Summer frivolities may be coming to a close and the resumption of a routine life is looming.
Just a minute, is that some people on bikes I can see up ahead? And they’re nude? Ah some relief from the humdrum of life, the World Naked Bike Riders are saddling up, and getting ready to pedal back into town.
On Saturday March 7 in Nimbin and Sunday 8 in Byron Bay, local riders will strip and take to the streets on their bikes.
To the many who line the route of the naked bike ride and cheer us on, it looks like a lot of fun and something that we do to entertain the crowds one weekend a year.
The ride, fun as it is, does however come with a serious message: bike riders and pedestrians are vulnerable on our roads (we ride naked to highlight this vulnerability).
This message is particularly poignant here in the northern rivers where our roads are narrow, winding and pot-holed.
In fact sharing the roads anywhere in Australia can be dangerous.
We live in a car culture – not surprising with the distances between towns and between home and work.
Despite that, bicycle sales in Australia have out-stripped car sales each year for over a decade now and the National Cycling Strategy 2011- 2016 which was signed by the transport ministers, aims to double the rate of cycling by 2016.
With the popularity of cycling continuing to grow, the imperative is to make it a safer form of transport, starting with raising awareness amongst all road users of the need to share our roads.
The Nimbin ride starts at the Bush Theatre Café on Saturday March 7. Riders will start meeting there at 10am to strip off and paint their bodies.
The café will be open and serving beverages and delicious meals and snacks.
We then do a few laps of Cullen Street to rapturous applause from the assembled throng, so it isn’t an arduous ride and if you’re not ready to be completely naked in public, it’s a ‘bare as you dare’ ride.
In Byron Bay, riders will meet on the platform of the old railway station on Sunday March 8 at 2pm to strip and paint.
The ride is then around town.
Both these rides are a lot of fun and if you haven’t been on one of them yet, come and join us, get exhilarated and feel the freedom of riding the streets of your local town in your own skin.
To keep up with details of the rides, join us on Facebook: world naked bike ride – nimbin and world naked bike ride – byron bay
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