Smut pedaling

In literature, film and advertising, using an icon to evoke symbolism, emotion and, yes, even lust, is nothing revolutionary. The line between functional item and fetish is so often crossed, it's sometimes barely recognizable for cars, women's shoes, chocolate and guns, for example.

But on the crowded superhighway of erotica and porn, an Oregon cycling enthusiast has painted that line of distinction into a bike lane and is taking riders on a unique excursion.

And — unlike most modern porn — his isn't just being shared quietly and alone by viewers in front of their home computers, say, riding their stationary exercise bikes, if you know what I mean.

No, Phil Sano is in the midst of his fourth traveling tour of "bike porn" that he shows at sex shops, theaters and bike stores across North America, and will take to Europe for the first time this spring. And he doesn't sell DVDs or put any more than short clips on his website.

"That would change the nature of the way people experience this content," says Sano, better known as the Rev. Phil. "By forcing people to come into a screening and watch these films among their peers, they are necessarily admitting that they understand and are interested in sexuality and bicycling. They put a value on it."

Audiences do attend, sometimes by the handfuls, sometimes by the hundreds, often pedaling their way there. They view short films shot by amateur filmmakers of varying literary, artistic and technical quality, to be sure. Some are straight, some are GLBTQ. Some are just a guy or a girl and his or her bike. Some are group rides. Some are loving, some are more violent. Some are urban, some are pastoral. In some, the bicycle allows the intimacy to happen, in others, the rider is intimate with the bike.

Rev. Phil solicits the short segments from around the country, providing a theme for filmmakers to work along. Last year it was "Cycle Bound."

"Naturally we got a lot of movies that were about bondage and talking about the nature of giving up control in order to feel like you have control," Rev. Phil says. "It gave for a lot of introspection about what makes us excited: being able to say, 'I'm not in charge anymore,' or 'I'm in charge of you,' or witnessing people tying themselves up and each other and their bikes. That's kind of exciting."

This year it's "4:Play," in honor of the tour's fourth rendition. Like the cycling community itself, with riders on everything from unicycles to tandems in solo outings and large group rides, the filmmakers embraced the theme on varying frame sizes and styles.

"Some people took the theme as, 'We won't have hardcore sex,' but then other people were like, 'Foreplay? That's how you get to having hardcore sex.' That's why it worked out so well," Rev. Phil says.

The show is further explained, documented and promoted at bikeporntour.blogspot.com, which we should warn you is probably not safe for viewing at the office unless you work in the industry. The cycling or sex industry, that is.

> Email Sandra Svoboda