After the conclusion of another successful London edition of the World Naked Bike Ride, the organisers behind the event (WNBR London) have once again called for participants utilising one of London’s cycle hire schemes to use a seat cover when riding completely in the buff, following several reports of bare rear ends on rental bikes at last Sunday’s ride. 

The World Naked Bike Ride – describing itself as “a global protest movement” that aims to curb car culture, protest big oil and celebrate body freedom – has been held in London since 2004. It’s estimated that well over 1,000 riders took part in the 2026 event.

As far as we know, the online discussion around naked cycling etiquette began to grow on Sunday evening, when a Reddit user reported seeing “a good 50%” of hire bike riders “putting their bare arse on Santander/Lime bikes”. This led to the Metro claiming that the event has “unlocked a new fear for people in the city”, while the Guardian asked if it’s ever acceptable to ride a rental bike in the nude – the answer to that question appears to be an unequivocal ‘no’, with a number of hygiene-related concerns raised.

A it happens, WNBR London regularly remind participants to use seat covers when hiring rental bikes to ride at one of their events.

Telling road.cc that the organisation has “strong views” on the matter, a spokesperson for WNBR London said: “We ask anyone riding bare bottomed (and a lot of people actually have knickers on), to use a seat cover.

“We do that on our website, mailings and social media as well as at the ride. We sell WNBR seat covers at the starts, or people can use their own, or improvise, e.g. with the t-shirt they just took off.

“Anyone hiring a bike from our bike hire partners has a seat cover included in the hire fee.”

World Naked Bike Ride London
World Naked Bike Ride London (Image Credit: World Naked Bike Ride)

The prospect of bare backsides on hire bike seats wasn’t the only hygiene-related concern at WNBR London this year.

The day before the event, organisers announced that disabled participants had been barred from using the toilets at St Thomas’ hospital on Westminster Bridge Road, calling the policy “alarming”. The owners of Forum Magnum Square in Lambeth – a known meeting point for disabled riders looking to do a shorter route – also prevented participants from entering at short notice, despite welcoming the event in previous years according to WNBR London.

In November of last year, a petition named ‘The Naked Bike Ride, a Safeguarding Concern’ called for naked bike ride events to be banned in the UK, its creator claiming the event “simply allow perverts to be seen”. It also caught the attention of Reform UK MP Lee Anderson, who backed the campaign saying “our streets have become a freak show.” The petition has 1,965 signatures at the time of writing.

In December, WNBR London denied that an increased security presence at its June 2026 event and a move to Sunday from Saturday was because of an incident in which a cyclist was punched by a motorbike rider at a naked bike ride in Colchester, or because of increased hostility towards naked cycling events.

“We’ve found leading over 1,000 cyclists through central London on a Saturday in June has become increasingly troublesome”, WNBR told road.cc.

“Even with good police liaison, we have found it hard to make trouble-free progress on our planned routes. In 2024, almost every section of our routes had to be diverted as the central area was in lockdown. We had documented and tested 13 possible route variations, which we applied based on updates from the police control room.

“Challenges like that are why we have increased our professional security personnel and decided to experiment with holding the ride on a Sunday when London tends to be quieter.”