The View From the Top of Wang Mountain

Oregon law says being naked is legal provided you are not trying to incite a sexy riot, ergo cycling naked is legal, unless you are in a city like Portland that says you can't be naked outside of a venue that is frequented by a member of the opposite sex, unless you your nudity is somehow protected speech.

Naked bikers this might be a useful thing to remember should someone try to deny your right to bike naked:

"Your car can kill me regardless of what I wear, so if I have to bike naked for you to see me that is what I shall do."

This defense worked just fine for Michael "Bobby" Hammond who was arrested for biking naked this summer.

Assuming he can fake an English accent we have a Harry Potter script in development for him and his Nimbus.


Now the matter of hiking naked seems a little different to us. Were a pedestrian should have the same legal rights as a cyclist to be seen in traffic, most hikers don't worry about cars hitting them. So assuming you are hiking naked in the Alps and stopped by police, what do you do?

All this is at one hand understandable but sad. Just as we loathe the idea of laws regarding morality we also feel that any given location has the right to decide such things for themselves.

So is the golden age of pointing at Europe as being cooler with sex and bodies in general over? Will Swiss backpackers often find themselves in conversation about how "in the Americas people ride naked in traffic with legal protection!"?