wnbr schedule 2026

The UK's World Naked Bike Ride season kicks off in 3 weeks time with the Manchester ride, so I'll compile some relevant info here. I typically get the tip-offs from this page but don't find its alphabetical order very helpful, so I am sorting everything in chronological order, as long as it can be reached from Oxford in a day trip using public transport (also including some rides abroad in places where I might be passing through by coincidence). No guarantee, obviously, do check other sources and local info.

As time passes and rides happen, I'll update the list with links to photos, press reports, and whatever I find about them.

12.6. Manchester

14.6. London - flickr group

20.6. Chelmsford (I usually don't include the Essex rides but I just noticed that this one is not too far out from London), Brussels

28.6. Cardiff

4.7. Edinburgh,

11.7. Amsterdam; Clacton - special mention because it happens to fall into the campaign for the byelection featuring Count Binface against that joker.

18.7. Cambridge

9.8. Cardiff second ride; Berlin - wow, that's a surprising comeback, details here.

15.8. Bristol - see Mark Gilbert's album on flickr. Looks like 40 riders, which is a bit disappointing compared to the Bristol rides of 2015-17.

12.9. Brighton (moved from original date 13.6.)

Own photo taken at the 2024 London WNBR as the ride passed the Victoria Memorial shortly before reaching the endpoint at Wellington Arch. .

My list of the 12 rides I participated in:

2015 Bristol (I'm here)
2016 Bristol (I'm here), London
2017 Bristol (hey that's me), Brighton
2018 London
2019 London
2023 Oxford, London (hey that's me)
2024 London (I'm here and here and here - look for the green flag)
2025 Bristol. Mark Gilbert's album contains quite a few photos of me (look for the green flag). I'm also here and here and here.
2026 Cardiff

Click on the city to see my specific Flickr album of the ride. All albums are combined in this Flickr collection.

it's the season for naked cycling

The UK's World Naked Bike Ride season kicks off in three weeks time with the Cardiff Ride (aka DiffWNBR), so I'll compile some relevant info here. I typically get the tip-offs from this page but don't find its alphabetical order very helpful, so I am sorting everything in chronological order, as long as it can be reached from Oxford in a day trip using public transport (also including some rides abroad in places where I might be passing through by coincidence). No guarantee, obviously, do check other sources and local info.

As time passes and rides happen, I'll update the list with links to photos, press reports, and whatever I find about them. See also this flickr group covering all 2025 WNBRs globally (in theory - so far I've seen only pics from London and Brussels there).

8.6. Cardiff
14.6. London flickr group
21.6. Brussels - flickr album by Alain VDP
5.7. Brighton - flickr album by trgrimes
6.7. Eastbourne
12.7. Amsterdam
19.7. Portsmouth
27.7. second Cardiff ride
2.8. Cambridge
30.8. Bristol - news story in Bristol 247 - I've uploaded my photos to this flickr album. Mark Gilbert's album contains quite a few photos of me (look for the green flag). I'm also here and here and here.

Own photo taken at the 2024 London WNBR as the ride passed the Victoria Memorial shortly before reaching the endpoint at Wellington Arch. .

My list of rides I participated in:

2015 Bristol (I'm here)
2016 Bristol (I'm here), London
2017 Bristol (hey that's me), Brighton
2018 London
2019 London
2023 Oxford, London (hey that's me)
2024 London (I'm here and here and here - look for the green flag)

Links lead to the specific Flickr albums. All albums are combined in this Flickr collection.

PS Elsewhere, the Fremont Solstice Parade, although not officially a WNBR, appears to have a similar vibe and some spectacular body art. Here's a flickr album with lovely pics from the 2025 event (and another one). I don't know much about it but apparently the ride is just a part of a bigger solstice event happening in Seattle.

it's WNBR season again!

The UK's World Naked Bike Ride season kicks off in two weeks time with the Portsmouth Ride, so I'll compile some relevant info here. I typically get the tip-offs from this page but don't find its alphabetical order very helpful, so I am sorting everything in chronological order, as long as it can be reached from Oxford in a day trip using public transport (also including some rides abroad in places where I might be passing through by coincidence). No guarantee, obviously, do check other sources and local info.

As time passes and rides happen, I'll update the list with links to photos, press reports, and whatever I find about them.

25.5. Portsmouth
2.6. Oxford - the website the ride has been cancelled without explanation, unfortunately.
8.6. London - my photos, more in this Flickr group, see also this album by Dariusz.
9.6. Brighton
15.6. Cambridge; Brussels - photos here and here.
29.6. York
7.7. Bristol
13.7. Amsterdam
14.7. Cardiff
20.7. Portsmouth 2
27.7. Folkestone
3.8. Romford (East London)
24.8. Folkestone 2
25.8. Cardiff 2
September TBC Bristol 2

Own photo taken at last year's London WNBR.

