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news
Naked cyclist in KielNaked cyclist caught by speed camera in Germany
A naked cyclist in Germany caught on camera riding over the speed limit is likely to escape a fine because police cannot identify him.
The man, wearing only shoes, was snapped heading i8nto the centre of Kiel on the evening of Saturday 21 July, reports dw.com.
According to police, he was pedalling at 47 kilometres an hour in a 30 kilometres an hour zone.
The man’s ride in the buff came as Germany – in common with the rest of western Europe – faced record-breaking temperatures due to the heatwave.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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22 comments
At first glance, I tought it was just another Chipollini publicity stunt !
Well even the DM couldn't complain of him being a lycra lout at least.
A MAMNIL?
The naked cyclist was the talk of the day on RSH, a regional radio station, on Saturday. Everybody found it quite funny and commented that it was a good way of keeping cool in the heatwave. The radio discussions were significantly more relaxed, empathic and humorous than this comment thread here on road.cc.
The local newspaper has a couple of other curious speeding camera pics, including two ducks and two horses: https://www.shz.de/regionales/schleswig-holstein/nackter-radfahrer-in-kiel-geblitzt-id20553227.html
The elderly gentleman didn't go at 109km/h; the camera was triggered by an overtaking car that was too fast to be caught into the picture. The horses and the horse-drawn carriage are also innocent for similar reasons.
The ducks were indeed speeding but the article states that they don't know if the police actually tracked them down and gave them a ticket.
@BehindTheBikeshed You're arguing withing the UK legal framework that does not apply in Germany. Germany has its own set of laws. Generally, every country in the world has its own laws which are usually slightly different from UK laws.
Explicit speed limits do apply to bicycles in Germany, but pragmatically you will not be nicked for going somewaht over the limit. However, when you do 47km/h it is hard to believe that you don't have enough situational awareness to know that you are well above 30km/h, whether you have a speedometer or not. The fine for this man would be 25€, so it not a huge deal. It won't be a police priority to identify you from a camera pic (as in this case), so you only risk a fine if you get stopped by police on the road.
National speed limits (50km/h in town, 100km/h on country roads) are so high that cyclists hardly ever break them significantly, so it's not a big issue. The article linked above has a picture of two cyclists going at 71km/h who got ticketed though.
Looks like a Willier...
Kudos for doing that speed without clipless pedals
Googling suggests that speed limits apply to cyclists in Germany. As for accurately knowing his speed, if he knows the speed limit and knows it applies to him, isn’t it on him to know whether he’s breaking it? Besides, you know if you’re capable of doing 47km/h.
That implies that all bicycles in Germany have speedometers, which I seems unlikely, otherwise how is a cyclist supposed to know that they are breaking the speed limit? That's why speed limits don't apply to cyclists in the UK; there is no law mandating the fitting of a speedometer to a bicycle.
Can't help feeling we're drifting off the point here.
No, it implies taking personal responsibility for knowing whether your actions are legal, which doesn’t seem at all unreasonable.
You’ve got it backwards regarding speedos on bikes in the uk. The reason speed limits don’t apply to bikes in the uk is that bikes are not a type of vehicle to which the law applies speed limits, so there is no reason you would mandate that they have a speedo. Speed limits haven’t applied to bikes since 1903, at which time I doubt a speedo for a bike even existed.
No, it implies taking personal responsibility for knowing whether your actions are legal, which doesn’t seem at all unreasonable.
You’ve got it backwards regarding speedos on bikes in the uk. The reason speed limits don’t apply to bikes in the uk is that bikes are not a type of vehicle to which the law applies speed limits, so there is no reason you would mandate that they have a speedo. Speed limits haven’t applied to bikes since 1903, at which time I doubt a speedo for a bike even existed.
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Having done some googling, it would appear that the reason bicycles are exempt from speeding laws is because those laws only apply to motor vehicles, except for Royal Parks. There were speed limits before 1903, but they didn't seem to apply to bicycles either.
legal isn't law, if there was no threat to others (he's using a light) and riding at a speed he can stop within the distance he can see to be clear then he poses thousands of times less harm than a motorist driving at 30km/h.
You would have to force a speedometer to a 'vehicle' (which again is only described as such due to 'legal' constructs) AND be lit up AND be in such a position as to be seen without having to take ones eyes off the road that much.
The ACT of a government to state one that poses so little threat of harm to another must obey the same rule as one that does thousands of times more is utterly without logic or reason. We see this all the time with people on bikes, that is primarily so that motorists with their bigger mass and speed can rule the roost unabated, that in turn has had a disastrous effect on safety of all, unlike people on bikes going faster than some notional 'safe' speed.
Are you a FOLT ?
German here. Our law does not care if and how you measure your speed, it is your problem. The speed limits apply to all vehicles which includes bikes.
Thanks for the info.
I understood that the speed limit of 50kmh within city limits applies only to motorized vehicles but the 30kmh limit applies to all vehicles. The 1st part of this statement is clearly stated by the adfc in their leaflet Traffic Rights for Cyclists (Verkehrsrecht für Radfahrer) and the 2nd part seems to be true, according to the naked cyclist story.
I notice that often the "30" sign is accompanied by a sign stating that the reason for the reduced speed limit is to limit the noise of the traffic (lärmschutz). I would think, on a bike, you would have a pretty good argument against prosecution in the event you were caught speeding in this case?!
Most motorized traffic here in Hamburg will travel at over 40kmh in a 30 zone and often (estimated) 70kmh in a 50 zone.
Point ?! <schoolboy snigger>.
The news item is simply one of amusement, I'm not sure it has any point beyond that.
That implies all motor vehicles in the UK have breathalysers otherwise how is the driver supposed to know they are over the limit?
He'd get away with it here (except for royal parks).
I'm curious as to the laws in Germany and how a cyclist is accurately supposed to know their speed.
if you're going so fast that your clothes burn off, you're probably over the speed limit.
Naturism is every German's inalienable right, along with cannibalism, so I don't see why they're so upset about it.
Well, that kind of puts my idea of being prosecuted for furious riding in the shade. That's the trouble with capitalism, naked ambition.
Nice skinsuit
I very much hope he is proud of himself.