Chilly naked protest bike ride takes Melbourne by surprise
Date: Friday 6 June 2008
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Union Club Hotel, corner of Gore & Webb Sts, Fitzroy
Highlights of the ride included:
- posing naked at a petrol station,
- mocking the petrol prices,
- pretending to put petrol into the bikes with the filler hoses,
- riding through the McDonald's Drive Thru,
- riding along busy Brunswick Street which was also a little bit scary due to the number of drinkers.
- The only negative aspect was that one of the male riders had his genitals tugged by a drunk.
The riders had an enjoyable evening at the Union Club Hotel with several supporters in attendance. At about 10pm the riders retreated to the privacy of the secret venue where body paint was applied. All the riders wore body painted slogans promoting the virtues of clean green cycling peace over polluting black oil-driven aggression.
12 riders, 10 men and 2 women, most of who were naked, took to the streets of Fitzroy at midnight for the WNBR Winter Wonderland Melbourne 2008. Woolly accessories like furry backpacks with hot water bottles inside helped some of the riders keep the winter chills away. A few of the men complained of cold hands. All the riders were veterans of the Summer WNBR held on Sun 9 March 2008 in Melbourne and/or Confest enthusiasts.
This ride promised to avoid the discriminatory attention of the Police who made only the male riders dress in Summer. The sneaky organising tactics worked and the riders avoided the police completely.
One of the riders brought along a bike mounted sound system that pumped out music. The ride was photographed by MitH who got some great shots. Pictures are expected to be posted to the interweb soon. MitH managed to keep ahead of the riders and roused the Saturday night revellers from the pubs and nightspots to crowd the footpaths and cheer the spectacle.
Overall the ride was an amazing success and a credit to participants and Organisers. It was the most easterly ride to take part in the Northern Hemisphere leg of the World Naked Bike Ride and the only ride in that leg to occur South of the equator thus in winter. It was also the first ride in the Northern Hemisphere leg of WNBR being the first ride West of the international date line.
The ride was also support of the Northern Hemisphere WNBR and particularly the riders of Eugene, Washington USA who rode during their winter in support of the Southern Hemisphere.
Yours truly naked in two wheeled protest,
Marte Kinder
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