My list of rides I participated in:

2015 Bristol
2016 Bristol, London
2017 Bristol, Brighton
2018 London
2019 London
2023 Oxford, London (hey that's me)
2024 London (I'm here and here and here - look for the green flag)

Links lead to the specific Flickr albums. All albums are combined in this Flickr collection.

it's WNBR season

The UK's World Naked Bike Ride season kicks off this Saturday with the Portsmouth Ride, so I'll compile some relevant info here. I typically get the tip-offs from this page but don't find its alphabetical order very helpful, so I am sorting everything in chronological order, as long as it can be reached from Oxford in a day trip using public transport. As time passes and rides happen, I'll update the list with links to photos, press reports, and whatever I find about them. Updated 3.7.2023

27.5. Portsmouth - haven't seen any pictures yet?
4.6. Oxford - a small ride but perfect weather. My photos are now in this flickr album (most are rated as "moderate" which may mean you have to log in to see them).
10.6. London - it was amazing as always. Perfect weather and I suspect a record number of participants. My gut feeling says it may have been 2000 (1000 would be a normal attendance for the London ride). My flickr album is now complete with 72 photos covering the ride from Regent's Park to Wellington Arch. I also found a photo of me on the ride. These require you to be logged in (although twitter amazingly showed a preview of the latter photo when I shared a link).
11.6. Brighton -
17.6. Cambridge, Bruxelles - some Cambridge pics here; some pics from Brussels here (mostly blokes) here (mostly one woman) The relevant relevant flickr group (all years) is here.
18.6. Bristol - I couldn't attend this time, but here's a press report and here is a huge flickr album by Mark Gilbert
2.7. Hastings
8.7. Cardiff - album by flickr user Dariusz, only started 22.8., am hopeful there will be more!
23.7. Portsmouth (again, after 27.5. looks like they're really planning two rides this summer)
5.8. Romford (East London) - rescheduled to 9.9.
2.9. Coventry (cancelled)

Outside my range, there will be several other rides in Essex and the north of England, check the WNBR Wiki for dates.

own photo, taken at the London WNBR 2019.

Sadly I didn't make it to any of last year's rides, so my list of rides I participated in has a significant gap:

2015 Bristol
2016 Bristol, London
2017 Bristol, Brighton
2018 London
2019 London
2023 Oxford, London

wnbr comeback

World Naked Bike Rides are definitely back to normal this year, as the photos from last weekend's rides at London and Brighton demonstrate (eg here and here). (Some rides may also have happened last year as well, not sure what went ahead and what was cancelled, and in any case I wasn't ready to attend any mass events last summer.) See this blog entry for my pre-Covid WNBR ravings.

So if like me you missed the big rides that have already been and gone (London and Brighton clashed with my travel plans), here's the schedule for the rest of this naked cycling season in the UK and neighbouring countries (once the rides have happened, I'm adding flickr links):

18.6. Edinburgh - Brussels
19.6. Bristol
25.6. Chelmsford
2.7. Portsmouth, Eastbourne - Amsterdam
9.7. Ipswich
16.7. Cardiff, Colchester The DiffWNBR had ideal weather and I was meaning to go, but had committed to play music that day and the timing didn't work. I can't find a flickr group for this one but there are flickr albums here and here.
23.7. Clacton
30.7. Folkestone
6.8. Romford
20.8. Cambridge
27.8. Cork

(I got the dates from here and sorted them chronologically rather than alphabetically, and threw in a few international dates too.)

As the weather forecast looks a bit unpromising this weekend, I'll skip the much-loved Bristol ride. I am speculating that it will be better by the time the Cardiff ride rolls along. In the past, Bristol and Cardiff were often on the same weekend, which is no use, if one has bad weather the other has too, and if not, it's awkward to travel to both. So anyhow, fingers crossed, and here's the lovely poster for Cardiff:

Nicked from their twitter feed. I love their twitter handle @DiffWNBR - it took me years to figure out that they took the Car out of Cardiff. Oh, and the source illustration of their cyclist is here.

Special shoutout for Tony Grimes's amazing album of London 2022, with 200+ pics, many of which are portraits of individual riders. They are also in the group WNBR London 2022.

PS On one ride, I saw a guy who had the dates of his WNBR adventures tattooed on his back (maybe a dozen or so?). I'm not quite as crazy (yet) but here's my modest list of seven rides:

2015 Bristol
2016 Bristol, London
2017 Bristol, Brighton
2018 London
2019 London

I just discovered that Flickr user "Sunny days6" has albums with lots of crowd photos from four of these rides (the London and Brighton ones), so I need to go through and play Where is Wally? Might be tricky to find pics I'm in as I don't even remember what hat I wore on which ride.

At Oxford, there has only been one ride, in 2014, and I only found out about it when it whizzed past me.

I mentioned the WNBRs in my 2016 feature A planet with two billion cars and used one of my photos of the ride - one of the occasions when fun magically turns into research. That two billion figure was an extrapolation made for 2030 - I should probably check up on that some time and write an update. Even if electric vehicles get a lot of press coverage these days, the growth that leads us to two billions will happen in the developing world, and it will comprehensively be fuelled by with diesel.

bare as you dare

I referenced the World Naked Bike Ride in my 2016 feature on A planet with two billion cars, when I called it "possibly the most vocal criticism of car culture today". Since then, thankfully, we have seen a wider spectrum of protests against the continuing dominance of fossil fuels and the vehicles that burn them, including Extinction Rebellion and the school strikes "Fridays for Future".

