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Date: June 17, 2017
Time: 2100 CDT, with decorating party starting around 1900
Location: Super Happy Fun Land, 3801 Polk Street @ Milby

NOTE: For those who miss the main ride, or just want an encore, there will also be the customary Victory Lap. The date and route are yet to be determined.

Route

17 June 2017: There will be 3-4 stops at micro-breweries for educating the public, allowing riders to catch up or maintain their bicycles. The ride will pass through portions of the Heights, Garden Oaks, and Oak Forest.

History

For 2017, the theme is "The Full Moon." The ride was originally scheduled for 10 June, just after the full moon and the standard Northern Hemisphere date. Riders may interpret the theme however they choose.

2016's theme celebrate the City of Houston's new Bike Plan, containing the first proposed changes to the city's cycling infrastructure since 1992. Houston's City Council is negotiating a long term municipal plan to provide more comfortable and better connected bicycle routes throughout the city, and to reduce all traffic fatalities to zero. Meanwhile, with gasoline cheaper, more motorists are driving more miles, faster and less cautiously, and cyclists keep dying on our streets and roads. Along the ride, participants observed the recent death of a friend in a hit-and-run auto-bike collision near her home in eastern Harris County.

The theme for 2015 was "H-Town v. Houston," recognizing the conflict between counter-cultural H-Town and the relentlessly gentrifying Houston. H-Town believes in freedom of expression, preserving historic sites, and conserving the planet. Houston has a history of paving over everything that doesn't conform to the needs of developers and oil executives.

Houston also introduced the Down Underwear ride in 2015. This March event, with riders in their undies, is in solidarity with Southern Hemisphere WNBRs.

In 2014, the theme was "Ride of the Living Dead," Deadicated [sic] to Houston-area cyclists who have been killed by motor vehicles, including MetroRail, in recent years. The ride visited the sites of four such fatal accidents. We still call upon the City of Houston to continue and enhance its efforts to making bicycle transport safer. We also call upon our cycling friends to educate themselves on what you can and can't get away with on Houston's streets and roads.

2011 was Houston's first WNBR. In 2012, we had two rides to accommodate busy and traveling people who could not be there for the official Northern Hemisphere ride. This tradition of doubling our pleasure continued in 2013: the 8 June ride was in part a demonstration against the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, while the 15 June ride was more recreational and involved a lot of fountains.

The "Naked" part is with an asterisk, knowing how HPD might respond to a troop of cyclists with their bits on display. The dress code is the standard Bare As You Dare. The more riders we have, the more naked we can be.

Please bring your own supplies to adorn your body or bike, as the facilitators cannot provide for all.

Links

Contact

• dbc <[email protected]>

Websites

http://www.wnbrhouston.org (not updated recently)

https://www.facebook.com/wnbrhouston

Discussion groups

http://www.wnbrhouston.org (membership required to view or post content)

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_175251212528889

Location information

We start and end at Super Happy Fun Land, 3801 Polk Street, east of downtown. There will be at least three stops on the route during the ride.