Nude riders hit the road

Bike riders gather on Byron Bay rail station for the annual Byron Bay Nude Bike Ride to help raise awareness of the world’s excessive use of fossil fuels.

Jay Cronan

IT’S working out which question to ask first that dominates your thinking when you arrive at your first nude bike ride.

Is it uncomfortable? Where do you keep your mobile so you can update your twitter profile?

And perhaps most crucially, why are you doing this?

The official answer to the last question is that the group of about 20 riders who congregated with their bikes, plenty of body paint, but not much else, at Byron’s railway station yesterday is that they were raising awareness about the world’s excessive use of fossil fuels.

So it’s a good thing cameras are battery and not electricity operated, otherwise yesterday’s event would have caused more environmental damage than it prevented, given the fascinated crowd that gathered at the station to document the event before the riders took off.

Melanie Baker from Melbourne and Amanda Kerr and Teena Porter from Wollongong, were three friends hardly expecting to witness a nude cycle through Byron, no matter what it was in aid of.

“I can’t believe it’s actually happening,” Ms Palmer said.

And yet, Ms Baker said the ride did point to the Bay’s unique take on raising political awareness.

“I think it epitomises the aura Byron holds.

"You wouldn’t see this in downtown Frankston,” she said.

Ms Porter was just hoping the riders had enough sunscreen.

They seemed to as every rider slip, slopped and slapped all parts of their body before they commenced their journey.

And while the official answer for the nude ride was forthcoming, so was an unofficial one from Byron Bay cyclist Rudy Surina.

“It’s better in the nude. It’s more free,” he said.