nudists". I understood his point, but I didn't quite agree. 3) Watching people is fun, though for the most part they tend to be more interesting when they wear clothes they've chosen to flatter them in some interesting way. And then there's what they say, which potentially will flatter them even more. (Caveat: it depends on your tastes.)

For the record, I'd rather ride around in a bridesmaid dress than in my underwear... LOL