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No helmet, but shoes. This World Naked Bike Riders is following half of the Portland Police Bureau recommendations for Saturday night's event.

(Torsten Kjellstrand/The Oregonian/2010)

Saturday night's World Naked Bike Ride in Portland is expected to draw some 8,000 people who are ready to bare it all before God, traffic and their bicycle saddles.

In preparation, Portland police on Friday publicly urged nude riders to, at "a bare minimum," wear helmets and shoes.

Safety first. The city's code against indecent exposure second.

In the same announcement, the Police Bureau said officers would refrain from enforcing Portland City Code 14A.40.030 prohibiting people from showing off their, um, parts in public – as long as nude cyclists keep to the ride route.

Actually, we'll let the code provide the details:

"It is unlawful for any person to expose his or her genitalia while in a public place or place visible from a public place, if the public place is open or available to persons of the opposite sex."

And that, in brief, is the pedal-powered World Naked Bike Ride, a worldwide event that ostensibly "highlights the vulnerability of cyclists everywhere and decries society's dependence on pollution-based transport." Of course, in past years, some riders reportedly haven't been focused entirely on making that statement.

The permitted ride is set to begin at 10 p.m. in the South Park Blocks and roll through downtown and the Kerns, West Buckman, Lloyd, Sullivan's Gulch and Laurelhurst neighborhoods. Portland police said extra officers will patrol the ride and help at intersections.

From the official news release:

Two closing thoughts: We were surprised to read the Police Bureau's interpretation of the law.

Two years ago, police officials said, "Being naked in public in Portland is legal if it falls within the guidelines of ORS 163.465," meaning you can ride naked as long you weren't performing coitus or trying to sexual arouse someone else.

Well, that's state law. "I overlooked city code when I wrote that," said Sgt. Pete Simpson, a Portland police spokesman. "There are those who say, 'You should really enforce it." Really? With 8,000 people? We want to minimize road rashes. That's what we want to do."

Lest we forget, a Multnomah County judge cleared a Northeast Portland nude bicyclist of criminal indecent exposure charges in 2008, ruling that pedaling in the buff has become a "well-established tradition" and a form of "symbolic protest" in Portland.

One last nitpick: In Oregon, front bike lights at night are the law – not a recommendation.

-- Joseph Rose