Photo: Linda Collings
Mijimberi
How often do you get the chance to be an activist and an adored tourist attraction all at once? Not often enough in this life, I can tell you. But the truth of it, dear reader, is that it isn’t so hard to be a bike activist and a 30-minute Nimbin celebrity – even you can do it.
It’s simply a matter of grabbing a bicycle that works – ie has brakes and a chain and a couple of pumped- up tyres – throwing on a helmet as you throw off your clothes and joining us to celebrate our tenth ride up and down the main street of Nimbin.
Yes the Nimbin naked bike ride has been going 10 years and the message ‘share the road’ has never been more important. Pedestrians and bicycle riders continue to be vulnerable on our twisted and tortured roads where car culture rules.
Narrow, winding roads with potholes so big you could keep a pet hippo in them, forever deteriorating road shoulders, and the ghastly rough and corrugated surfaces: these are the conditions local riders are brought up on.
Despite this, riders and onlookers alike have been flocking to Nimbin every year on the second Saturday in March in increasing numbers to keep the dream of alternatives to the combustion engine alive.
Driven madly to be free of the restrictions of clothes and oil, we wildly anticipate this event months beforehand, all for the chance to hang out nude at the delightful and delicious Phoenix Rising Cafe, painting flowers and dolphins and anti-imperialist slogans on each other’s bodies before heading up town on our treddlies for half an hour of bikevist fun in the main street.
Over these 10 years we have welcomed all ages from babies to great grans, celebrated all body types and made a space for diverse genders and creeds.
So if you have always hankered to join in, but have said ‘maybe next year’, well next year has finally come.
We are meeting to strip off and paint bodies at 10am on Saturday, March 10, at the Bush Theatre. The ride will start when everyone is painted up and ready. If you are a Facebook user, you can get more details by joining the group: world naked bike ride – Nimbin.
If you haven’t ridden your bike for a while please give it a mechanical once over to make sure it’s in working order, especially the brakes. You might even like to get on it and take it for a spin.
WNBR rides in the district are:
Nimbin Saturday March 10, meet (Bush Theatre) at 10am to strip and paint up
Lismore Sunday March 11, meet 10am (meet up location to TBA)
Byron Bay Sunday March 11, meet (Butler St Reserve) at 1.30pm to strip and paint; ride at 3pm
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