Still, there's nothing quite like a few hundred naked cyclists to get people's attention for a range of good causes also including cycling safety and body positivity, so it's good to see that the UK rides are still going strong (there are at least 14 happening this year) and Extinction Rebels have joined some of them. In continental Europe, on the other hand, the impetus seems to have ebbed away a bit. In Germany, police and courts have bullied the cyclists into submission to the extent that the one surviving ride in Berlin is now billed as a swimwear ride (Berlin Bikini & Badehose Bicycle Ride), supported by the alternative transport club VCD. The cyclists club ADFC, of which I am a member, seems to be taking the line of ignoring WNBR altogether.

There are around eight other rides surviving in European countries outside the UK - I am still slightly puzzled about why this is a so much bigger phenomenon here than in the rest of Europe.

What has also changed in the last few years is that the last three rides I have been to have encountered far-right demonstrations en route. Am I to conclude that these are now so widespread that you can't cycle around a city on a weekend afternoon without bumping into one? Or are they targeting WNBRs in some way?

At this year's London ride I took this photo of which I am quite proud, which I think of as the WNBR version of Liberty leading the people (complete with an Extinction Rebellion flag):



(this ans 77 other pictures are also in my flickr album)

This year's UK and rest of Europe dates:

1.6. Nottingham
7.6. Manchester - Thessaloniki
8.6. London, Edinburgh, Cardiff - Cork, Madrid
9.6. Bristol, Brighton
15.6. Cambridge - Brussels, Zaragoza
22.6. Chelmsford, York
29.6. Exeter , Folkestone
6.7. Ipswich - Amsterdam
13.7. Colchester
14.7. - Berlin
20.7. Clacton - Helsinki

(see also the global list of rides and check with local organisers)

If you missed one near you, the dates are also a reasonable approximation re. at what time in the season the ride may repeat next year.


Oh and next year's London WNBR (the 17th) has already been announced for Sat 13.6.2020 (TBC). Don't miss.

curb car culture

Open Archive Day


A year ago I published a feature on the trend towards a world with 2 billion motor vehicles, predicted to be reached by 2030 - doubling the number of 2010.

Since then, we have learned more about how much damage Diesel fumes do, and how car manufacturers cheat to get away with toxic emissions, never mind their share of climate change. So, sadly the topic is still very much on the agenda. As far as I can see, there are only two movements opposing the ongoing fossil fuel madness, namely the indigenous land right activists in the Americas who are fighting pipeline project, fracking, and similar. And the World Naked Bike Ride (which in addition to environmental issues around cars also highlights a body positivity message). Which is as good an excuse as any to advertise this year's WNBR dates below and include one of my photos from last year's ride at Bristol.

First though, freshly released from the paywall, here comes my feature:

A planet with two billion cars






WNBR 2017


As far as I know, 16 UK WNBR dates are now confirmed for this summer, in chronological order:

27.5. Canterbury (Sat)
2.6. Southampton (Fri 6pm)
4.6. Bristol (Sun)
9.6. Manchester (Fri 6pm)
10.6. London
11.6. Brighton
17.6. Cardiff
17.6. Cambridge
24.6. Exeter
24.6. Chelmsford (Essex)
25.6. York
1.7. Folkestone
1.7. Newcastle-Gateshead
2.7. Worthing (near Brighton)
8.7. Colchester (Essex)
9.7. Portsmouth
15.7. Clacton (Essex)

still to be confirmed:
Edinburgh, Hastings, Scarborough

(WNBR Wiki also including dates from other countries, but not always reliably up-to-date)

two billion cars

Earlier this year I stumbled across economists' projections that there will be 2 billion motor vehicles on the roads by 2030. We passed one billion some time around 2010. So the car population will double within 20 years. Maybe the scariest part of this is that those economists seem to think that this is a good thing, and how lovely that people will have to buy fuel for those (because the vast majority will still run on fossil fuels!) and what opportunities that will bring for economic growth.

Well, put that together with the facts that nearly all Diesel cars emit more than they are allowed to, the ongoing scandal of VW's emission test cheating, and that people in cities like London are actually dying prematurely due to this pollution, and the road building that destroys the rest of the natural environment left on this planet, and all that gets me quite angry enough to write a couple of thousand words in a few hours. For comic relief I have thrown in a photo from last year's World Naked Bike Ride - virtually the only visible protest against car culture these days.

My feature is out today:

A planet with two billion cars

Current Biology Volume 26, Issue 8, 25 April 2016, Pages R307–R310

FREE access to full text and PDF download.

People look much nicer without cars (and clothes) - Bristol WNBR 2015

Related materials:

Data from our nearest air quality measuring station are here, nice interface to play around with the results and create graphs ...

The relevant EU standards are here.

A news feature from Nature magazine, June 2016, on pollution in New Delhi.